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BV) 4226.2) /T3x1925 

Tyndall, Henry Myron, 1855- | 
Tllustrative anecdotes for 
preachers, Sunday school 





Ro ct aco dl 
RENN ee RY 


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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/illustrativeanecOOtynd 


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‘ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


for Preachers 


Sunday School Teachers 
and the 


FAMILY CIRCLE 


BY THE 

Rev. Henry M. Tyndall, S. T. D., 
PASTOR OF 

THE PEOPLE’S TABERNACLE 


OF 


NEW YORK CITY. 


PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR 
FROM WHOM COPIES MAY BE HAD AT 
56 Hast 102p STREET 
NEW YORK. 


COPYRIGHT, 1925, 
BY HENRY M. TYNDALL. 


PRINTED IN THE 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





PREFACE. 


The task of many years is at last ended. This book of illustrative anecdotes 
is now ready for the press. 

The most of the stories comprising this volume appeared first in the “Little 
Evangelist,” edited and published by the writer for more than thirty years. The 
paper is small; and, beside going to its subscribers, for many years it was dis- 
tributed by the missionaries of the People’s Tabernacle among the hundreds of 
families they annually visited. Because this little sheet was the only religious 
literature likely to enter the homes of many of these families great care was 
taken to admit to its columns only the best of such stories as would illustrate 
and emphasize some important gospel truth. 

With the passing of the years, the paper has had among its readers an increas- 
ing number of clergymen, and other Christian workers; and we early discovered 
that its stories were prized by them, and used for illustrative purposes. At the 
New York Public Library, where the paper has gone for a score of years, its 
readers are so appreciative that it has been carefully preserved and bound into 
volumes. If at any time a number is missing it is asked for that the annual vol- 
ume may be complete. 

The writer himself has fifteen bound volumes of the paper for reference, 
and has made large use of the anecdotes therein in his sermonizing. But he 
found that it is one thing to know that a story wanted is in these volumes, and 
quite another matter to find it. At first he thought of having the volumes in- 
dexed for his own use. And then a better thought came: “Why not republish 
the best of these stories, and put them in book-form, well-indexed, and so make 
them available for the use of others?” 

This thought prevailed; and ten years ago the work was begun and con- 
tinued week by week until more than five hundred pages had been electrotyped, 
and made ready for the press. Then the war came on, and the cost of publica- 
tion became so increased, and the exactions of parish duties, including co-opera- 
tive housing, were so pressing that work on the book was suspended for five 
years. The task was taken up anew the present year, and has been hurried on 
to completion. 

These anecdotes were gleaned from a wide range of reading, during the 
course of many years. Not a few are original, and are but the rehearsal of facts 
coming within the domain of the writer’s experience, or they are from sources 
he deemed reliable. Other stories were written from notes taken by him when 
hearing them narrated in some public discourse. 

Of these anecdotes, nearly a hundred of the last have not appeared in the 
“Little Evangelist ;” and, taken as a whole, it is safe to say that comparatively 
few of them have ever before been published in any book of illustrations. 

In this age of doubt, when so many are trying to satisfy their souls with a 
naturalistic religion, we apprehend that some will look askance upon many of 


PREFACE. 


the incidents related in this volume; because it is quite impossible to account 
for the facts given without a belief in the supernatural. But the special provi- 
dences herein narrated are so many, and.are so well attested, that we may in- 
dulge the hope that this account of them will serve not only to strengthen the 
faith of believers, but also help to put to flight the unbelief of doubters. 

The leisure of long sea voyages, this year, in a cruise around the world, and 
a trip to the land of the midnight sun, afforded the writer an opportunity of de- 
voting several months to the indexing of the volume. This, we think, will be 
found quite complete, and it will add much to the value of the book. 

If this volume shall prove of interest to Christians generally, become a 
source of instruction in the family circle, help preachers, Sunday-school teach- 
ers, and others in Christian work to illustrate and enforce the truths of the glor- 
ious gospel, then the Great Head of the church shall have all the praise, and the 


prayer of the undersigned will be answered. 
HENRY M. TYNDALL. 


New York City, 
October 21st, 1925. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


AASEDS | Me 


REMARKABLE CONFESSION 
GUILT. 


A trusted $6,000-a-year manager of a 
large business house, a man high in the 
social circle of his city, was arraigned 
in the criminal court on the charge of 
having robbed his employers as well as 
others. In the midst of the trial, with 
some he had defrauded as his strongest 
defenders, he made a clean breast of his 
guilt. The staggering blow came hard- 
est on his devoted wife. The man said: 
“Your Honor, I want to confess my 
guilt and shame before your court and 
before the entire world. One thing I 
want to ask, and that is that the good 
Lord will give me strength to serve out 
the sentence which you will impose, and 
that I may be spared to make full resti- 
tution to those whom I have robbed.” 
In giving the reasons for his downfall 
he said: “Gadding and guzzling marked 
the beginning of my moral ruin; after- 
ward the night life of the city, particu- 
larly tangoing and drinking, completed 
it. There are thousands of young busi- 
ness men whose habits are leading them 
along the same path I took. To them 
I say: ‘Cut out the saloon and patron- 
ize the library.’” The man said he could 
not sleep, and in the agony of his guilt 
he went to God in prayer and Christ 
forgave him, and told him he must also 
confess his sin to men, which he did 
to the judge the next morning. His con- 
fession gave him an inward peace that 
was like paradise, and led him to pray 
for length of life to make good every 
loss caused by him. Confession to men 
may lead to the sentence, and iron bars, 
but confession to God brings pardon 
and complete liberty. “If we confess 
our sins, he is faithful and just to for- 
give us our sins, and to cleanse us from 
all unrighteousness.” (I John 1 :9.)— 
Ferdinand C. Iglehart. | 


OF 


PUSS Sotee, MEMES 


WHAT FOLLOWED. 


A young man, arrested for swindling 
his employer out of $30,000, sat alone in 
a criminal’s cell out of which daylight 
had faded. Cowering on his hard bed, 
he pictured himself with the world out- 
side full of warmth, and light, and com- 
fort. The question came to him sharp- 
ly, “How came you here?” 

Was it really for the stealing of this 
great sum? 

Yes and no. 

Looking back twenty years, he saw 
himself a school-boy, ten years old. 
He remembered his Uncle John—such 
a queer, kind, forgetful old man. That 
very morning his uncle had sent him to 
pay a bill at the courtry store and there 
were seventy-two cents left and Uncle 
John did not ask for it. When they met 
that noon, this boy, now in prison, stood 
there under the beautiful blue sky, and 
a great temptation came. He said to 
himself, “Shall I give it back, or shall I 
wait until he asks for it? If he never 
asks that is his look out. If he does, 
why, I can get it again together.” 

He never gave back the money. 

A theft of $30,000 brought this young 
man to a prison door; but when a boy, 
he turned that way when he sold his 
honesty for seventy-two cents. 

That night he sat disgraced, and an 
open criminal, in his chilly cell. 

Uncle John was long ago dead. The old 
home was desolate, his mother broken- 
hearted. The prisoner knew that what 
brought him there was not the man’s 
deed alone but the boy’s. 

Had the ten-year-old boy been true 
to his honor, life now would have 
been different. One little cheating was 
the first of many, until his character was 
eaten out, could bear no test, and he 
wrecked manliness and his life—Budzet. 


2 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


aoe bess 


AFTER MANY YEARS 


Telling of his early labors in his South 
African missionary field, Aldin Grant, 
of Zululand, said, not despondently or 
sadly, but with ringing soldiery voice: 
“I worked there as God gave me oppor- 
tunity and ability for ten years, with 
various interruptions and intermiss- 
ons, yet at the end of that period I 
could not point to a single convert in 
all the field in all the years; nor could 
I even point to a single one of my hear- 
ers of whom I could confidently say 
that he had been really interested or 
benefited by my message during all the 
time.” | | 

“Yet,” he added, “in all that time it 
never entered my head to doubt that I 
and my fellow-workers were where God 
had called us to labor, and were doing 
what God had set us to do. We were 
there giving God’s message, sowing the 
seed of God’s truth. It was for one to 
plant, for another to water, for God to 
give—or withhold—the increase as 
seemed best to him. Thirteen years, 
added to that ten, have passed since 
then,” the said, “there are now more 
than thirty Christian churches with 
hundreds of church members in that ap- 
parently unfruitful field. It is good to 
be in God’s field and work, whatever the 
seeming results, for a time may be.” 

That testimony of faith had been an 
encouragement to me in days that would 
have otherwise locked dark within the 
past forty years. I am glad for that 
missionary’s confidence in the mission- 
ary’s God.—H. Clay Trumbull. 


eeee4 


“HONEST ABE LINCOLN” 


One trait, which all agree was particu- 
larly important, was Lincoln’s honesty. 
It showed itself very plainly, of course, 
in his business dealings. There is little 
wonder that his neighbors dubbed him 
“Honest Abe” when, after closing his 
grocery for the night, he would walk 
three miles to return six and a quarter 
cents which he had taken by accident 
from a customer. Another evening he 





weighed out, he thought a half-pound of 
tea. When he found the next day that 
he had used a four ounce weight by mis- 
take he promptly closed the shop and de- 
livered the rest of the tea. This grocery 
business came to an untimely end and 
left Abe owing considerable money. 

“That debt,” he afterward said to a 
friend, “was the greatest obstacle I have 
ever met in life. I had no way of specu- 
lating and could not earn money except 
by labor; and to earn by labor eleven 
hundred dollars, besides my living, seem- 
ed the work of a lifetime. There was, 
however, but one way. I went to the 
creditors and told them that if they 
would let me alone I would give them all 
I could earn over my living as fast as I 
could earn it.” Under similar circum- 
stances, many of Lincoln’s townspeople 
would have “cleared out,” “Honest 
Abe” was a member of Congress before 
he got his debt wiped out. Half in earn- 
est, he always called it the “national 
debt.” 

Even in times of need he never touched 
money belonging to anybody else. When 
the “town” of New Salem came to an 
end, for instance, Lincoln had about six- 
teen dollars belonging to the government 
When, several years later, an agent at 
last came for it, Lincoln took from his 
trunk “an old blue sock with a quantity 
of silver and copper coin tied up in it,” 
the very coins he had received from the 
people of New Salem while postmaster. 

When he came to practice law he was 
“Fonest Abe Lincoln” still. Unless he 
was sure a man was in the right he 
would not take charge of the case, even 
though he was a personal friend, He 
would sometimes leave a case in the 
middle if he chanced to find that his 
client was in the wrong. 


epee 


A CHILD’S REPROOF 


Charles Spurgeon began to lead others 
to Jesus when he was about six years 
old. He was once at his grandfather’s, 
who was a minister, and heard him griev- 
ing over the evil habits of a certain 





man in his church who went to the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 3 


public house to smoke his pipe and get 
a mug of beer. Shortly after Charles 
heard who the man was, he came to his 
grandfather and said: “I’ve killed old 
Rhodes. He will never grieve my poor 
grandfather any more.” 

“IT have not been doing any harm; 
grandfather,” said the boy. “I have been 
about the Lord’s work, that’s all.” 

Not long after “Old Rhodes” came to 
Charles’ grandfather and told him how 
he was in the saloon when little Charley 
walked in and said to him: “What doest 
thou here, Elijah! sitting with the un- 
godly, you a member of the church, and 
break your pastor’s heart? I’m asham- 
ed of you! I would not break my past- 
or’s heart, I’m sure.” “Old Rhodes” was 
angry at first and thought this was pretty 
plain talk for a six-year-boy, but he 
knew the child was in the right, and 
he asked forgiveness for his fault, and 
became a better man and a true Christ- 
ian.— Selected. 


abhi ly FE iach 


HONOR DESERVED 


Some years ago a steamer on Lake 
Erie caught fire. They headed at once 
for shore. On board was a man from 
California with a heavy bag of gold. 
He began to get it out of his trunk to 
bind around him, when a little girl look- 
ed into his face and said, “Will you save 
me?” He looked first at his bag of gold, 
which represented years of hard work, 
and then at the pleading face. He drop- 
ped his gold, and as the boat struck the 
beach, he placed the little one on his 
back, with her arms around his neck, 
and leaped into the flood. He struggled 
for shore, and was at last thrown up by 
the breakers with his treasure on the 
sand. Head got the little one on shore; 
but he lost consciousness for a time. 

Coming to, he saw, first of all, the 
eyes of the dear child looking down into 
his, and the tears of gratitude falling 
on his face. Others who had reached 
the shore with their effects, while the 
cries of the drowning were ringing in 
their ears, stood back, and instinctively 
gave this hero the place of honor, It 


was not demanded, but was given with- 
out jealousy or envy. So it will be in 
heaven with those who are “rich toward 
God.” When I see Cary and Judson 
and the great host of toilers who counted 
not their lives dear unto them, that they 
might follow Christ, not only in his serv- 
ice, but in his suffering sacrifice; when I 
shall see them coming with the dusky 
throngs behind them, whom they have 
won from solid heathenism, I shall 
shrink back instinctively to give them 
the place of honor.—E. O. Mallory in 
Christian Alliance. 


sibs Fy pith ols 


A CHILD’S INFLUENCE. 


Less than half a century ago, a Sune 
day School superintendent in Jackson- 
ville, Illinois, asked each one to bring a 
new scholar to school the next Sunday. 
Little Mary Paxton went home and ask- 
ed her father to come to Sabbath School. 
He was nearly forty years old, and so 
ignorant that he could not read. He 
was rough in appearance, and rude in 
speech. He hated the church, and de- 
spised Sunday Schools and religion and 
everything good. But he loved his lit- 
tle Mary, and when she took him by the 
hand he did not resist. He went to Sab- 
bath School, and was led to Christ. He 
then learned to read for Christ’s sake, 
and he finally came to be a Sunday 
School evangelist. He founded fifteen 
hundred Sunday Schools, into which 
seventy thousand children were gather- 
ed, and out of which sprang one hundred 
churches. When little Mary was lead 
ing her father to Sunday School, she 
was leading a train of thousands up the 
shining way that leads to God. It may 
seem a small thing for a Christian boy 
or girl to be always in the pew to cheer 
the pastor while he preaches, and to be 
always in the Sabbath School with a 
knowledge of the lesson, and to be help- 
fully present in at least one prayer- 
meeting every week. But just such sim- 
ple, faithful service as that is keeping 
alive the Christian church—From Food 
for Lambs, by Rev. A. M. Hills. 


4 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


PR ee 
HIS MOTHER’S PRAYER DID IT 


Hudson Taylor, founder of China In- 
land Mission, says that about 1830 his 
father became so interested in the spirit- 
ual condition of China, that he was led te 
pray that if God ever gave him a son, 
he might be privileged to labor as a mis- 
sionary there; a prayer unknown to the 
son until after seven years of service in 
that mission field. Though carefuily 
trained to the study of God’s word anda 
life of devotion, yet at the age of fifteen 
the lad was a skeptic. 

Of his conversion he says: “One day 
which I shall never forget, when I was 
about fifteen years old, my dear mother 
being absent from home some eighty 
miles away, I hada holiday. I searched 
the library through for a book to while 
away time. [I selected a gospel tract 
which appeared unattractive, saying, 
there will be an interesting story at the 
commencement and a sermon or moral 
at the end. I will take the former and 
leave the latter for those who like it. I 
littie knew what was going on in the 
heart of my dear mother. 

She arose from the dinner-table with 
an intense yearning for the conversion of 
her boy, and feeling that, being from 
home, and having more leisure than she 
otherwise would, there was a special op- 
portunity afforded her of pleading with 
God for me. She went to her bed-rcom, 
and turned the key in the door, and re- 
solved not to leave the room until her 
prayers were answered. Hour after hour 
did that dear mother plead for me, until 
she could only praise God for the conver- 
sion of her son. In the meantime, as I 
was reading the tract, ‘The Finished 
Work of Christ,’ a light was flashed in- 
to my soul by the Holy Spirit, that there 
was nothing to be done, but to fall on 
my knees and accept this Saviour and 
. his salvation, and praise God forever- 
more. So while my mother was praising 
_ God in her closet, I was praising Him in 
the old ware house, where I had retired 
to read my book. When I met my 
mother at the door on her return with 
the glad news, she said: “I know my 


boy; I have been rejoicing for a fortnight 
in the glad tidings you have to tell me!” 

Many souls are lost for want of persis- 
tent pleading with God in their behalf. 
Time that might be used in prayer is con- 
sumed in other ways, and souls and op- 
portunities pass forever from our reach. 
For those hours of pleading with God, 
this faithful mother received not only 
her son for God, but the great work God 
put into his hands—China Inland Miss- 
ion. Hudson Taylor has led out into the 
heart of China more than one hundred 
and seventy apostolic missionaries, none 
of whom receive support except through 
faith in God.—Anna Abrams. 


——9 
THE SECRET OF ALL REVIVALS. 


Late on a cold November night, I 
was retiring to rest. There was a knock 
at my door. A simple, praying, warm- 
hearted man was introduced. After a 
brief silence, he thus addressed me: 
“My dear pastor, I am come to tell you 
that God is about to revive His work 
among us.” I asked him why he so felt. 
“T went in the stable,” said he, “to care 
for my cattle two hours ago, and there 
the Lord has kept me until now, and I 
feel we are going to have a revival.” 
There could be no doubt as to his sin- 
cerity, and that was the beginning of 
the first revival under my ministry. 

A few years after an aged man re- 
nowned for piety came to my study. 
Though poor in this world he was rich 
in faith. In prayer he seemed to con- 
verse with God. Said he: “I have called 
to say, my dear pastor, that the Lord 
is in the midst of us, and we shall soon 
see the effect of His presence.” I asked 
the venerable man why he felt so. His 
reply was as follows: “Since twelve 
o’clock last night the Spirit of God has 
been so upon me that I have not been 
able to do anything but pray and rejoice 
in the prospect of a blessed refreshing 
from the presence of the Lord..” And 
that was the commencement of the first 
revival in my present field of labor.— 
Rev. N. Murray, D. D. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 5 


denen | (lec 


A WOMAN’S LOVE 


A murderer sat in his cell in the gaol, 
repeating over and over again to him- 
self the sentence pronounced by the 
judge, “You are to be hanged by the 
neck till you are dead, dead, dead, and 
may God have mercy on your soul.” 

But there were no tears in his eyes, 
and no penitence in his heart. His dark 
visage, marred by many a scar from the 
sabre of sin, looked blacker and viler 
as he repeated the words, cursing God 
and men. 

Ministers had come to him with Gos- 
pel messages of Divne mercy; but he 
spurned their words, and told them to 
come no more into his presence. 

“Why, man,” said one, “you are con- 
demned to die, in a few weeks you will 
be launched into eternity—how can you 
stand before God with all your unfor- 
given sins on your soul?” 

“That's my business, not yours. I 
wish no further conversation with you,” 
was his answer, as he waved his hand im- 
patiently for them to depart. 

A report of the interview was publish- 
ed in the papers next day. Among those 
wha read the account was a timid, del- 
icate, Christian woman. The tears 
dropped upon the paper as she read, and 
a great desire came into her heart to 
tell the poor condemned man that she 
was sorry for him. But she said, check- 
ing herself: 

“T can’t do it. I was never in a gaol 
in my life; and I wouldn’t know what to 
say. And then, J should be sure to cry. 
Oh, I wish I could go and speak a few 
words to him without weeping.” 

Her desire grew into a purpose, and 
one morning she gathered a delicate 
bouquet from her house plants, and 
went to the gaol over the crisp, snowy 
road. The jailer who admitted her con- 
ducted her to the cell, and throwing 
open a window through which, without 
entering, persons may converse, he called 
the prisoner by name, saying, “Here is 
a lady who wishes to see you.” The 
woman’s .courage .and .voice .entirely 
failed her as she stood face to face with 


the hard, dark-visaged murderer. She 
could not utter a single word, but hand- 
ing him the bouquet, she burst into tears. 

The flowers and the weeping woman 
brought a fiood of memories long buried, 
a picture of a home embosomed in 
flowers across the sea, and of a Christian 
mother who wept over him at the part- 
ing. And while the woman wept out- 
side of the cell, he cried with a great, 
deep, bitter cry, as the tears rained over 
his face. “God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner.” And God heard the cry, and came 
to the heart of the murderer with for- 
giveness and peace. Human sympathy 
and tears had broken his heart, and he 
was led like a little child to Christ.— 
Christian Commonwealth. 


11 —— 


THE BOY’S TWO BRICKS 


In Rochester, New York, there was a 
church called the “Brick Church,” be- 
cause it was the first church built of 
brick in that city. It was a small church 
and not large enough to hold all the 
people who came. Many meetings were 
held to talk about building a new church, 
but the work did not commence. No 
One seemed ready to do his part. They 
began to be discouraged, thinking they 
would never have a new church. 

The next morning after the last meet- 
ing, very early, the pastor’s door bell 
rang loudly. On opening the door the 
servant found a small boy, who inquired 
for Dr. Shaw. The servant told him he 
had not come down, and asked what he 
wanted. “I want to see Dr. S .” an- 
swered the boy. Presently Dr. § 
came to the door and found there a 
little fellow with a wheelbarrow, three 
times as large as himself and containing 
two bricks, which he said he had brought 
to build the new church with. 

After breakfast Dr. S—— put on his 
hat, walked out into the street and said 
to one and another of his people as he 
met them. “The church will be built. 
The first load of bricks is already on 
the ground.” The people took courage 
and went forward. A large, beautiful 
and convenient church was erected, 











6 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


where multitudes could gather to hear 
words of life and veace. It was a little 
thing for that boy to bring his two 
bricks to build the church, but who will 
say that God was not honored? It was 
a little thing for a boy to expect his two 
fishes and five loaves would help any, but 
God honored him also.—Selected. 


Sas) BA ero 


REUBEN JOHNSON’S PARDON 


When I was in Ohio a few years ago, 
I was invited to preach in the State pris- 
on. Eleven hundred convicts were 
brought into the chapel, and all sat in 
front of me. After I had got through the 
preaching, the chaplain said to me: 

“Mr. Moody, I want to tell you of a 
scene which occurred in this room. A 
few years ago our commissioners went 
to the Governor of the State and got him 
to promise that he would pardon five 
men for good behavior. The Governor 
consented with this understanding—that 
the record was to be kept secret, and 
that at the end of six months the five men 
highest on the roll should receive a 
pardon, regardless of who and what they 
were. At the end of six months the pris- 
oners were all brought into the chapel, 
The commissioners came; the president 
stood on the platform, and putting his 
hand in his pocket, brought out some 
papers, and said: 

“‘T hold in my hand pardons for’ five 
men.’ ” 

The chaplain told me he never witness- 
ed anything on earth like it. Every man 
was as stillas death. Many were deadly 
pale. The suspense was awful; it seem- 
ed as if every heart had ceased to beat. 
The commissioner went on to tell them 
how they had got the pardon; but the 
chaplain interrupted him. 

“Before you make your speech, read 
out the names. This suspence is awful.” 

So he read out the first name, Reuben 
Johnson will come and get his pardon;” 
and he held it out, but none came for- 
ward. 

He said to the warden, “Are all the 
prisoners, here?” 


The warden fold them they all were 
there. 

Then he said again, “Reuben Johnson 
will come and get his pardon. It is 
signed and sealed by the Governor. He 
is a free man.” 

No one moved. The chaplain looked 
right down where Reuben was. He was 
well known; he had been nineteen years 
there, and many were looking around to 
see him spring to his feet. But he him- 
self was looking around to see the fortu- 
nate man who had got his pardon. 
Finally the chaplain had caught his eye, 
and said: 

“Reuben, you are the man.” 

Reuben turned around and looked be- 
hind him to see where Reuben was. The 
chaplain said the second time. “Reuben, 
you are the man; and the second time he 
looked around, thinking it must be some 
other Reuben. He had to say three 
times, “Reuben, come and get your 
pardon.” 

At last the truth began to steal over 
the old man. He got up, came along 
down the hall, trembling from head to 
foot, and when he got the pardon he 
looked at it, and went back to his seat, 
buried his face in his hands and wept. 
When the prisoners got into the ranks 
to go back to the cells, Reuben got into 
the ranks, too, and the chaplain had to 
call him: 

“Reuben, get out of the ranks; you 
are a free man, you are no longer a 
prisoner.” / 

And Reuben stepped out of the ranks. 
He was free! 

That is the way men make out par- 
dons; they make them out for good 
character or good behavior; but God 
makes out pardons for men who 
have not got any character. He 
offers a pardon to every sinner on 
earth if he will take it, I do not care 
who he is or what he is like. He may 
be the greatest libertine that ever walked 
the streets, or the greatest blackguard 
who ever lived, or the greatest drunk- 
ard, or thief, or vagabond. Christ com- 
missioned His disciples to preach the 
Gospel to every creature—D. L. Moody. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES v4 


Th Ae 


SILENT INFLUENCE 


More than forty years ago at a great 
English school (and in those days that 
state of things was common), no boy 
in the large dormitories ever dared to 
say his prayers. A young new boy— 
neither strong, nor distinguished, nor 
brilliant, nor influential, nor of high rank 
—came to school. The first night he 
slept in his dormitory not one boy knelt 
to say his prayers. But the new one 
knelt down, as he had always done. He 
was jeered at, insulted, pelted, kicked 
for it; and so he was the next night and 
the next. But after a night or two, not 
only did the persecution cease, but an- 
other boy knelt down as well as himself, 
and then another, until it became the 
custom of every boy to kneel nightly at 
the altar of his own bedside. 

From that dormitory in which my in- 
formant was, the custom spread to other 
dormitories, one by one. When that 
young new boy came to school, no boy 
said his prayers; when he left it, without 
one act or word on his part beyond the 
silent influence of a quiet and brave ex- 
ample, all the boys said their prayers. 
The right act had prevailed against the 
bad custom of that little world. 

A few months ago this little story was 

published in “The Palm Branch” and a 
short time afterwards the following note 
was received which makes the story 
more interesting: 

“Concord, N. H., Jan., 1901.—I think 
all who read the story of ‘Silent In- 
fluence’ in the last ‘Palm Branch’, ought 
to know that the boy who ‘dared to 
say his prayers’ was Arthur P. Stanley, 
afterwards Dean of Westminster, the 
famous ‘Dean Stanley.””—The Palm 
Branch. 


clio SY pa e 


ANSWERED PRAYER 


In November, 1857, I was unexpect- 
edly informed that the boiler of our 
heating apparatus at Orphan House No. 
1 leaked so that it was impossible to go 
through the winter. Our heating appar- 


atus consists of a large boiler, under 
which fire is kept, and with which the 
water pipes which warm the rooms are 
connected. Hot air is also connected 
with this apparatus. The leak was a 
serious matter. After the day was fixed 
for the work, a bleak north wind set in, 
accompanied by the first really cold 
weather. What was to be done? For 
the children, especially the infants, I 
felt concerned, that they might not suf- 
fer through cold. But how were we to 
obtain warmth? 

The repairs could not be put off. I 
asked the Lord for two things: that He 
would change the north wind into a 
south wind, and give the workmen ‘a 
mind to work,’ for I remembered how 
much Nehemiah accomplished in fifty- 
two days, while building the walls of 
Jerusalem, because ‘the people had a 
mind to work.’ The evening before the 
bleak north wind still blew; but on the 
day when the fire was out, the south 
wind blew, as I prayed. The weather 
was so mild that no fire was needed. 
The brickwork was removed, the leak 
was found very soon, the boilermakers 
began to repair. 

About half past eight in the evening, 
I was informed that the principal of the 
firm from whom the boilermakers came, 
had arrived to see how the work was 
going on, and if he could in any way 
speed the matter. I went immediately 
into the cellar to see him, to expedite 
the business. In speaking to him of this, 
he said, ‘the men will work late this ev- 
ening, and come early again tomorrow.’ 
‘We would rather, sir,’ said the leader, 
‘work all night.’ Then remembered I, 
the second part of my prayer, that God 
would give the men ‘a mind to work.’ 
By morning the leak was stopped; with- 
in thirty hours the brick work was up, 
and the fire in the boiler—and all the 
time the south wind blew so mildly there 
was no need of a fire.—George Muller. 


wy BRIO 
THE SHEEP THAT WAS LOST 


On the Aleutsch Glacier I saw 2 
strange and beautiful sight—the parable 


8 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


of the “ninety and nine,” repeated to the 
letter. One day we were making our 
way with ice-ax and alpenstock down the 
glacier, when we observed a flock of 
sheep following their shepherd over the 
intricate windings between crevasses, 
and so passing from the pastures on one 
side of the glacier to the pastures on the 
other. The flock had numbered two 
hundred all told. 

But on the way one sheep got lost. 
One of the shepherds, in his German 
patois, appealed to us if we had seen it. 
Fortunately one of the party had a field 
glass. With its aid we discovered the 
sheep up amid a tangle of brushwood on 
the rocky mountain side. It was beauti- 
ful to see how the shepherd, without a 
word, left his hundred and ninety-nine 
sheep out in the glacier waste, and went 
clambering back after the lost sheep; and 
he actually put it on his shoulders and re- 
turned “rejoicing.” 

Here was the Lord’s parable enacted 
before our eyes, though the shepherd was 
all unconscious of it. And he brought 
our Lord’s teaching home to us with a 
vividness which none can realize but 
those who saw the incident.—Leaves of 
Light. 


Sees Ue 


ONE GIRL’S INFLUENCE 


A Boston lawyer, who has for forty 
years been eminent in his profession, 
and no less eminent in Christian work 
and in princely gifts to the cause of ben- 
evolence, tells the story of what fixed 
his course of life. 

“When he was a young man he once 
attended a missionary meeting in Bos- 
ton. A speaker at that meeting—a plain 
man—said he had a girl in his domestic 
services at a wage of less than $2 a 
week, who gave $1 every month to mis- 
sions; she also had a class of poor boys 
in Sunday-school who never missed her 
from her place. And he said of her: 
“She is the happiest, kindest, tidiest girl 
I ever had in my kitchen.” 

The young man went home with these 
broken sentences sticking in his mind; 
“Class in Sunday school, Dollar a month 


to missions, Happiest girl.” 

The first result was that he took a 
class in Sunday-school; the second was 
a resolve that if the girl could give $1 
a month to missions, he could and would. 
These were the immediate effects of one 
plain girl’s consecrated life. 

But who can count, who can imagine, 
the sum total? That lawyer was, for 
almost half a century from this time, an 
increasingly active force in every good 
work within his reach.—Selected. 


Bs uaa? 


SCOTTISH HONESTY 


At one time in the highlands of Scot- 
land, to ask for a receipt or promissory 
note, was considered an insult, and such 
a thing as a breach of contract was 
rarely heard of so strictly did the people 
regard their honor. There is a story of a 
farmer who had been to the lowlands, 
and had there acquired worldly wisdom. 

“After returning to his native place 
he needed some money, and requested 
a loan from a gentleman in the neighbor- 
hood. The latter, Mr. Stewart, complied 
and counted out the gold, when the far- 
mer immediately wrote a receipt. “And 
what is this man?’ cried Mr. Stewart, 
on receiving the slip of paper. “That 
is a receipt, sir, binding me to give ye 
back your gold at the right time,’ replied 
Donald. “Binding ye, indeed! Well, 
man, if ye canna trust yoursel’, I’m sure 
Pll na trust ye! Such as ye canna hae 
my gold;” and, gathering it up, he re- 
turned it to his desk and locked it up. 
“But, sir, I might die,” replied the 
needy Scot unwilling to surrender his 
hope of the loan, ‘and perhaps my sons 
might refuse it to ye, but the bit of paper 
would compel them.’ ‘Compel them to 
sustain their dead father’s honor?’ cried 
the enraged Celt, “They'll need compell- 
ing to do right if this is the road ye’re 
leading them. Ye can gang elsewhere 
for money, I tell ye; but ye’ll find nane 
about here that’ll put more faith in a 
bit of paper than a neighbor’s word of 


honor and his love of the right.—Sel- 
ected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 9 


an A Gate 


THE LITTLE BOY’S FISHES 


A little boy lived in Galilee when Jesus 
was teaching and preaching there, who 
had a lunch. We know he was a poor 
boy, because only the poorest people in 
Galilee used to eat such barley cakes as 
he had for lunch. The little fishes he 
may have caught in the sea of Galilee. 
Poor people who could not afford to 
buy, caught these little fish, there being 
many in that sea, and dried them to eat 
with their barley cakes. 

Just where this boy with his lunch 
had started for that day, we are not told. 
He may have started out to spend the 
day fishing, or he may have brought 
his lunch to sell to some of the many 
travelers passing through Galilee at this 
time, on their way to the feast at Jer- 
usalem., It was quite a journey, and many 
travelers would be weary and hungry 
and glad to buy the little boy’s lunch. 
But whatever he meant to do, the lunch 
was used very differently from what he 
expected. 

Jesus needed food for the hungry mul- 
titude, and this little boy was on hand 
just at the right time ready to help with 
what he had, though small. Jesus is 
always needing “ready” people. There 
are plenty of people who would be ready 
if they could only do some great thing, 
but why not be willing to do some little 
thing to help, or give something as small 
as the loaves and fishes to help along a 
good work that Jesus is interested in. 
Paul was a “ready” man, ready to preach, 
ready to go or stay, ready to be bound, 
ready to distribute or give. Ready boys 
or girls grow up to be ready men like 
Paul.—Selected. 


eas Vo ae 


HOW THE BALANCE CAME 


On rent day we had only twenty-four 
dollars, which I paid when the agent 
came. He called the second time for the 
balance, ($18,) but I hadn’t it. “When 
will you have it?” he asked. I did not 
know, but said, “Early in the week, if 
possible,” “What do you call early in 


the week,” he asked in a tone which tried 

me. I gathered all my faith and answered 

sharpely. “On Monday!” God only 

knew where it could come from. I was 

so utterly tired and tried that I only 

i mentally, “Do let it come Mon- 
ay,” 

Yesterday a gentleman came to the 
door whom I had never seen. He said, 
“By request I leave this package.” I 
opened it, and took out two cne-dollar- 
bills, and sixteen dollars in silver. Ona 
slip of paper was written: “Toward rent 
for Faith Home.” I despatched R. joy- 
fully to the office, and he brought back 
the full receipt. 

It was a joy-day. We do not know 
where the money came from, God knows 
and that is sufficient until He discloses 
the avenue through which it came.—Mrs. 
M. E. Caldwell. 


REED) wees 
A FATHER’S REGRET. 


“T shall never forget,” wrote Norman 
McLeod, the eminent Scotch preacher, 
“the impression made upon me during 
the first year of my ministry by a me- 
chanic whom I had visited, and on 
whom I urged the paramount duty of 
family prayer. One day he entered my 
study, bursting into tears as he said: 
“You remember that girl, sir? She was 
was my only child. She died suddenly 
this morning. She has gone, I hope, to 
God: but if so, she can tell him, what 
now breaks my heart, that she never 
heard a prayer in her father’s house, or 
from her father’s lips! Oh, that she 
were with me but for one day again!” 


ey | 


DISCOVERED IN THE BIBLE 


“For then thou shalt make thy way 
prosperous.” Some time ago an old man 
living in New Jersey discovered about 
$5,000 in a family Bible. The bank- 
notes were scattered throughout the 
book. In 1874 this man’s aunt died, and 
one clause of her will read as follows: 
“To my beloved nephew I will and be- 
queath my family Bible and all it con- 


10 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


tains, with the residue of my estate after 
my funeral expenses and just lawful 
debts are paid.” The estate amounted to 
only a few hundred dollars which was 
soon spent; and her nephew neglected his 
Bible for thirty-five years, not knowing 
of the treasures it contained. He lived 
in poverty all this time. At last, while 
packing his trunk to move to his son, 
with whom he expected to spend his few 
remainng year's he discovered the money 
hidden away in the Bible. Those who 
neglect to read their Bibles lose even 
greater treasures than those of this 
world.—Selected. 


a pee 
LATIMER AND THE KING 


“Our God is able to deliver us from 
the burning fiery furnace; and he will 
deliver us out of thine hands, O king; but 
if not, be it known unto thee, O king, 
that we will not serve thy gods, nor 
worship the golden image that thou hast 
set up.” Thus spake the noble men, Shad- 
rach, Meshach, and Abednego so many 
years ago, to the great King Nebuchad- 
nezzar. How courageous they were! 
How true to God! But not all the brave 
true men lived back in the days of Dan- 
iel. 

While at Oxford, England, I took in 
my hands the charred stump of a heavy 
post to which the martyrs Cranmer, Rid- 
ley, and Latimer were chained when 
they were burned. I am reminded of 
an incident that occurred when Latimer 
preached a sermon before Henry VIII, 
in which he boldly warned the king of 
his sinful life. The king sent for him 
and said, “Your life is in danger; you 
must take back all you said when you 
preach next Sunday.” 

The chapel the next Sunday was 
crowded. Latimer began, saying to him- 
self: “Be careful, thou art in the presence 
of a king; he can bring thy gray hairs 
with blood to the grave. Hugh Lati- 
mer, thou art in the presence of the 
King of Kings; fear not them that kill 
the body, but are not able to 
kill the soul’? Henry sent for 
him. “How durst thou insult thy mon- 


arch so?” Latimer replied, “I thought 
that if I was unfaithful to my God it 
would be impossible to be loyal to my 
king.” The king’s heart was touched, 
and, embracing him, he said. “There is 
one man left who is honest enough to 
tell me the truth. 

Yes it is always safe to please God 
rather than man. Latimer was faithful 
unto death, and in the resurrection morn- 
ing will receive the crown of life. God 
grant that each reader of this paper may 
follow his example and receive the same 
rich reward.—Rev. E. P. Hammond. 


IPED ge etd 
THE FATAL SLEEP 


Some time ago a vessel had been off 
on a whaling voyage, and had been gone 
about three years. The father of one of 
the sailors had charge of the light-house, 
and he was expecting his boy to come 
home. It was time for the vessel to 
return. 

One night there came up a terrible 
gale. The father fell asleep, and while 
he slept his light went out. When he 
awoke he looked towards the shore and 
saw a vessel had been wrecked. He at 
once went to see if he could not save 
some one who might still be alive. 
The first body that came floating 
towards the shore was, to _. his 
great grief and surprise, the body of his 
own boy! He had been watching for 
that boy for many days. Now the boy 
had at last come in sight of home, and 
had perished because his father had let 
his light go out! 

I thought, what an illustration of fath- 
ers and mothers to-day that have let 
their lights go out! You are not train- 
ing your children for God and eternity. 
You do not live as though there were 
anything beyond this life at all. You 
keep your affections set upon things of 
the earth, instead of on things above, 
and the result is that the children do 
not believe that there is anything in 
Christianity. Perhaps the next day they 
may die without God and without hope. 
—D. LL. Moody. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES ll 


Sat 7 Y Tybee 


PARSON HAVEN’S VICTORY. 

One of the most beautiful and thril- 
ling narratives of James Havens, the 
original of the “fighting Parson Magrud- 
er,” who figures in Mr. Edward Eggle- 
ston’s “Circuit Rider,” was related at 
a recent conference by an old companion 
/of Rev. Mr. Havens. 

While still a young man, Havens was 
once eating his breakfast at the cabin 
of an old couple in a thinly settled 
region, when the doorway was suddenly 
darkened by a big ruffianly looking man, 
who demanded: 

a you Havens, the fighting preach- 
er?” 

“My name is Havens, and I am a 
preacher,” said the circuit rider. 

“Well, I reckon you'd better get 
through your breakfast right smart, for 
I’m goin’ to give you a good thrashin’.” 

“Well,” returned Havens, “I don’t re- 
member to have seen you before, and if 
I’ve ever crossed your track, it was be- 
cause you were up to some mischief that 
called for discipline.” 

“Hey? You pushed me over a high 
bank an’ I got my face scratched up. 
I’ve been lookin’ for you for some time, 
an’ now I’m goin’ lam you!” 

“Very well, come with me down in 
the hollow,” said Havens, “and if you’ve 
determined to thrash me, I'll give you a 
chance. But let us get well away from 
this cabin, where these old people won’t 
have to see or witness the trouble.” 

The preacher started off with the ruf- 
fian down towards the woods. They 
went part of the way in silence, the ruf- 
fian now and then glancing at the 
preacher, and seeing no sign of fear or 
bravado in him. Presently the man 
said: 

“See here, Havens, you’d better go 
back. I’am a hard fighter, and I’ll hurt 
you, bad.” 

“Oh, no,” said the preacher; “if you 
want to fight, you’d better not stop on 
my account.” 

They went on and reached the seclu- 
sion of the hollow. When they got there 
the ruffian said: 


“Let’s turn round, elder. 
I’m a pretty mean man!” 

“Well, let’s sit down here a minute.” 

Havens led the way to a log, and both 
sat down on it. Then, with a little talk, 
the preacher drew from the fellow a con- 
fession of the wild life he had led, and 
spoke comforting words to him. Ina 
little while both men were on their 
knees, with faces bowed upon the log, 
and the woods resounded with prayer 
such as few but this pioneer exhorter 
could offer. 

The old people back in the cabin heard 
it, and knew what turn the “fight” had 
taken. They came down and joined the 
“meeting,” and before long the fighter 
was one of Haven’s most promising 
converts.—-Youth’s Companion. 


I tell you, 


pases Bilt 7 pe a 


BISHOP SIMPSON’S RECOVERY 


In the fall of 1858, whilst visiting In- 
diana, I was at an annual conference 
where Bishop Janes presided. We re- 
ceived a telegram that Bishop Simpson 
was dying. Said Bishop Janes: “Let us 
spend a few moments in earnest prayer 
for the recovery of Bishop Simpson.” We 
kneeled to pray; William Taylor, the 
great California street-preacher was call- 
ed to pray; and such a prayer I 
never heard since. The impression seiz- 
ed upon me irresistibly, Bishop Simp- 
son will not die. I rose from my knees 
perfectly quiet. Said I: “Bishop Simp- 
son will not die.” “Why do you think 
so?” “Because I have had a irresistible 
impression made upon my mind during 
this prayer.” Another said: “I have the 
same impression. We passed it along 
from bench to bench until we found 
that a very large proportion of the con- 
ference had the same impression. I 
made a minute of the time of 
day, and when I next saw Simpson, 
he was attending to his daily 
labor. I inquired of the bishop: “How 
did you recover from your sickness?” 
He replied: “I cannot tell.” “What did 
your physician say?” “He said it was a 
miracle.” I then said to the bishop: 
“Give me the time and circumstances 


12 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


under which the change occurred.” He 
fixed upon the day, and the very hour, 
making allowance for the distance—a 
thousand miles away—that the preachers 
were engaged in prayer at this confer- 
ence. The physician left his room, say- 
ing to his wife: “It is useless to do any- 
thing further; the bishop must die.” 
In about an hour he returned, and start- 
ed back, inquiring: “What have you 
done?” “Nothing,” was the reply. “He 
is recovering rapidly,” said the physi- 
cian; “a change has occurred in the dis- 
ease within the last hour beyond any- 
thing I have ever seen; the crisis is past, 
and the bishop will recover.” And he 
did.—Bishop Bowman, of the M. E. 
Church. 


itineaS Y ded dal 
WHY SHE SUFFERED 


A friend of mine was telling me the 
other day of a woman in North Carolina 
who was suddenly paralyzed. She had 
been a very active, noble Christian wo- 
man. She had an ungodly husband, and 
two worldly boys. Otherwise the home 
was a very happy one. It was a great 
blow to the family when she was strick- 
en. For more than ten years she lay upon 
the bed a paralytic. Oftimes it was re- 
marked by those who would go and see 
her perfect resignation, her beautiful 
Christian love and fortitude, that it 
seemed strange that one of her piety and 
former usefulness should thus be shut 
in. Sometimes she herself would say she 
could not understand it though she was 
perfectly willing to endure it. 

Finally, light began to dawn. Her 
husband, while sitting beside her bed 
one night talking with her, gave his 
heart to Christ and was saved. Not long 
after this both these worldly boys: while 
sitting around her bedside were saved. 
One of them gave himself to the gospel 
ministry and is @ very prominent 
preacher in that State today. The other 
has developed into a very active Christ- 
ian worker as a layman in his church 
and community. What a blessed minis- 
try her shut-in life has been! 


Surely no one will longer doubt the 
wisdom of providence in closing her in. 
There are thousands like her. Here and 
there all through the earth there is to 
be found the shut-in wife whose heart is 
like an electric dynamo which generates 
the current that sweeps along the wires 
and finally shines out in the arc light of 
the street and incandescent light of the 
office, the hall of legislation or the 
church.—Rev, Len G. Broughton. 


e/g 


THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE 


You have a faucet in your room. You 
have only to turn the faucet, and you 
have a stream of water, for that small 
lead pipe connects you with all the water 
of Croton Reservoir. You have not the 
whole reservoir in your home, but so 
long as your connection with it remains 
perfect you are sure of water while any 
remains in the reservoir. 

Christ is the fountain of the water of 
life. And what that lead pipe is to 
Croton Reservoir, so faith is to Christ. 
Enlarge the pipe and you get more 
water. Increase your faith and you ob- 
tain more grace and blessing. Some 
one might ignorantly think that if he 
drew water enough from the faucet to 
have plenty to drink, and sufficient to 
keep him clean, the supply would soon 
be exhausted. So he must daily stint 
himself in its use. He does not know 
of the inexhaustible supply out of sight. 

Just so with somé Christians. Their 
souls are not half satisfied. But they 
feel very unworthy; and they fear that 
God is dealing with them now so liber- 
ally that his mercies may yet fail them. 
They do not see that all trusting in 
Christ are connected with God’s unfail- 
ing fullness of love, wisdom and power. 
“For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Col.2:9. 
“And of his fullness have all we re- 
ceived.” Jno. 1:16. 

Received not all his fullness, but of his 
fullness. .This fountain is inexhaust- 
ible. Draw on him freely. Eph. 3:20— 
Rev. H. M. Tyndall. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


SENOS 2 ra) 
“ONLY A BOY.” 


More than half a century ago a faithful 
minister, coming early to his kirk, met 
one of his deacons, whose face wore a 
very resolute but distressed expression. 

“I came early to meet you,” he said. 
“I have something on my conscience to 
say to you. Pastor, there must be some- 
thing radically wrong in your preaching 
and work; there has been only one per- 
son added to the church in a whole year, 
and he is only a boy.” 

“I feel it all,” he said. “I feel it, but 
God knows that I have tried to do my 
duty, and I can trust Him for the re- 
sults.” 

“Yes, yes,” said the deacon, “but ‘by 
their fruits ye shall know them,’ and one 
new member, and he too only a boy, 
seems to me rather a slight evidence 
of true faith and zeal. I don’t want to 
be hard, but I have this matter on my 
conscience, and I have done but my duty 
in speaking plainly.” 

“True,” said the old man; “but ‘char- 
ity suffereth long and is kind; beareth 
all things, hopeth all things.’ Aye, there 
you have it; ‘hopeth all things.’ I have 
great hopes of that one boy—Robert. 
Some seed that we sow bears fruit late, 
but that fruit is generally the most prec- 
ious of all.” 

The old minister went to the pulpit 
that day with a grieved and heavy heart. 
He closed his discourse with dim and 
tearful eyes. He wished that his 
work was done forever, and that he was 
at rest among the graves under the 
blooming trees in the old kirkyard. 

He lingered in the dear old kirk after 
the rest were gone. He wished to be 
alone. The place was sacred and inex- 
pressibly dear to him. It had been his 
spiritual home from his youth. Before 
this altar he had prayed over the dead 
forms of a bygone generation, and had 
welcomed the children of a new gener- 
ation; and here, yes, here, he had been 
told at last that his work was no longer 
owned and blessed. 

No one remained. No one? “Only a 
boy.” | 


ANECDOTES ~ 13 
The boy was Robert Moffat. He 
watched the trembling old man. His 


soul was filled with loving sympathy. He 
went to him and laid his hand on his 
black gown. 

“Well, Robert?” said the minister. 

“Do you think if I were willing to 
work hard for an education, I could ever 
become a preacher?” 

“A preacher?” 

“Perhaps a missionary.” 

There was a long pause. Tears filled 
the eyes of the old minister. At length 
he said: “This heals the ache in my 
heart, Robert. I see the divine hand 
now. May God bless you, my boy. Yes, 
I think you will become a preacher.” 
Some few years ago there returned to 
London from Africa, an aged mission- 
ary. His name was spoken with rever- 
ence. When he went into an assembly 
the people rose; when he spoke in pub- 
lic there was a deep silence. Princes 
stood uncovered before him; nobles in- 
vited him to their homes. 

He had added a province to the 
Church of Christ on earth, had brought 
under the gospel influence the most sav- 
age of African chiefs, had given the 
translated Bible to strange tribes, had 
enriched with valuable knowledge the 
Royal Geographical Society, and had 
honored the humble place of his birth, 
the Scottish kirk, the United Kingdom, 
and the universal missionary cause. 

It is hard to trust when no evidence 
cf fruit appears. But the harvests of 
right intentions are sure. The old min- 
ister sleeps beneath the trees in the hum- 
ble place of his labors, but men remem- 
ber his work, because of what he was 
to that one boy and what that one boy 
was to the world. “Only a boy.”— 
Christian Messenger. 


Ue OOS 
A DEAD MOTHER’S INFLUENCE 


It was the rough bar-room of a coun- 
try tavern, on an emigrant thorougfare 
west of the Mississippi. A wild-looking 
man tossed off a whisky sling, and raised 
his baby-boy to take the sugar at the 
bottom. The child drank it with a relish, 


14 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


and instead of thanks, looked into his 
father’s face with a fearful oath—the 
first oath these lips had ever uttered. 

His sin-hardened father laid down the 
cup and looked at the child, and then 
about the bar-room—bottles, glasses, 
cards, chairs. One thing more—a small 
stand, holding an old family Bible that 
had come with him across the ocean 
years before. Wicked as he was, he had 
never parted with this. 

It was early in the morning, and no 
customers coming in, and the oath 
echoed through his ears again and again. 
“It was as if I had been struck,” said he. 
Away in Wales, many years before, his 
mother taught him to pray. “But what 
would she have felt,” said he, “if she 
could have heard my child’s first words, 
cursing me?” He deliberately took the 
greasy pack of cards and threw them 
into the open fire. Deliberately he car- 
ried the jugs of liquor to the door, and 
turned the poisons upon the ground. 
He was known throughout the country 
as “The Wild Man.” People were afraid 
of him he was so ragged, profane, cross- 
eyed, quick-witted and drunken. 

This was nine years ago, and his lips 
have never since known an oath nor a 
dram. When not at work on his farm 
he may be found praying with the hands 
in a coal mine, settling the differences 
of two neighbors, establishing a prayer- 
meeting or a Sabbath-school in some re- 
mote place, tenderly visiting a cold 
Church member, or singing a soul-stir- 
ring air at a camp meeting. Uneducated 
and stammering as he is, God’s Spirit 
goes with him and makes him a continu- 
al messenger of the love of Christ.— 
Selected. 


eee Be ke 


MARY’S HANDS 


There was a young girl living on the 
East-side, in New York, whose mother, 
on her dying bed, called her to her side 
and said, “Mary, my dear daughter, 
there is one thing I want you to promise 
me before I die, and that is with the 
help of Jesus you will keep the family 
together.” Mary replied, “Yes, mother, 


I promise; Jesus and 1 will keep the 
family together.” 

After the death of her mother, Mary 
had to work very hard, early and late, 
to do for the younger children, and to 
keep the home. For some two years 
she worked beyond her strength. Final- 
ly one day she had to give up. A physi- 
cian was called. After examining Mary, 
he shook his head, and said, “My child, 
you cannot get well again, and will be 
unable to live more than two or three 
days.” 

Mary had been a professing Christian 
for some time, but when she heard the 
decision of the doctor, she began to ask 
herself if she was prepared to meet her 
Lord. Then she thought of the Sunday- 
school class which she had so irregularly 
attended, and of her Bible that had been 
neglected se much, and her thoughts 
troubled her. So she sent for one of 
her girl friends—one who used to sit by 
her side in the Sunday-school class. 
When she came Mary unburdened her 
mind and said, “I have been thinking 
that when I meet Jesus and he shall say 
to me, ‘Mary, how about that Sunday- 
school class from which you have been 
absent so much and your Bible, that 
you have read so little of late?? Then I 
shall not know what to answer Him.” 
And the tears stood for a moment in 
her eyes, and then coursed down her 
hollow cheeks. 

Her visitor replied, “Let me see your 
hands, Mary.” Mary held out her hands. 
They showed the effects of the work 
they had done for others. Instead of 
being soft and white they were hard 
and rough, and there were heavy cal- 
loused ridges at the base of the fingers. 
“Mary, if Jesus asks you about the Sun- 
day-school class and your Bible, don’t 
say a word, just show him your hands.” 

When at last we meet Jesus, if our 
hands are hardened with work done 
for his sake, we need not fear that he 
will question us about something we 
were unable to do, for he will give us a 
loving welcome to his rest and home.— 
Rev. H. M. Tyndall. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 15 








31 
ONLY A TALLOW-DIP. 


The following was related in an evan- 
gelistic meeting: A poor woman who 
had been bed-ridden for years, lived near 
the railroad track, a long way from any 
other house. Near by was a deep gully 
over which the railroad passed on a new, 
substantial iron bridge, as was sup- 
posed. There was a terrible wind one 
night. This poor woman, as was often 
the case, was alone. All at once she 
heard a fearful crash; she felt sure it 
was the bridge. She looked at the clock. 
In ten minutes the through passenger 
train would be along. What could she 
do? Her son was away from home. 
Praying earnestly to God for help, she 
took the only light in the house, a tal- 
low candle, and began to crawl (for she 
could not walk) toward the railroad 
track. How she ever got there she 
never knew. 

The track reached, she could hear the 
roar of the coming train. She prayed 
this prayer: “O God, help me to light 
this candle, and keep it burning until 
the engineer sees it; and make him see 
it.’ God heard her prayer. The candle 
was lighted, there was a lull; just then 
she waved the candle—would the en- 
gineer see it? She heard a grating 
sound, she knew the brakes were set. 
She lost consciousness then, but the 
train came to a stand-still a few feet 
from the yawning chasm. Hundreds of 
lives were saved. This weak, sick 
woman did what she could: God used 
what she had. He will use what you 
have for the saving of men, if you will 
do your part—Union Gospel News. 


a ac A i eo 2S 


A SON OF GOD. 


Henry M. Stanley tells that once in 
the heart of dark Africa, a native was 
dragged before him by some of his 
followers for stealing a gun. Stanley 
looked at the gun; it clearly belonged 
to his expedition. The poor man who 
had it was frightened at the mention of 
Stanley’s name, and could hardly find 


his voice or say a word, only “I am a 
son of God, I would not steal!” This 
he repeated again and again. It was all 
he could say. 

Stanley was interested, and it dawned 
on him that this man was probably one 
of the converts of some of the mission- 
aries laboring in that region, and he ac- 
cordingly gave him the gun and allow- 
ed him to go, while they pursued their 
way. 

At the next station when they stopped 
they found the gun waiting for them. 
It appeared that the gun had probably 
been lost. This man had found it, and 
when he was set free he at once went 
with it to the missionary for instruc- 
tions, and by his direction it was sent 
where Stanley would get it. 

But what a light must have touched 
that darkened son of Africa, who though 
brought up in all vileness and theft and 
sin, had come to realize the glorious dig- 
nity of a divine paternity, and say, “I 
am a son of God, I would not steal.”— 
The Christian. 


inn tie Fe 
SAVED FROM HURRICANE. 


To the editor of “The Christian” a sea 
captain relates the following remarkable 
incident. The God whom we serve is 
abundantly able to protect all those who 
take refuge in Him: 

“We sailed from the Kennebec on the 
first of October, 1876. There had been 
several severe gales, and some of my 
friends thought it hardly safe to go, but 
after considerable prayer I concluded it 
was right to undertake the voyage. On 
the 19th of October we were about one 
hundred and fifty miles west of the Ba- 
hamas, and we encountered very dis- 
agreeable weather. For five or six days 
we seemed held by shifting currents, or 
some unknown power, in about the same 
place. We would think that we had sail- 
ed thirty or forty miles, when on tak- 
ing our observations we would find we 
were within three or four miles of our 
position the day before. This circum- 
stance occuring repeatedly proved a trial 


16 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


to my faith, and I said within my heart, 
‘Lord, why are we so hindered and kept 
in this position?’ Day after day we 
were held as if by an unseen force, until 
at length a change took place, and we 
went on our way. Reaching our port they 
inquired, ‘Where have you been through 
the gale?’ ‘What gale?’ we asked. ‘We 
have seen no gale.’ We then learned 
that a terrible hurricane had swept 
through that region, and that all was des- 
olation. We afterwards learned that 
this hurricane had swept around us, and 
had almost formed a circle around the 
place occupied by us during the storm. 
A hundred miles ir one direction all was 
wreck and ruin, fifty miles in the op- 
posite direction all was desolation; and 
while that storm was raging im all its 
fury we were held in perfect safety, in 
quiet waters, and in continual anxiety 
to change our position and pursue our 
voyage. One day of ordinary sailing 
would have brought us into the track of 
the storm and sent us to the bottom of 
the sea. We were anxious to sail on, 
but some unseen power held us where 
we were, and we escaped.” 

The captain was a prayerful man, 
trusting in his Lord, though his faith 
was tried, and he thought the Lord was 
not helping him. Yet the Lord was 
keeping his promise to him, “The be- 
loved of the Lord shall dwell in safety 
by him, and the Lord shall cover him 
all the day long.” 


eS 9 Ae ee 
HOW THE PIGS WERE LED. 


Two friends once entered Surrey 
Chapel previous to going to India. One 
was a Christian, the other not. Mr. 
Rowland Hill preached from the text, 
“We are not ignorant of his devices,” 
and told this story: 

“Many years ago I met a drover of 
pigs in one of the narrow, streets of a 
large town; and, to my surprise, they 
were not driven, but quietly followed 
their leader. The singular fact excited 
my curiosity; and I pursued the swine 
until they all quietly entered the butche- 
ry. I then asked the man how he suc- 


ceeded in getting the poor, stupid, stub- 
born pigs so willingly to follow him; 
when he told me the secret. He had a 
basket of beans under his arm; and kept 
dropping them as he proceeded, and so 
gained his object. Ah, my dear hear- 
ers, the devil has got his basket of 
beans; and he knows how to suit hig 
temptations to every sinner. He drops 
them by the way; the poor sinner is 
thus led captive by the devil at his will; 
and if grace prevent not, he will get him 
at last into his butchery, and there he 
will keep him forever. Oh, it is because 
we are not ignorant of his devices that 
we are anxious this evening to guard 
you against them.” 

The Christian friend mourned over 
this tale about the pigs; and feared it 
would excite a smile but not produce 
conviction in the mind of his unbelieving 
companion. After the service they left 
the chapel, and all was silent for a 
season. 

“What a singular statement we had to- 
night about the pigs; and yet how strik- 
ing and how convincing it was!” re- 
marked the young man. His mind was 
impressed—and he could not forget the 
basket of beans, the butchery, and the 
final loss of the sinner’s soul. He left 
the country; but soon after corresponded 
with his friend and referred to this ser- 
mon as having produced an abiding im- 
pression on his mind.—Selected. 


35 —— 
A NATICNAL DELIVERANCE. 


“An answer to prayer,” says Le Clerc, 
“may be seen by what happened on the 
coast of Holland in the year 1672. The 
Dutch expected an attack from their 
enemies by sea, and public prayers were 
ordered for their deliverance. It came 
to pass that when their enemies waited 
only for the tide, in order to land, the 
tide was retarded, contrary to its usual 
course, for twelve hours, so that their 
enemies were obliged to defer the at- 
tempt to another opportunity; which 
they never found, because a storm arose 
afterwards, and drove them from the 
coast.” 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


BO 3 et 
A WONDERFUL DELIVERANCE. 


In the winter of 1855, in the State of 
Iowa, the snow fell early in November 
to the depth of two feet. The storm 
was such that neither man nor beast 
could move, against it. 

In a log cabin, six miles from her 
nearest relative, lived a woman with five 
children, ranging from one to eleven 
years. The supply of food and fuel was 
but scant when the snow began falling ; 
and day after day the small store melted 
away, until the fourth evening, when the 
last provisions were cooked for supper, 
and barely enough fuel remained to last 
one day more. "That night, as was her 
custom, the little ones were called around 
her knee to hear the Scripture lesson 
read, before commending them to the 
Heavenly Father’s care. Then, bowing 
in prayer, she pleaded as only those in 
like condition can plead, that help from 
God might be sent. While wrestling 
with God in prayer, the Spirit took the 
words of the Psalmist and impressed 
them on her heart: “I have been young, 
and now am old, yet have I not seen 
the righteous forsaken, nor his seed beg- 
ging bread.” And again, these words 
came as if spoken audibly : “The young 
lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but 
they that seek the Lord shall not want 
any good thing.” Faith took God at His 
word; and with an assurance that help 
would come, she praised God who hear- 
eth prayer and retired to rest without 
a care or fear for the morrow. 

When again the morning broke, that 
mother arose, kindled her fire, and put 
on the kettle as she had done on other 
days before the food was gone. Just as 
the sun arose, a man in a sleigh drove 
up to the house, and hastening in in- 
quired how they were getting along. 
Her heart at first was too full for utter- 
ance; but in a short time he was told 
something of their destitution, and of 
her cry to God for help. 

He replied: “Last night about nine 
o’clock, wife and I were both impressed 
that you were in need. Spending almost 


ANECDOTES 17 
a sleepless night, I hastened at early 
dawn, to come and inquire about the 
case.’ 

Then returning to his sleigh he took 
into the house breadstuff, meat and gro- 
ceries, so that mother had abundance to 
prepare a breakfast for the little ones, 
who had eaten the last bread the night 
before. And as if to make the case 
above mentioned a special providence, 
without a doubt remaining, the individ- 
ual who was thus impressed—and that 
at the very hour that mother was cry- 
ing to God—was a stranger to the 
circumstances and surroundings of this 
family. Indeed, he had never been in 
that house before, nor had ever showed 
any interest in the person referred to; 
but he ever afterwards proved a friend 
indeed. 

Let skeptics ridicule the idea of a 
special providence, or lightly speak of 
prayer. One heart will ever believe 
God’s ear in mercy is open to the cry 
of the feeblest of His children, when in 
distress their cry goes up for help t# 
Him.—E. M. Dodson, Orworth, Kan. 


— 37 
BUILD HIGHER 


A young lady was dying of consump- 
tion. As she sat at the open window, 
she saw a couple of little birds come 
and build their nest on a branch not 
high from the ground. Day by day she 
watched them, and observed first the 
nest, then the eggs, and then the nest- 
lings. As she watched them day by 
day, she used to shake her head, and 
say, “Silly birds, why not build higher?” 
And then when the little nestlings came 
and began to show their heads above 
the nest, the burden of her exclamation 
was still, why not higher? 

One morning when she took her ac- 
customed seat at the window lattice, 
she saw the nest all torn to pieces, and 
the ground strewn with the feathers of 
the poor little nestlings, and marks of 
violence all around; and then she said, 
“Ah, did I not tell you to build higher! 
Had you built higher you would have 





18 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


been secure frcm harm, and this dire 
mishap would not have befallen you.” 
And you, my friends, when you come 
to cross the river of death, if ever you 
fail to get to the better land, when you 
look back it will be with the bitterest 
remorse that you will cry out, Why did 
I not build higher? Why did I not lay 
up my treasure in heaven, instead of 
spending my time and my money on the 
meat which perisheth, and on pleasures 
which pass away in a moment!—Henry 
Drummond. 


Se auc}; peel 
PRAYER FOR A REVIVAL. 


We know a preacher, still living, who 
was appointed to the charge of a church 
in Springfield, Ill. The church.seemed 
very much depressed. Its life was ata 
low ebb. It was in the midst of the har- 
vest, in the hot weather, when things 
seemed most depressed. The pastor, a 
holy man of God, announced on Sabbath 
evening to a small congregation of a 
score or two of persons, “There will be 
a prayer meeting in this church to- 
morrow morning at sunrise for the re- 
vival of the work of God and the con- 
version of sinners.” 

The people wondered at the notice, 
and went home. The pastor went up 
into his study, which was in the parson- 
age by the side of the church, and gave 
that night to prayer. Just as the East 
began to lighten up a little with the 
coming day he had the assurance that 
his prayer was answered, and cast him- 
self down on a sofa for a little rest. 
Presently he awoke suddenly to see the 
sun shining on the wall over his head. 
He sprang up and looked out of the 
window to see how late it was, when he 
saw the sun just rising above the ho- 
rizon. Looking down into the yard by 
the church, he was overjoyed to see the 
church crowded with people, and the 
yard full, and teams crowding into the 
street for a long distance. 

God had heard his prayer, and had 
sent out his Spirit into the community, 
and there had been no sleeping in Spring- 
field that night. People in the country 


who knew nothing of the appointment 
got up in the night, hitched up their 
teams, and drove into town and to the 
church to find out what the matter was. 
A good man had taken hold of God. The 
prayer meeting began, and was closed 
that night at eleven o’clock. Several 
souls were converted. A gracious work 
broke out, and the community was great- 
ly blessed. 

The foregoing we certify to on the 
highest authority, having it from the 
lips of the man himself, whom every- 
body knowing him believes as soon as 
any thing outside of the Bible. We 
greatly need earnest, persevering, be- 
lieving prayer. One night of such pray- 
er kept by all the church would startle 
the nation. We sorely need a mighty 
baptism of power. We have all the other 
elements of success. We lack no ma- 
chinery. We have truth, and the ex- 
perience of its saving power and the ap- 
pliances. What we now need is the out- 
pouring of the Spirit upon us as a peo- 
ple. One hour a day spent by the church 
in earnest prayer for the revival of God’s 
work would make the coming year the 
most memorable in the history of the 
church.—Bishop C. H. Fowler. 


EAC eee 


A GOOD EXAMPLE. 


An old Scotch woman used to give a 
penny a day for missions, and for the 
sake of so doing went without some 
things that she might otherwise have 
had. One day a friend handed her a six- 
pence, so that she might buy herself 
some meat, as an unusual luxury. “Well 
now,” thought the old woman, “I’ve long 
done very well on porridge, and the Lord 
shall have the sixpence, too.” 

In some way the story came to the 
ears of a missionary secretary, who told 
it at a missionary breakfast. The host 
was much impressed by the simple tale 
and, saying that he had never denied 
himself a chop for God’s Word, sub- 
scribed £500 on the spot.. Several of the 
guests followed his example, and £2,200 
ie raised before the party separated. 
—Sel. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


pales? (yp sche 
THE SONG OF PEACE. 


A snatch of Christian song put an end 
to bloodshed in a way that could not 
have been anticipated by the one who 
taught the singer. The Cincinnati In- 
quirer tells how the Apaches surrendered 
to Lieutenant Ord, General Miles’ order- 
ly in the Geronimo campaign. 

Out in the middle of the desert, miles 
from white men, Ord was surprised at 
hearing the sound of a human voice. Ap- 
proaching cautiously a thicket of cactus, 
he distinctly heard sung the words: “O, 
how I love Jesus!” 

Fearful of treachery, he advanced cau- 
tiously, but all the while that voice con- 
tinued singing over and over again, “O’ 
how I love Jesus!” 

After crawling more than an hour, Ord 
discovered that the singer was an Indi- 
an. Covering him with his carbine, he 
rushed at him, ordering him to sur- 
render. The Apache threw up both 
hands and made the sign of peace, con- 
tinuing to sing “O, how I love Jesus!” 

The lieutenant took the Indian back 
to General Miles’ camp, where it was 
learned through the interpreter that he 
had been sent out by one of the Apache 
chiefs to say that the Indians were ready 
to treat for peace. He was the only 
Indian in that party who could speak a 
word of English and all that he could 
say was: “O, how I love Jesus!” which 
words he learned from a missionary. 


Wikia 7 | par cated 


THE INFLUENCE OF A PICTURE. 


Rev. Hunter Corbett, D. D. of Chefoo, 
China, while visiting one of the mem- 
bers of his flock by the name of Chang, 
asked him how it was that he was led 
to a knowledge of the truth. He replied 
that some three years before, his neph- 
ew, who had been attending the mission 
school and was visiting him during vaca- 
tion, said to him one day, “Would you 
like to see your photograph two or 
three years from now?” Mr. Chang re- 
plied he would; and the lad showed him 
a picture in his school book representing 


ANECDOTES 19 
an opium smoker in all tne wretc..edness 
of the last stage of the vice. He glanced 
at the picture, and became furiously 
angry; but the lad took to his heels, and 
kept at a respectful distance for some 
days. 

Mr. Chang was an inveterate smoker 
of opium, and had squandered all his 
property for the drug; and his case 
seemed hopeless. But, notwithstanding 
his rage, he could not dispel the vision 
of the miserable creature represented by 
the picture. It haunted him day and 
night. So, in spite of himself, he took 
the book, and read and re-read it. After 
days and nights of torment and struggle, 
he at last was willing to give up opium, 
and all his sins, and through faith in 
Christ he was set at liberty. 

After his conversion, he went to see 
an uncle of his, Mr. Yang, who also was 
an opium user. He told him of the bless- 
ings of the gospel, and what God had 
done for him. He persuaded his uncle 
with such earnestness that he also aban- 
doned his sins, and became a Christian. 
Some time after, they were both re- 
ceived into the Church, and continue to 
give evidence of the soundness of their 
conversion. 

Since then, at the home of Mr. Yang, 
his wife, his son, his son’s wife, and six 
others have been baptized as converts to 
Christianity. Also the wife of Mr. 
Chang, and several of his relatives are 
seeking to know the way of life. 

The results, so far as seen, amply re- 
pay the lad for his faithfulness in the 
wise use of a picture—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


PALI Y by sata 
CHARACTER TESTED 


The following is taken from “Fifty 
Years among Authors and Book Pub- 
lishers,” by J. C. Derbey. John Harper 
was one of the members of the well- 
known firm of that name. Is it a won- 
der that God so greatly honored and 
prospered such men? 

“Neither he (John Harper) nor his 
brothers ever worked on Sundays, even 


20 


during their apprenticeship. It is told 
of him that one Saturday evening, when 
he was a j urneyman printer in the em- 
ployment of Jonathan Seymour (of New 
York city), he was informed that he 
was expected to work next day on the 
catalogue of an auction sale, which was 
to be held on the following Monday. 
‘That I will not do,’ was the sturdy, 
though respectful reply. ‘I will forfeit 
my papers, but I will not work on Sun- 
day.’ When the clock struck 12 that 
night, John Harper laid down his com- 
posing stick and went home, regardless 
of the threat to discharge him. On 
Monday morning Mr. Seymour, who 
admired the pluck and moral courage 
displayed by the young man, apologized 
for having spoken harshly to him, and 
made him foreman of a department. 
When in business for himself Mr. Har- 
per never allowed any work to be done 
in the establishment on Sunday, and this 
has uninterruptedly continued to be the 
rule of the office.” 


SEAS be oes 
GUIDANCE CONFIRMED 


One Saturday night in winter, when 
a snowstorm had blocked all travel, Dr. 
J. O. Peck felt impressed that he must 
keep an appointment to preach the next 
day some miles distance. He went to 
the stable for a team, but the liveryman 
said he could not get over the Holyoke 
mountains. He replied, “Give me 
the Arabian horse; he will go through if 
anything can.” He started and for an 
hour the Arabian plunged through the 
drifts while he hung on behind to keep 
the sleigh right side up. 

The noble animal seemed to feel the 
man’s burden, and struggled heroically. 
So Dr. Peck talked to the Arabian and 
petted him as they rested on the mount- 
ain. Often as he sat down to empty his 
boots of the snow, Satan plied him with 
his mad folly, but he fought on with his 
brave steed, reaching Chicopee Falls 
about midnight. His host, surprised to 
see him, said, “You were not expected. 
There will be no service -tomorrow.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Then the tempter sorely thrust him on 
his divine guidance. 

He retired, but not tosleep. As he sat 
reading and listening to the howling of 
the storm the bell rang. Going to the 
door he heard a voice call out of the dark- 
ness, “Oramel!” Then two hackmen 
brought in his only brother, sick emaci- 
ated, just discharged from the army and 
sent home as was supposed to die. Then 
he knew God had sent him through that 
mad storm to meet the sick soldier boy 
and care for him.—Selected. 


Py cit Is 
GOD IS EVERYWHERE. 


Lord Craven lived in London at the 
time of the great plague raged there. His 
house was located in that part of the city 
since called Craven Buildings. To avoid 
the threathened danger, his Lordship re- 
solved to retire to his seat in the country. 
His coach and six were accordingly at 
the door, the luggage put up, and all 
things ready for the journey. As he was 
walking through the hall, with his hat 
on, his cane under his arm, and putting 
on his gloves, in order to step into his 
catriage, he overheard his negro (who 
served him as his postilion) saying to 
another servant, “I suppose by my Lord’s 
quitting London to avoid the plague, 
that his God lives in the country, and 
not in town.” The poor negro said this 
in the simplicity of his heart, really be- 
lieving in a plurality of gods. The speech 
however, forcibly struck Lord C——, 
and made him pause—. “My God 
(thought he) lives everywhere, and can 
preserve me in the city as well as in 
the country. Till even stay where I am. 
The ignorance of that poor fellow has 
preached a sermon to me. “Lord pardon 
that unbelief, and that distrust of thy 
providence which made me think of run- 
ning away from thy hand.” Immediately 
he ordered the horses to be taken off 
from the coach, and luggage to be 
brought in. He continued in London— 
was remarkably useful among his sick 
neighbors—-and never caught the infec- 
tion. Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 4 


aA eer 


THE REPRIEVE. 


Sir Evan Nepean, of the Home De- 
partment, relates the following respect- 
ing himself: One night during his office 
as Under Secretary, he felt the most 
unaccountable wakefulness that could 
be imagined; he was in perfect health, 
had dined early, and had nothing what- 
ever on his mind to keep him awake. 
Still he found all attempts to sleep im- 
possible, and from eleven till two in 
the morning he never closed an eye. 

At length, weary of this struggle, and 
as the twilight was breaking (it was 
summer), he determined to try what 
would be the effect of a walk in the 
park. There he saw nothing but the 
sleepy sentinels. But in his walk, hap- 
pening to pass the Home Office several 
times, he thought of letting himself in 
with his key, though without any partic- 
ular object. The book of entries of 
the day before still lay on the table, 
and through sheer listlessness he open- 
ed it. 

The first thing he saw appalled him 
—‘“A reprieve to be sent to York for 
the coiners ordered for execution.” The 
execution had been ordered for the next 
day. It struck him that he had re- 
- ceived no return to his order to send the 
reprieve. He searched the “minutes.” 
He could not find it there. In alarm 
he went to the house of the chief clerk, 
who lived in Downing Street, knocked 
him up (it was then past three), and 
asked him if he knew anything of the 
reprieve being sent. “You are scarcely 
awake,” said Sir Evan; “recollect your- 
self; it must have been sent.” 

The clerk said that he now recollect- 
ed he had sent it to the clerk of the 
crown, whose business it was to send 
it to York, 

“Good,” said Sir Evan, “but have you 
his receipt and certificate that it is 
gone?” 

“No.” 

“Then come with me to his house, we 
must find him if it is early.” It was now 
four, and the clerk of the crown lived 


in Chancery Lane. There was no hack- 
ney coach to be seen and they almost 
ran. They were just in time. The 
clerk of the crown had a country house, 
and meaning to have a long holiday, he 
was at that moment stepping into his 
gig to go to his villa. Astonished at this 
visit of the Under Secretary of the 
State at such an hour, he was still more 
so at his business. 

“Heavens!” cried he, “the reprieve is 
locked up in my desk!” It was brought. 
Sir Evan sent to the post-office for the 
truest and fleetest express. The reprieve 
reached York next morning just at the 
moment the unhappy men were ascend- 
ing the cart. 

With Sir Evan Nepean, we fully agree 
in regarding this little narrative as one 
of the most extraordinary that we ever 
heard. 

But what a lesson does it suggest to 
Christians. To each of us is entrusted 
a reprieve for lost sinners. Is it locked 
up in our desk? Is it kept back when 
they for whom it is designed are ready 
to perish? Let us make haste ere it be 
too late-—The Watchword. 


ly 
HER FAITH UNSHAKEN. 


The Rev. Dr. Wilson of Philadelphia, 
had the following fact from the pastor 
of the lady mentioned. The packet ship, 
Albion, full of passengers from America 
was wrecked about fifty years ago on 
the coast of Ireland, and the news was 
that all on board had perished. A min- 
ister near Philadelphia on reading a 
list of the lost, found among them the 
name of one of the members of his con- 
gregation, and went immediately to in- 
form the wife of the sad fact. She had 
been earnestly praying, during the voy- 
age of her husband, and had received as- 
surance of his safety amid great danger. 
Hence, to the astonishment of her pas- 
tor, after he had informed her of the 
shipwreck, and showed her the list of 
names of those who were lost, she told 
him that it was a mistake; that her hus- 
band had been in extreme peril, but was 





99 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


not dead. When the next tidings were 
received, it proved that her husband was 
among the passengers, and had been in 
great peril; but that he had escaped, 
and was the only one saved!—Sel. 


HIDDEN MONEY 


In 1730, a wealthy Quaker in Phila- 
delphia, who intended to go to England 
for several years, was perplexed in at- 
tempting to decide what to do with a 
large sum of money which he had. He 
did not want to take it with him, and 
was afraid to invest it in any business 
in the colonies. 

Being of a very suspicious temper he 
would not intrust it to the keeping of 
any of his friends. Finally he resolved 
to bury it. If hidden, it would be safe 
and undiminished when he came back. 
He inclosed the coins in two earthen 
jars, and, digging a hole in the cellar of 
his stately house on Fourth Street, bur- 
ied them and replaced the paving. 

In the same year a poor young print- 
er carried on his trade about a square 
from this man’s house. He and his 
wife lived so frugally that they tasted 
meat but once a week. At the end of a 
few months he found that he had a few 
shillings to spare. 

“What shall we do with it?” said his 
wife, Deborah. 

“Buy books,” said the young man, 
promptly. 

But he was a shrewd fellow. His 
shillings would buy but a book or two— 
meagre diet for his greedy brain. He 
persuaded some other young mechanics 
to add each the same amount to his 
and to put the books on a shelf for the 
use of the contributors and their friends. 

The few shillings spent by Benjamin 
Franklin that day gave being to the 
great Philadelphia Library, which for 
a hundred and fifty years has helped 
countless men and women to know- 
ledge. 

The Quaker died in England, and his 
family never found the money. Two 
years ago, while Irish workmen were 
digging in the cellar of a warehouse on 





Fourth Street, they found the earthen 
jars. 

Only a few coins remained, and they 
were soon spent for whiskey. The bulk 
of the treasure being in bank-notes and 
due-bills had crumbled to dust long ago. 
It was a strange reproduction of the 
story of the talent put out to usury, and 
buried in a napkin—The Earnest 
Christian. 


DYING OF THIRST ’MID RIVERS 
OF WATER. 


A ship’s company had for several 
days been allowed only half of their 
usual supply of water. Land or a pas- 
sing ship was anxiously looked for, but 
neither appeared. The water-casks were 
now nearly empty. The captain was 
obliged at last to reduce the allowance 
to one-half a pint a day per man. The 
sufferings of the men, exposed to the 
scorching heat of the equator with 
hardly enough water to moisten their 
swollen tongues, was almost unendur- 
able. But one morning the man at the 
look-out sighted a sail. Then all was 
joy and excitement, for the sailors were 
confident of obtaining a supply of water. 
A signal of distress was run, aloft, and 
as the vessels neared one another the 
captain made known his desire for 
water. When the captain of the ap- 
proaching ship replied, “Don’t you know 
where you are? You are in the mouth 
of the Amazon. Let down your buckets 
and dip it up!’ 

So it proved. The mouth of the Am- 
azon is 150 miles wide, and the flood of 
fresh water, as it pours forth from that 
mighty river, flows out and overlaps the 
ecean for fifty leagues. So that crew 
had been sailing for some time in fresh 
water, yet were almost dying from 
thirst. 

Many are perishing from soul-thirst, 
while, Christ, the water of life, whom 
they do not recognize, is in their very 
presence. “Have I been so long time 
with you, yet hast Thou not known me, 
Philip?” Jno. 14:9.—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall, 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ee AQ Rowe” 
THE BEDRIDDEN SAINT'S 
PRAYER. 
“Tn 1872 I went to London—a year 
before Mr. Sankey and myself went 
over-—to spend a few months in getting 
acquainted with some of those men of 
God who knew their Bibles a good dea} 
better than some other Christians I had 
met. 

“I was in the old Bailey prayer meet- 
ing one Saturday noon, where the 
Sunday-school Union have meetings for 
Sunday-school teachers, and at the close 
of that meeting a minister wanted to 
know if I would not preach for him on 
the next Sabbath. I told him I would 
be very glad to. I went to the north 
end of London next morning and spoke, 
with no unusual interest, in fact I 
thought the service rather quiet. 

“I was to speak again at 6.30 in the 
evening, and that evening while I was 
speaking it seemd as if the powers of the 
unseen world fell upon me. The mighty 
power of God seemed to lift the con- 
gregation, and when I had got through 
I asked those who would like to be 
Christians to rise, and they rose by the 
hundreds. 

“I said to myself: “These people have 
misunderstood the invitation.’s I said: 
‘would all those who want to become 
Christians, who are not Christians, meet 
the pastor and myself in the chapel back 
of the pulpit?’ and they filled that room 
full, aisles and all. I said: “These people 
have misunderstood me again;’ and after 
explaining the way of life the best I 
knew how, I said: ‘To-morrow night 
your pastor will be glad to meet you 
here alone.’ I had to go to Dublin; but 
the next Tuesday I got a telegram from 
the pastor asking me to come back at 
once. 

“I went back and stayed there for ten 
days, and they took 400 into that church, 
and all the other churches round were 
blessed more or less. 

“Let me tell you the sequel of that. 
There was a member of that church, 
had been bedridden for years, and she 


ANECDOTES 23 
was becoming very much discouraged. 
She thought she could do nothing, but 
one day she thought she could pray, if 
nothing else, and she prayed that God 
would revive the church, and she poured 
her heart out to God in prayer. 

“She had seen something in some pa- 
per that I had said or done in America, 
and she prayed to God to send me to 
that church. 

“When her sister came home at noon 
she said: ‘Who do you think preached 
for us to-day?’ 

“*T don’t know,’ was the reply. 

“*Guess,’ said her sister. Finally she 
guessed Mr. Moody from America, and 
said: ‘I know what that means. It is 
the answer to the prayer, God has sent,’ 
and when they had brought her dinner, 
she said: ‘No, I am going to fast.’ 

“All that afternoon she was holding 
me up to God in prayer, and when I was 
preaching she was praying to God, be- 
seeching, entreating the Lord to hear 
the prayer and revive the work in that 
church. 

“T believe that it was not my preach- 
ing, but the power of that woman’s pray- 
ers that brought out this blessing. When 
you and I get to heaven it may be that 
we will find out those who have ac- 
complished the most have been men and 
women who were never heard of in their 
services, but who in secret and at their 
family altars prayed to God—D. L. 
Moody. 


coe 5() en 
HOW IT BEGINS. 


Give me a halfpenny, and you may 
pitch one of these rings; and if it catches 
over a nail, I’ll give you threepence.” 

That seemed fair enough; so the boy 
handed him the halfpenny and took the 
ring. He stepped back to the stake 
tossed the ring, and it caught on one of 
the nails. 

“Will you take six rings to pitch again 
or threepence?” 

“Threepence,” was the answer; and 
the money was put into his hand. He 
stepped off well satisfied with all he 


24 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


had done, and probably not having an 
idea that he had done wrong. 

A gentleman standing near hin. 
watched him, and before he had time to 
look about and rejoin his companions 
laid his hand on his shoulder and said, 
“My lad this is your first lesson in 
gambling.” 

“Gambling, sir?” 

“You staked your halipenny and won 
six halfpence, did you not?” 

“Ves sir, I did.” 

“Vou did not earn them, and they were 
not given to you, You won them just as 
gamblers win money. You have taken 
your first lesson in their path. That 
man has gone through it, and you see 
the end. Now I advise you to go and 
give his threepence back, and ask him 
for your halfpenny, and then stand 
square with the world, an honest boy.” 

He hung his head, but raised it quickly 
and his bright, open look, as he said, 
“T’]] do it,” will not soon be forgotten. 
He ran back, and soon emerged from 
the ring looking happier than ever. He 
touched his cap and bowed pleasantly as 
he ran away to join his companions. 
This was an honest boy, and doubtless 
an honest man.—Selected. 


—— 51 


A LIFE FOR A LIE 


It has been said that there never was 
a lie that did not end in a broken head 
for somebody. Often those who sin- 
cerely believe a lie are the worst suffer- 
ers by it. 

We clip from a paper an example of a 
little girl who lost her life by honestly 
believing a lie her father told. 

“A citizen of Oceanica, Md., had a 
vicious kicking horse, which he was 
anxious to sell. While trying to make a 
bargain with a probable purchaser he 
- remarked: ‘That horse is so gentle that 
my little girl could go up behind him 
and twist his tail, and he would not 
raise a hoof. The little girl overheard 
this lie, took it for the truth, and one 
day on being left alone with the horse, 
tried the experiment, and was killed by 





a kick.” 

That father’s lie cost him his child’s 
life. Some people think lying is a little 
sin; but indeed it is the seed and root 
of every sin. Sin first came into this 
world by a lie, and sin and lies have 
gone hand in hand ever since. 

We shall never get rid of sins till we 
get rid of lies; therefore Christians are 
to “put away lying, and speak every 
man truth with his neighbor; and as 
for those that love lies and make them, 
when the Lord sweeps this world clean 
of sin, “All liars shall have their part in 
the lake which burneth with fire and 
brimstone, which is the second death.” — 
Selected. 


Piatt ad Raat 
REJECTING A CROWN 


U. Bor, Sing, the heir of the Rajah of 
Cherra, India, was converted by the 
Welsh missionaries. He was warned 
that in joining the Christians he would 
probably forfeit his right to be king of 
Cherra after the death of Rham Sing, 
who then ruled, but who, eighteen 
months afterward, died. The chiefs of 
the tribes met and unanimously decided 
that Bor. Sing was entitled to succeed 
him, but that his Christian profession 
stood in the way. Messenger after 
messenger was sent, urging him to re- 
cant. He was invited to the native 
council, and told that if he would put 
aside his religious profession they wouid 
all acknowledge him as king. His an- 
swer was: “Put aside my Christian pro- 
fession? I can put aside my head-dress, 
or my cloak; but as for the covenant I 
have made with my God, I cannot for 
any consideration put that aside!” 

Another was therefore appointed king 
in his stead. Since then he has been 
impoverished by litigation about landed 
property, till he is now in danger of ar- 
rest and imprisonment; and Mr. EI- 
liot, the Commissioner of Assam, has 
appealed to Christians in this country 
on his behalf. Here is a convert re- 
jecting a crown for Christ!—Rev. A. 
T. Pierson, D. D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 
me 53 


FOR CHARLIE’S SAKE 


The Morning Star narrates the fol- 
lowing, which illustrates a highly im- 
portant principle: 

“The office door opened softly, and a 
stranger in poor, soiled soldier’s clothes 
walked in. The man who sat at the 
desk was a lawyer—a judge—and he 
was very busy over the papers of a 
pending suit. It was in the days of the 
civil war. 

The stranger had borne his share of 
the suffering that was in the land. He 
had been wounded in battle, and weak 
and emaciated, he was on his way back 
to his native State and town. 

But the busy judge scarcely raised 
his eyes to look at him. The poor sol- 
dier had taken off his cap, and stood, 
feeling confusedly in his pockets. “I 
have—I did have a—letter for you.” The 
judge took no notice of the timid, hes- 
itating words. 

He was very busy, and he was con- 
scious only of a feeling of annoyance 
that a stranger should break in upon his 
time. 

The confused, nervous search in his 
pockets continued, and the judge grew 
still more annoyed. He was a humane 
man, but he had responded to many 
soldiers’ applications already—and he 
was very busy just now. 

The stranger came nearer and reached 
out a thin hand. A letter, grimy and 
pocket-worn, lay on the desk, addressed 
to the judge. 

“T have no time to attend to such’— 
But the impatient sentence was checked 
upon the good man’s lips. The hand- 
writing on the letter was the handwrit- 
ing of his son.. He opened the letter and 
read: 

“Dear Father.—The bearer of this is 
a soldier discharged from the hospital. 
He is going home to die.. Assist him in 
any way you can, for Charlie’s sake.” 

And then Judge A—forgot how very 
busy he was. His heart went out to- 
ward the poor sick soldier, and for Char- 


ANECDOTES 2d 


lie’s sake, his own soldier-boy far away, 
he loaded him with gifts and acts of 
kindness, and lodged him till he could 
send him on his way rejoicing. 

As the judge granted the request of 
his son for this poor soldier, so God 
pardons and saves us sinners for the 
sake of his Son, our mediator, in whose 
name we come, 


ee 8 
NOT JUSTICE, BUT PARDON 


We are shocked when we hear men 
talk of dealing with God on the basis 
of their personal merits. The man who 
thus speaks is either ignorant, willfully 
deceived, a hypocrite or a fool. 

In the days when Napoleon was First 
Consul of France, a well-dressed girl, 
fourteen years of age, presented herself 
alone at the gate of the palace. By 
tears and entreaties she moved the kind- 
hearted porter to allow her to enter. 
Passing from one room to another, she 
found her way to the hall through which 
Napoleon, with his officers, was to pass. 
When he appeared, she cast herself at 
his feet, and in the most earnest and 
Moving manner cried, “Pardon, sire! 
pardon for my father!” 

“And who is your father?” asked Na- 
poleon; “and who are you?” 

“My name is Lajolia, but, sire, my 
father is doomed to die,” she said with 
flowing tears. 

“Ah, young lady,” replied Napoleon; 
“I can do nothing for you. It is the 
second time that your father has been 
found guilty of treason against the 
State!” 

“Alas,” exclaimed the poor girl, “I 
know it, sire; but I do not ask for just- 
ice—I implore pardon. I beseech you, 
forgive, O forgive my father!” 

Napoleon’s lips trembled, and his 
eyes filled with tears. After a moment- 
ary struggle of feeling, he gently took 
the hand of the young maiden, and said: 

“Well, my child, for your sake I will 
pardon your father. That is enough. 
Now leave me.” 


26 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Reader, whoever, you are, know that, 
as a sinner against God, the cry from 
your lips must always be, “Not justice, 
but pardon.”-——Sel. 


ey 


A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD 
THEM. Isa. 11:16 


The above text of Scripture is well 
illustrated by the following touching 
little story related some time ago at a 
Fulton Street prayer meeting: 

“A dress-maker called on a very weal- 
thy lady in a city not far from New 
York, taking her little girl, five years 


old, with her. The lady took a fancy to ~- 


the child, and showed her over the 
house. She expressed great admiration 
at all she saw, and, particularly attract- 
ed by the carpet, said to the lady: ‘Why, 
Tt should think Jesus must come here 
very often, it is such a nice house, and 
such a beautiful carpet—He must come 
here very often. He comes to our 
house, and we have no carpet; I am 
sure He must come here very often, 
don’t He?’ The lady not answering, 
the child repeated the question, when 
the answer came, with deep emotion, 
‘I am afraid not.’ .The child left, but 
God’s message was delivered. The lady 
related the incident to her husband in 
the evening, and both were led to seek 
the Saviour.” 


noe SEs 


THE FIVE-CENT TEST 


Some years ago, a shrewd old lumber 
merchant named Aymer lived in New 
York. He used to receive cargoes of ma- 
hogany and logwood, and sell them at 
auction. Such a cargo was one day to 
be sold at Jersey City, and all hands 
started from the auction room to the 
place of sale. When passing through 
the gate to the ferry, Mr. Aymer ob- 
served one of the largest buyers slip 
through without pa,ing the five cent 
fare. So he told his auctioneer not to 
accept a bid from that man. Surprised, 
the auctioneer asked why, and remark- 


ed he thought him good pay. Mr. Ay- 
mer said he too had thought so, but 
now had changed his mind, and would 
not trust him a dollar. 

A few months proved the correctness 
of his opinion, for the slippery dealer 
failed, and did not pay five cents on the 
dollar. 

“A straw will show which way the 
wind blows.”—Rev. H. M. Tyndall. 


eee 5] ee 


SHE RAN THE RISK 


The Rev. Mr. Darnall, Presbyterian 
pastor at Milton, N. C., relates the fol- 
lowing incident, that actually occurred 
among a certain congregation in North 
Carolina: “A young lady at church gave 
heed to a powerful and awakening ser- 
mon, the preacher urging an immediate 
acceptance of Christ, and warning of the 
dangers of delay, and putting off for a 
more convenient season. A few days 
after, the young lady was dangerously 
ill, and sent for the preacher to come 
and see her. He went and found her at 
death’s door, and yet she told him she 
neither wished him to pray with or talk 
to her; that she heard his sermon the 
Sunday before, and at the time had writ- 
ten with her pencil a certain sentence in 
her hymn-book, and ever since then all 
had been darkness, and her heart as hard 
as stone. The preacher took the hymn- 
book and read on the fly-leaf, in the 
back of the book, the following fatal 
sentence: ‘T’ll run the risk. A few 
hours more and the young woman died 
in the darkness of despair. She had 
‘run the risk.’”—Sel. 


Sv BE 


VALUE OF A WORD. 


I have observed that a word cast in 
by the by, hath done more execution in 
a sermon than all that was spoken be- 
side. Sometimes also, when I have 
thought I did no good, then I did the 
most of all; and at other times, when I 
thought I should catch them, I have 
fished for nothing.—Bunyan. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


mre FQ ce 


ANSWERS TO PRAYER 

A young man in the State of Indiana, 
not long ago left home for a business 
opening in Ohio. There, a gentleman 
from his own native town found him, 
and was shocked to discover that he had 
become a profane swearer. Returning 
home he felt constrained to tell his pious 
parents of his awful degeneracy. They 
said little, and, in doubt whether they 
had understood him, he called next day 
and repeated the statement. The father 
calmly replied: “We understood you; 
my wife and I spent a sleepless night on 
our knees pleading in behalf of our son; 
and about daybreak we received the as- 
surance from God that James will never 
swear again.” Two weeks after, the 
son came home a changed man. “How 
long since this change took place?” asked 
his rejoicing parents. He replied that 
just a fortnight before he was struck 
with a sense of guilt so that he could not 
sleep, and spent the night in tears and 
prayers for pardon. Mark—+there had 
been no time for any parerital appeal, or 
even for a letter of remonstrance—while 
they were praying for him, God moved 
him to pray for himself. 

A remarkable case of deliverance from 
persecution and of punishment visited 
upon cruel persecutors, is recorded of 
the Jewish colony at Alexandria, about 
two hundred before Christ. 

Ptolemy Philopator furiously angry at 
the refusal of the high-priest to permit 
him to invade the temple courts of Jerus- 
alem, on his return to Egypt flung into 
prison all the Jews upon whom he could 
lay his hands, There was at Alexandria 
a huge hippodrome used for gladiatorial 
shows, and here a host of captives were 
confined. The king decreed that ele- 
phants made furious by intoxicating and 
stimulating drugs, should be let loose 
upon them in the arena of this amphi- 
theater, and trample them to death. For 
two days his own drunken revels delayed 
the execution of this horrid, decree, and 
for two days there went up ceaseless 
prayers to Israel’s God that He who de- 
livered Daniel from the lions would 


ANECDOTES 27 
rescue his helpless people. 

The third day came, and the infuriated 
monsters were driven into the amphi- 
theater and goaded forward to torture 
the prisoners. But, wonderful to relate, 
instead of attacking and destroying these 
Jews, they turned madly upon the guards 
and the spectators, killed many of them, 
and drove the rest in terror from the 
corridors! Ptolemy was so impressed 
with this exhibition of power of the God 
of the Jews that he released the prison- 
ers and, like Ahasuerus, permitted them 
to destroy their foes.—Arthur T. Pier- 
son, D. D, 


SPAREN ~ yak 


COURAGE FOR THE RIGHT 


A successful evangelist tells what 
great results followed from a simple 
stand for Christ when he was a com- 
mercial traveller. 

He had made a good sale, and the 
merchant said, “It is your treat.” He 
knew what that meant. There was a 
saloon across the street, and he was ex- 
rected to go across and “set up the 
drinks” for the whole establishment. 
“What is the use” he said to himself. 
“This is one of the expedients of the 
trade. I needn’t drink anything, I can 
order the cigars, or a supper or—” 
“Yes” something said to him, “you can 
just sell out right here and make a 
wreck out of it all.” 

“Boys”, he said in the new inspiration 
sent from above, “if I should do that I 
would do the meanest thing in all the 
world, and if you'll bear with me [ll tell 
you why. I have just come up from 
the very gates of death and hell through 
strong drink, and if I did what you 
ask, I’d do the meanest thing in all the 
world both for you and me.” 

Instantly the cashier leaped down 
from the desk. ‘Have you got a pledge? 
I’ll sign it.’ And the merchant after- 
ward took the commercial traveller 
aside to say, I'll promise you Pil never 
drink another drop as long as I live.” 

It pays to be outspoken for Christ. 
Try it—Rams Horn. 


28 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


GOD KEPT THE TRAIN. 


Not long ago an engineer brought his. 


train to a stand at a little Massachusetts 
village, where the passengers have five 
minutes for lunch. A lady came along 
the platform and said: “The conductor 
tells me the train at the junction in P— 
leaves fifteen minutes before our arrival. 
It is Saturday night, that is the last train, 
I have a very sick child in the car, and 
no money for a hotel, and none for a 
private conveyance for the long, long 
journey into the country. What shail I 
do?” “Well,” said the engineer, “I wish 
I could tell you.” “Would it be possible 
for you to hurry a little?” said the anx- 
ious, tearful mother. “No, madam, I 
have the timetable, and the rules say I 
must run by it.” 

She turned sorrowfully away, leaving 
the bronzed face of the engineer wet 
with tears. Presently she returned and 
said, “Are you a Christian?” “ I trust I 
am,” was the reply. “Will you pray 
with me that the Lord may, in some 
way, delay the train at the junction?” 
“Why, yes, I will pray with you, but I 
have not much faith.” Just then, the 
conductor cried, ‘All aboard!” The poor 
woman hurried back to her deformed 
and sick child, and away went the train, 
climbing the grade. “Somehow,” says 
the engineer, “every thing worked to a 
charm. As I prayed, I couldn’t help let- 
ting my. engine out just a little. We 
hardly stopped at the first station, peo- 
ple got on and off with wonderful alac- 
rity, the conductor’s lantern was in the 
air in half a minute, and then away 
again. Once over the summit, it was 
dreadful easy to give her a little more, 
and then a little more, as I prayed, till 
she seemed to shoot through the air like 
an arrow. Somehow I couldn’t hold 
her, knowing I had the road, and so we 
dashed up to the junction six minutes 
ahead of time.” There stood the train, 
and the conductor with his lantern on 
hisarm. “Weil,” said he, “will you tell 
me what I am waiting here for? Some- 
how I felt I must wait for your coming 


tonight, but I don’t kffew why.” “I 
guess,” said the brother conductor, “it 
is for this woman, with her sick and de- 
formed child, dreadfully anxious to get 
home this Saturday night.” But the 
man on the engine and the grateful 
mother think they can tell why the train 
waited. God held it to answer their 
prayers.—The Watchman and Reflector. 


falta 7 pal 


SPLITTING THE ROCK. 


A few days ago I saw two men en 
gaged in splitting a rock. The steel 
wedge held by one man against the 
stone received powerful blows from 2 
sledge hammer wielded by the other. 
Blow after blow was struck, yet no im- 
pression seemed to be made upon the 
rock. The man would stop a little to 
take breath, and then go at it again 
with no thought of discouragement. 
Highteen times that sledge hammer 
came down with no apparent result. 
The nineteenth blow, however, started 
a seam, and the twentieth laid the rock 
open. 

What if the man had yielded to dis- 
couragement after the eighteenth blow? 
The rock would have remained un- 
broken, and his labor would have been 
worse than wasted, for he would under- 
take the next task of the kind with less 
confidence. 

Now, Jesus says, “Ask, and it shall 
be given you; knock, and it shall be 
opened unto you.” Our asking and our 
knocking may be right enough, but if 
they are not persevered in until a favor- 
able issue is reached, we, too, shall be 
injured instead of being benefited by 
our effort. And just as in the break- 
ing of the rock, every blow, from the 
first to the last, contributed to produce 
the desired result, so in our seeking 
some blessing from God, every prayer 
brings the blessing nearer. And if the 
answer is long in coming, let us not 
yield to the thought that it will never 
come; but rather believe that it is ap- 
proaching nearer and nearer, and may 
be even now at hand.—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


a 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


pas, Ween 


ACQUAINTED WITH GOD 


An infidel, on learning that a distin- 
guished and intelligent lady was a be- 
liever in the Holy Scriptures, professed 
to be surprised, and asked her, “Do you 
believe in the Bible?” 

“Most certainly I do,” was the reply. 

“Why do you believe it?” he inquired 
again. 

“Because IJ am acquainted with the 
Author!” 

This was her testimony, and all his 
talk about the “unknown and, the un- 
knowable” went for nothing in view of 
the calm confidence born of her personal 
acquaintance with God.—Sel. 


——--- 64 
BENT NAILS. 


Bob Mason and his uncle came down 
from the city on the same car one even- 
ing. “I saved my nickel,” said Bob, 
with a chuckle, as they walked home 
together. 

“So I noticed,” was the grave reply. 

“Well, I had it in my hand; ii the con- 
ductor had asked me for it I should have 
given it to him,” said Bob, rather sulkily. 
“T don’t see why I was to blame.” 

“Because you cheated,” answered his 
uncle. “Just before the conductor got 
to you he turned to help some one off. 
You moved up where he had collected 
fares, and appeared to be deeply engaged 
in your paper. I know that you did not 
say in so many words—‘I’ve paid my 
fare,’ but you looked it as hard as you 
could, and he apparently understood it 
so. It was cheating, as I look at it.” 

“Oh, well,” said Bob, carelessly; “it 
was only a nickel anyway; the B. R. T. 
will never know the difference.” 

“But you will, my boy. Some one 
wisely bids us to call nothing small in a 
world where a mud creek swells into an 
Amazon, and the stealing of a penny 
may end on the scaffold. 

“T remember when I was about your 
age.” his uncle continued. “I was help- 
ing a carpenter about a piece of work he 
was doing for my father. I had made a 





29 


little mistake and was trying to pull out 
a nail, 

““Draw it straight; don’t bend it,’ he 
cautioned. 

““Why, what harm would it do? I 
could straighten it, couldn't I? I asked. 
‘Possibly, but it would never| be as 
strong. You would find it very apt to 
bend again, and you would also find it 
hard to drive it true.’ 

“It is pretty much so with us; if we 
yield to temptation in any way today, 
we shall find we have weakened our- 
selves, and it will be harder to hold true 
tomorrow. 

“Don’t deceive yourself by thinking 
it is only a little thing, too small to make 
any difference. I once saw a large and 
seemingly strong telegraph pole come 
suddenly crashing down without any 
warning or visible cause. But investi- 
gation showed that woodpeckers had cut 
a nest just where the pole broke. 

“So, little sins, as we mistakingly call 
them, eat into our lives and weaken us. 
Like the bent nail we are liable to break 
at that place any time. The only sure 
way to keep in the right path is never 
to take the first step out. Remember 
that, my boy.” 

“T will,” replied Bob, gravely.—Ex. 


A nt RB AES 


IS THERE A LETTER FOR ME? 


I was much touched by the following 
incident, told by a gentleman from the 
South in regard to the delight of the 
colored people to receive letters. 

The fact had been told to show the 
laziness of the race, but the gentleman 
saw sotnething deeper in the incident. 

The postmaster of a village said one 
colored man had come to the post-office 
regularly twice a day for two years ask- 
ing the question: ‘“‘Is there a letter for 
me?’ Sometimes he would say, “I think 
it will arrive by the next mail.” And 
he said nothing pleased him like get- 
ting a letter from the post-office; and a 
paper with “John Smith Esq.” on it, 
was an event in the family that went 
on record. 

I have not forgotten the circumstances 


30 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


of a young man in the army who re- 
ceived no letters, and when his comrade 
saw the tears fill his eyes when the mail 
arrived, he wrote home to his mother 


and told her of his orphan comrade. 


“Mother,” he wrote, “do write to him, 
and as his mother is dead, do mother 
him a little.’ Very quickly a letter 
came to the young man. As it was hand- 
ed he said, “It is not for me. I have 
no one that cares enough for me to 
write.” But when he opened it and 
saw, “My dear son,” he bowed his head 
and wept like a child. Then lifting his 
face, beaming with smiles, he said: “I 
have got a mother!” 

It is such a little thing to write a let- 
ter! Such a little thing to send a paper! 
—Sel. 


eee 56 aaa 


CHRIST AS A PROTECTOR 


When I was in England a lady told 
me a sweet story illustrative of what it 
is to have Christ between us and every- 
thing else. She said she was wakened 
up by a very strange noise of pecking, 
or something of the kind, and when 
she got up she saw a butterfly flying 
backward and forward inside the win- 
dow-pane in great fright and outside a 
sparrow pecking and trying to get in. 
The butterfly did not see the glass and 
expected every minute to be caught 
and the sparrow did not see the glass 
and expected every moment to catch the 
butterfly; yet all the while that butter- 
fly was as safe as if it had been three 
miles away, because of the glass be- 


tween it and the sparrow. So it is with 


Christians who are abiding in Christ. His 
presence is between them and every 
danger. I do not believe that Satan un- 
derstands about this mighty and invis- 
ible power that protects us, or else he 
would not waste his efforts trying to get 
us. He must be like the sparrow—he 
does not see it, and Christians are like 
the butterfly—they do not see it, and so 
they are frightened and flutter backward 
and forward in terror; but all the while 
Satan can not touch the soul that has 


the Lord Jesus Christ between itself and 
him.—Selected. 


C$ Ay fi al 
SAVING HIS BOOTS. 


A New York reporter had an extreme- 
ly good time recently writing up the 
story of a man who had gone to sleep, 
drunk, upon the trolley tracks of upper 
Broadway, taking great care to put his 
new shoes out of harm’s way but allow- 
ing his head to rest on the rail. The 
fender of an approaching car threw him 
from the tracks, inflicting a great scalp 
wound. His shoes, however, were alto- 
gether uninjured. 

We can think of no greater folly than 
the attempt to put one’s shoes out of 
danger, disregarding altogether the safe- 
ty of one’s head. But, after all, do we 
not, every day, see people doing things 
equally absurd? What about providing 
for the safety and pleasure of the body 
with utter disregard for the soul? We 
plan to have seventy years of pleasure 
and prosperity, while the preparation for 
eternity is neglected. We plan to pro- 
tect the trifling things we have ac- 
cumulated here, jewels, money, houses, 
land, and take no care to protect the im- 
mortal. Is that saner than the sleepy 
mutterings of a drunken man: “I will 
save my new shoes. Never mind my 
head.”——Christian Herald. 


emcees ($5 seme 


PERSEVERANCE IN PRAYER. 


Those who sometimes grow faint and 
weary in their prayers for the souls of 
others, should take heart in the experien- 
ces of the celebrated George Mueller of 
Bristol, England. It is related of him 
that he prayed daily for thirty years for 
ten persons, and eight of them were con- 
verted. He prayed daily for eighteen 
persons for twenty years, and fourteen 
of them were converted. Yet many of 
us grow weary in a few days or weeks 
in not seeing the immediate answer to 
prayers, 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ae TNs nia 


THE HOMELESS SINGER 


On a cold, dark night, when the wind 
was blowing hard, Conrad, a worthy 
citizen of a little town in Germany, sat 
playing his flute, while Ursula, his wife, 
was preparing supper. They heard a 
sweet voice singing outside, 

Tears filled the good man’s eyes, as 
he said, “What a fine, sweet voice! 
What a pity it should be spoiled by be- 
ing tried in such weather!” 

“I think it is the voice of a child. 
Let us open the door and see,” said his 
wife, who had lost a little boy not long 
before, and whose heart was open to 
take pity on the little wanderer. 

Conrad opened the door, and saw a 
ragged child, who said, “Charity, good 
sir, for Christ’s sake.” 

“Come in, my little one,” said he; 
“you shall rest with me for the night.” 

The boy said, “Thank God!” and en- 
tered. He was given some supper, and 
then he told them he was the son of a 
poor miner and wanted to be a priest. 
He wandered about and sang, and lived 
on the money people gave him. His 
kind friends would not let him talk 
much, but sent him to bed. When he 
was asleep they looked in upon him, 
and were so pleased with his pleasant 
face that they determined to keep him, if 
he was willing. 

In the morning they found he was 
only too glad to remain, 

They sent him to school, and after- 
wards he entered a monastery. There 
he found the Bible, from which he 
learned the way of life. He became the 
great preacher and reformer, Martin 
Luther. Little did Conrad and Ursula 
think of what they were doing when 
they cared for this “least of these my 
brethren.”—Sel. 


5 lh [a 


THE REWARD OF FAITH. 
One of our ministers and his faithful 
wife narrated to me their experience in 
testing God: “It was mid-winter, and 
the cold wind was moaning its doleful 


ANECDOTES ai 


sound even to those who lived in the 
midst of plenty. But in the pastor’s 
home the last piece of bread had been 
eaten for supper and only one armful of 
wood remained. We said our evening 
prayers and, of course, told Father all 
about our need, and retired in full faith 
that in some way he would provide. We 
arose, kindled a fire, placed the kettle on 
the stove, and went happily about the 
house, believing that God would help. 
A little later on I went to the front door 
for something, and, on opening, lo! a 
great. pile of goods came tumbling in— 
flour, sugar, coffee, tea, potatoes, etc. 
While we were rejoicing a stranger drove 
up and inquired if Rev. lived there. 
He said he had been impressed to bring 
him a load of wood. A little later a 
load of coal was sent, with the compli- 
ments of a friend. And unto this day 
we don’t know where the goods came 
from only we do know that our dear, 
tender, loving Father sent them.” 
“Trust in the Lord and do good, so 
shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily 
thou shalt be fed.”—-A. W. Ballinger. 


ELOEE i & BRAS 


TRUST IN GOD REWARDED 

During the last week of February, 
1903, a very poor woman lost a purse 
containing $40.00, which had been saved 
by self-denial, and by means of which 
she intended to visit relatives in the 
West. She lost the money on a ferry- 
boat plying between Brooklyn and New 
York, and knew that someone in the 
crowd picked it up, yet had such faith 
in God that it would be restored to her, 
that she was not distressed. 

A gentleman who found it was so 
much interested in the circumstances 
under which she accumulated the money, 
that with its return, he gave an addition- 
al sum, with which to defray all her ex- 
penses of travel. 

The Lord by his providence, deprived 
his poor saint of $40.00. The Lord by 
his providence, quickly bestowed $80.60 
upon the quiet trustful soul, which 
waited for his salvation—Rev. A. &. 
King, 





32 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ee yo cone 


AT THINE OWN DOORS. 


A rescue missionary was lecturing 
where he was not accustomed to speak. 
He said that every Christian however 
poor or busy, could do personal work 
for Christ, if willing. 

After the lecture a woman said: 
“What can I do? I ama poor widow 
with five children to support. How can 
I find time to go to any one about 
Christ?” 

“Does the milkman call at your 
house?” 

“Of course.” 

“Does the baker?” 

“Ves,” 

“Does the butcher?” : 

“Yes,” was the curt reply, and the 
woman turned away. 

Two years after, the man of God 
spoke in the same place. After the ser- 
vice a woman said: “I am the person 
who was vexed with you when you ask- 
ed whether the milkman and baker and 
butcher visited me. But I went home 
to pray. God showed me my duty. 
Through my humble efforts five persons 
have been led to the Saviour, and they 
all are consistent working members of 
the Church.”—Sel. 


ey 5. 


LOYAL TO HIS MOTHER 


An exchange says, the late Dr. Hall 
told of a poor woman who had sent her 
boy to school and college. When he 
was a graduate he wrote to his mother 
to come, but she sent back word that she 
could not, because her only skirt had al- 
ready been turned once. She was so 
shabby that she was afraid he would be 
ashamed of her. 

He wrote that he didn’t care anything 
about how she went. He met her at the 
station and took her to a nice place to 
stay. The day arrived for his graduation 
and he came down the broad aisle with 
that poor mother, dressed very shab- 
hily, and put her into one of the best 
seats in the house. . 

To her great surprise, he was the vale- 


dictorian of his class, and carried every- 
thing before him; he won a prize, and 
when it was given to him he went down 
before the whole audience and kissed 
his mother, and said: “Here, mother, is 
the prize. It is yours; I would not have 
had it if it had not been for you.” 


Aba, fiat as 


UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE. 


An aged disciple once declared that it 
would give him great joy if he but 
knew that he had been instrumental in 
saving one soul. But he was without 
that happy knowledge. At his funeral 
a man stood weeping sadly, a genuine 
mourner. “You are a relative, I sup- 
pose,” said one beside him. “No,” said 
the man. “A very dear friend, doubt- 
less,” remarked the person. “I can hard- 
ly say that,” replied the man. “I never 
spoke to him, but he was the means of 
my salvation.” Ah! How many sweet 
revelations will be in heaven to those 
who are faithful in the Lord’s service 
here.—Selected. 


cece fF ees 


FRANKLIN AND PRAYER 

Franklin will not be accused of being 
a Christian believer. Yet, in the Na- 
tional Convention of 1787, at that mo- 
mentous crisis when no progress seemed 
to be making toward a closer bond be- 
tween the confederated States, he arose 
and addressed the President: “How has 
it happened, sir, that, while groping so 
long in the dark, divided in our opinions, 
and now ready to separate without ac- 
complishing the great objects of our 


‘meeting, we have not hitherto once 


thought of humbly applying to the great 
Father of Light to illuminate our under- 
standings? In the beginning of the con- 
test with Great Britain, when we were 
sensible of danger, we had daily prayers 
in this room, for divine protection. Our 
prayers, sir, were heard and graciously 
answered.” And Franklin then moved 
that “henceforth prayers, imploring the 
assistance of Heaven and its blessings 
crt our deliberations, be held in this as- 
sembly every morning, before we pro- 
ceed to business.”—A. T. Pierson, D. D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 33 


TiO, f pala 


A LOST OPPORTUNITY. 


A man was justly condemned to die, 
The time for the execution of the sen- 
tence drew near. His friends had 
tried in vain to induce the Governor to 
grant him a pardon or even a reprieve. 
One day as he was sitting in his lonely 
cell, a stranger called on him, and kindly 
conversed with him concerning the prep- 
aration needful to meet his God. He 
read the promises of God’s word to re- 
penting sinners, and earnestly and feel- 
ingly prayed that the Lord would have 
mercy on him and bless him. 

When his Christian visitor was gone, 
the condemned man said to one of the 
keepers, “Who was that kind gentleman 
that called on me?” The keeper re 
plied, “Didn’t you know who he was? 
Why, that was the Governor.” “The 
Governor! Oh, why did you not tell me 
it was the Governor! Had I known he 
was the Governor, I would have prayed, 
and clung to his knees until he had par- 
doned me.” 

Just so, sinner, if you could but recog- 
nize the presence of Jesus, the loving 
Saviour, you too, would earnestly im- 
plore his pardon. 

He is with you. He stands knocking 
at the door of your heart.—Rev. 3:20. 
Rev. H. M. Tyndall. 


— 77 
WHITEFIELD AND THE ROBBER. 


While journeying in Scotland in 1741, 
Rev. George Whitefield learned of a wid- 
ow with a large family whose landlord 
was about to sell her furniture to pay the 
rent. Whitefield had but little money, 
but at once gave her five guineas to pay 
her debt. Whitefield’s companion hint- 
ed that he gave more than he ought. 
Whitefield replied, “When God brings a 
case of distress before us, it is that we 
may relieve it.” 

They soon met a highwayman who de- 
manded all their money, which they re- 
luctantly gave him. Whitefield at once 
turned the tables on his companion, re- 





minding him how much better it was for 
the widow to have the money than the 
robber. Presently the highwayman re- 
turned, and demayded Whitefield’s good 
coat and gave him in exchange his shab- 
by one. They had not gone far on their 
journey when they perceived the ma- 
rauder galloping furiously after them. 
Now fearing for their lives, they urged 
their horses to all possible speed, and so 
escaped him, and soon gained friendly 
shelter. 

Judge Whitefield’s surprise and thank- 
fulness when removing the robber’s coat 
he found a carefully wrapped parcel con- 
taining a hundred guineas.—Rev. Henry 
M. Tyndall. 


LOOPY, [pace 


WHY SHE DRESSED PLAINLY 


In the American Messenger some 
years ago, Annie A. Preston tells the 
story of a Christian young woman who 
came to a small city as a teacher in the 
public school. Ip the course of time 
she formed the acquaintance of a couple 
who, although they were Christians, did 
not go to church because they thought 
themselves too poor to dress well enough 
to be seen there. What did the young 
teacher do about it? She stripped the 
plume from her own hat, she attired 
herself in a plain print gown, and per- 
suaded the couple to accompany her to 
the house of God. 

Some time later this plain, sensible 
young woman became the wife of a 
judge who was also the president of a 
railway. “She still kept up her attire 
at church, and occupied her abundant 
leisure in going among the poor. From 
the most dressy church in the city we 
have become the plainest, and from a 
church of almost exclusive wealthy 
people, we have a large membership 
among the working classes. Our cold- 
ness and purse-pride have been replaced 
by enthusiasm for the Lord’s work. The 
present prosperity of the church is all 
due, under God, to the influence for 
twenty years of that sensible, amiable 
woman.” 


eee ig ee 


THE SAVING HAND. 


A five-year-old boy, Ivan Lynn Ash- 
craft whose home is in Folsom, a little 
hamlet in Delaware County, Pa., is 
hailed as a true hero. He and his play- 
mates were sporting about the edge of 
a pond covered with thin ice, when lit- 
tle Davy Ward, aged three, saw some 
object upon the ice which he desired, 
and reached out to get, and, losing his 
balance, he fell and broke through the 
icee When his older brother saw it, he 
began to cry. A larger boy hastened 
to the rescue, but broke in himself, and 
barely escaped with his life. Then it 
was that the little hero with great skill 
and caution crept out to his,little friend, 
and, using his own words, “When I 
saw Davy bobbin’ up and down I jes’ 
reached out my hand and grabbed his’n.” 
Thus a life was saved, and thus honor 
was gained. 

We may not all have opportunity or 
ability to save a boy from drowning in 
a deep pool, but there are boys and 
girls, men and women, perishing all 
about us, and their going down means 
an eternal ruin. What is needed in 
those who would rescue is a mind to 
appreciate the peril, a heart of compas- 
sion for the perishing, and a hand ready 
to reach out and save. The words of 
this little child tell it all: “When I! 
seen Davy bobbin’ up and down, I jes’ 
reached out my hand and grabbed 
his’n.”—The Presbyterian. 


80 


HE FORGOT TO BOW HIS HEAD. 


Hurled down to death from the top 
of a train because he forgot to bow his 
head! 

It was the duty of this man to stand 
on the top of the train, watching through 
the long miles of his run, lest accident 
should come to any of the cars. By 
night and by day he must be at his 
post. Sometimes in the winter time 
the tops of the cars were slippery and 
dangerous. Now and then storms swept 
down from the north, and he had to 








ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


cling with all his might to the standard 
of the brake. It was none of these 
things, however, which brought the 
trainmen to his terrible end. He could 
guard himself against ice and storm. 
The trouble was that he forgot to bow 
his head, 

Just before the train reached a low 
bridge the fringed out ends of a dozen 
ropes stretched across the road dangled 
in the face of the trainman. These were 
the signal to him of the approach of the 
girders of the bridge. Now was the 
time for him to stoop and escape danger. 

But he forgot! Wé6th awful force his 
head struck the iron beams above him 
and he was thrown, crushed and bleed- 
ing, to the earth—killed because he for: 
got to bow his head! ; 

If we had only remembered the morn- 
ing watch with God this morning, we 
would have gone through the day safely. 
Then our hearts would have been made 
strong for all that might come to us. 
We knew our weakness; we knew the 
source of our strength; and yet some- 
thing pushed the thought of the hour 
with the Master out of our minds. Who 
knows what it was? It matters not 
now. The crisis came in a moment 
when we were not aware of our peril, 
and we went down, slain because we did 
not stop to be with God. 

“T do not need to give this time to 
God! Iam strong enough to go through 
the day without bending the knee before 
I go!” 

Did you say that? Think again. 
Never deceive yourself like that. Think- 


ing thus, thousands of stronger men 


than you have gone down to ruin. 

Give Him this one precious moment. 
Bend the head in prayer and petition for 
His help through the day. Then go out 
safe in His keeping.—Selected. 


ome 8] eee 


HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE THE 
UNLOVELY. 
“It is impossible to love our enemies. 


it is so contrary to nature to love the 
unlovely that it is useless to try to obey 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 35 


such a command.” 

We hear this sometimes said even by 
those who profess to love God, and they 
express anger and impatience toward 
others, apparently without feeling con- 
demned, forgetting that obedience to 
God’s commands is one of the essential 
evidences of love. They do not realize 
that no commands are laid down which 
God will not give us power to obey. 

At eighteen years of age I was teach- 
ing a class of street arabs in a mission 
Sunday school. 

The work interested me deeply, and 
with one exception the boys came to be 
very dear to me. That one member of 
the class was fairly loathsome. He con- 
tinually squirted tobacco juice on the 
floor and squinted one eye at his teach- 
er whenever she glanced in his direction. 
It seemed to me I could not endure the 
sight of that boy. But I realized how 
impossible it would be ever to benefit 
him while his feeling of repulsion con- 
tinued. Even though I could control 
my voice and manner sufficiently to 
treat him kindly and courteously, I 
know he could not be deceived as to my 
real attitude, because, whatever the ex- 
ternal appearence, the heart reveals its 
dislikes. 

Going to my room and “shutting the 
door,” I determined to settle the matter 
between God and myself. He had seen 
my heart stained with sin, and had for- 
given and cleansed, and now it was for 
me to forgive as I had been forgiven; 
and that meant I was to look tenderly 
upon that lost boy, whose opportunities 
bore no comparison to those that had 
always been mine. He was born un- 
der conditions that should call forth my 
pity and sympathy. Yet I could not by 
any amount of reasoning work up one 
spark of pity or love. The more clearly 
I saw the duty of loving the unlovely 
and seeking the lost to bring them to 
know the Christ, the more I realized the 
impossibility of feeling and doing as I 
ought, by any effort or will of my own. 

Then, with utter abandonment of my- 
self to God, there went up the cry, 
“Lord, I want to obey Thee! I want to 


do Thy will! My whole nature turns 
with abhorrence from that boy. I must 
have a yearning desire for his salvation. 
O Father, put into my heart the throb- 
bing of Thine own divine love! Make 
me to see as Thou seest, to feel as Thou 
dost feel, that so I may be able to reach 
this soul for whom Christ died!” 

Instantly 1 was filled with peace and 
rest, and believed God would do for me, 
and in me, what I could not possibly do 
for myself. Jesus could and would work 
this miracle in my soul. 

No longer did I strive with myself, 
but just trusted Jesus to do the work 
in his own time and way. The next 
Sabbath I went to my class and with 
such absorbing interest for each and all 
of them that I failed to notice a solitary 
disagreeable thing in this boy, and on 
my return home wondered if he had been 
different or if all the change was in my- 
self. But I could not remember. 

God fulfilled my desire, and gave from 
the fountain of love in His own heart 
the needed supply for my work, and also 
gave blessed fruit from the seed sown.— 
Mrs. James H. Earle, in Sunday School 
Times, 


——— 82 — 


THE SECRET OF SEPARATION 


A traveler in Scotland once found in 
a fisherman’s hut a striking picture of 
the Saviour. “How did you obtain pos- 
session of this picture?’ he asked the 
owner. He replied, “I was ’way down 
with the drink, when one night I went 
into a ‘public,’ and there hung His pic- 
ture. I was sober, and I said to the bar- 
tender: ‘Sell me that picture; this is no 
place for the Saviour.’ I gave him all 
the money I had and took it home. I 
dropped on my knees and cried, ‘O Lord 
Jesus, pick me up again out of my sin.’” 
The prayer was answered, and today 
that fi-herman is the grandest man in 
that little Scotch village. He was asked 
if he had no struggle to give up liquor. 
A look of exultation came over his face 
as he answered: “When the heart is 
opened to the Saviour, He takes the love 
of drink out of it.”—Selected. 


—- 83 —— 


AS KINGS GIVE 


The death of an American woman in 
Europe last year brought to her heirs 
in this country an extraordinary collec- 
ton of jewels and keepsakes, the sou- 
venirs of a long and romantic career in 
two hemispheres. The one object which 
the owner had most prized in her life- 
time was a bracelet of gold, set with 
emeralds, and inclosing the miniature 
portrait of a member of the Austrian 
royal family, whom she had assisted 
when he was in desperate peril. It had 
been given to her by her family, in ap- 
preciation of her vain endeavors to save 
his life at the risk of her own. 

This piece of jewelry among others 
was submitted to the most expert valuer 
in this city, the man to whose opinion 
such firms as Tiffany and Co. submit 
their stones for appraisal. He applied his 
test for weight, cut, color, etc., to the 
emeralds, balanced the gold against the 
little brass weights in his scales, consid- 
ered a minute, and then wrote upon the 
sheet a valuation, which was so small a 
fraction of the expected figures that the 
eager customer uttered an outcry of dis- 
mzy. 

In response to protest he checked up 
his work again, but found no errors. 
The historical and personal association 
attaching to the gift was a matter lying 
outside his realm. That did not figure 
in his estimate. There was so many 
pennyweights of gold, of so many karats 
fineness, at so much per pennyweight. 


The emeralds weighed so much and were 


worth so much. “They are not first- 
rate stones, you see,” he explained. 

“Not first-rate!” cried the owner. 
“How can that be? They were a royal 
sift!” 

“Ah,” said the gray-haired connois- 
seur, “I have handled many royal gifts 
and long ago learned that kings keep 
their best for themselves!” 

It is not so with the bounty of our 
King. The dearest of His possessions, 
His only begotten Son, is His free Gift. 
That Gift has been tested through the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ages and still shines without a flaw, and 
with luster undimmed. Surely “not as 
the world giveth, give I unto you.’”— 
Selected. 


ae 


LOVE YOUR ENEMIES 


During the war of the Revolution, 
Peter Miller was the pastor of a small 
Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. One 
of his neighbors had been his inveterate 
enemy for years and missed no oppor- 
tunity of abusing the Baptists in general 
and Miller in particular. Miller did not 
retaliate, but he said more than once, 
when the man was more abusive than 
usual, “I shall get even with you yet.” 

One day news reached Miller that his 
enemy had been caught dealing with the 
British. It was treason, and there was 
no doubt of his guilt. Soon the inevit- 
able came. The traitor was to be hang- 
ed, Miller no sooner heard of it than 
he set out on foot for Philadelphia, 
thirty miles away, to plead with Wash- 
ington for his life. 

He was told that his plea was use- 
less; Washington could not spare his 
friend’s life. “Friend!” exclaimed the 
worthy minister, “he is no friend of mine; 
he is the only enemy I have in the 
world.” 

Washington looked at him searching- 
ly. “Will you tell me,” he asked, “what 
motive impelled you to walk sixty miles 
to save the life of your enemy?” 

The minister took his New Testament 
from his pocket and showed to Wash- 
ington the passage. “I grant you his 
pardon,” was the laconic reply. 

With the precious paper in his pocket 
Miller hurried to the place of execution 
and arrived just as the condemned man 
was being carried to the scaffold. He 
parece Miller running and recognized 

im. 

“There’s Peter Miller,” he said to his 
guard, “he’s walked all the way from 
Ephrata to have the pleasure of seeing 
me hanged.” The words were scarcely 
spoken before Miller reached his side, 
and, producing the pardon, said, “Now 
T have my revenge.”—My Paper. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES m 37 


corres 5) mesma 


LIVING BENEATH PRIVILEGE 


A few days after General Lee had sur- 
rendered and President Lincoln had is- 
sued his proclamation of amnesty, a man 
was riding on horseback along a road in 
West Virginia. At a certain point a 
man sprang out from the road-side and 
seized his horse by the bridle. He had 
on a tattered Confederate uniform, and 
in his hand an old musket. With emaci- 
ated face and hungry eyes, he cried: 
“Give me bread. I do not wish to in- 


jure you; but give me bread for I am 


starving.” 

The man on horseback answered him: 

“Why do you not go to the village 
yonder and get food.” 

“I dare not; I would be shot.” 

“What for? Tell me your trouble.” 

The man then told his story, 

“A few weeks ago,” he said, “I re- 
solved to desert the Confederate service. 
But when I came to the Federal pickets 
I was told that an order had been is- 
sued not to receive any more rebel de- 
serters; and unless I went back I would 
be fired upon.” 

If he returned to his companions in 
arms he would be shot as a deserter. 
What could he do? 

There was nothing for him but to take 
to the woods and hide, and there he had 
been living until starved almost to mad- 
ness. The man on horseback said to 
him: 

“The war is over!” peace has come. 
President Lincoln has pardoned the 
rank and file of the Confederate army. 
You can go home.” 

“The war is over!” he replied. “It 
cannot be. It cannot be.” 

“Yes, the war is over,” and taking 
from his pocket a newspaper, he showed 
him the account of Lee’s surrender and 
President Lincoln’s proclamation. Real- 
izing the truth, the man flung his musket 
from him and with a cry of joy, and 
turning ran for his home. 

Now what had so changed his feelings? 
He had simply read in a newspaper the 
announcement of the close of the war 


and the return of peace to the land. He 
had done nothing, nor could he do any- 
thing, but simply enter into this new and 
blessed condition of peace. So with the 
Christian. Peace has been made with 
God through Christ, and we are to enter 

into its joy.—Sel, 


eee eR cares 


SHE GAVE HER CRUTCH. 


The minister’s eyes swept with in- 
tense searching the apathetic faces of 
his stylish, worldly congregation. He 
had made an impassioned appeal for 
help in the support of a little mission 
church among the mountains—a section 
where rough men and women knew 
scarcely anything of God and the relig- 
ion of Christ. He had hoped to inspire 
the people with the spirit of giving, to 
make them feel that it was a sweet, 
blessed privilege, and—he had failed. A 
sense of deep desolation crept over him. 

“God, kelp me!” his lips murmured 
mutely. He could not see the bent 
figure of little crippled Maggie in the 
rear of the church—a figure that was 
trembling under the fire of his appeal. 

“Lord Jesus,” the little one was say- 
ing, brokenly, “I ain’t got nothin’ ter 
give. I want the people in the moun- 
tains to hear ’bout my Saviour. Oh, 
Lord, I ain’t got nothin’ ter——” 

What was it that made the child 
catch her breath as though a cold hand 
had taken hold of her heart? “Yes, 
you have, Maggie,” whispered a voice 
from sOmewhere; “you’ve got your 
crutch, your beautiful crutch that was 
give ter you, and is worth a lot of shin- 
in’ dollars. You kin give up your frien’ 
what helps you to git into the park 
where the birds sing, and takes you to 
preachin’, and makes your life happy.” 

“Oh, no, Lord,” sobbed the child, 
choking and shivering. “Yes, yes, I 
will; he gave up mor’n that for me.” 

Blindly she extended the polished 
crutch and placed it in the hands of the 
deacon who was taking up the scanty 
collection. For a moment the man was 
puzzled; then, comprehending her 
meaning, he carried her crutch to the 


38 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES : 


front of the church and laid it on the 
table in front of the old pulpit. The 
minister stepped down from the rostrum 
and held up the crutch with shaking 
hands. The sublimity of the renunci- 
ation unnerved him so that he could 
not speak for a moment. 

“Do you see it, my people,” he falt- 
ered at last; “little Maggie’s crutch— 
all that she has to make life comfort- 
able? She has given it to the Lord, 
and you-—” 

There was a moment of silence. The 
people flushed and moved restlessly in 
their cushioned pews. 

“Does any one want to contribute to 
the mission cause the amount of money 
this crutch would bring, and give it 
back to the child who is so helpless 
without it?” the minister asked gravely. 

“Fifty dollars,’ came in the husky 
tones from the banker. 

“Twenty-five.” 

“One hundred.” 

And so the subscribing went on, un- 
til papers equivalent to six hundred 
dollars were lightly piled over the 
crutch on the table. 

“Ah! you have found your hearts— 
thank God. Let us receive the benedic- 
tion,” almost whispered the minister, as 
he suddenly extended his hands, which 
were trembling with emotion. Little 
Maggie, absorbed in the magnitude of 
her offering and the love that prompted 
it, comprehended nothing that had tak- 
en place. She had no thought for the 
future, or how she would reach her 
humble home, or of the days she would 
sit helpless in her chair as she had done. 
Christ had demanded her all, and she 
had given it with the blind faith of an 
Abraham. She understood no better 
when a woman’s arm drew her into close 
embrace, and soft lips whispered in her 
ear, “Maggie, dear, your crutch has 
made six hundred dollars for the mis- 
sion church among the mountains, and 
has come back to you again. Take it, 
little one.” 

Like a flash of light there came the 
consciousness that in some mysterious 
way her gift had been accepted of God 


and returned to her, and with a cry of 
joy the child caught the beloved crutch 
to her lonely heart; then smiling 
through her tears at the kind faces and 
reverential eyes, she hobbled out of the 
sanctuary.—Christian Observer. 


peta ll 


WILL TO DO AND KNOW 


Rev. Geo. Bowen, for more than forty 
years a missionary in Bombay, India, . 
was born in the United States in 1816. 

At the age of seventeen, he was led 
to doubt the truth of Christianity, by 
reading a chapter of Gibbons’ History; 
but his soul was not at rest. One even- 
ing, eleven years later, just before re- 
tiring for the night, he said aloud, “If 
there is a God who notices the desires 
of men, I only wish He would make 
known to me his will, and I shall feel 
it my highest privilege to do it at what- 
ever cost.” 

Two or three days after, he went 
some two miles to a public library where 
he had gotten books before, and asked 
for a certain volume. By mistake he 
was given, as he found when nearly 
home, “Paley’s Evidences of Christian- 
ity.” 

He did not intend to read it, but the 
first sentence gained his attention, and 
he at last gave the book a careful read- 
ing; and was led to accept the Bible as 
from God. 

After reading the Scriptures, he gave 
himself unreservedly to Christ. 

His father was a wealthy man, but 
the son gave up home, friends, fortune 
and country; and consecrated his whole 
life to laboring for the salvation of the 
heathen. 

In connection with the American 
Board, he went to India in 1848, where 
he labored in a most self-denying way 
for more than 40 years. 

God thus answered the prayer of this 
doubting one through the librarian’s 
mistake. We may rest assured that He 
will, by some means, give every sincere 
soul a knowledge of saving truth, if He 
is asked to do it.—Rev. H. M. Tyndall. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


THE QUARTER-DOLLAR SIN 


Rev. Daniel Lindley, after an absence 
of forty years—more than half of the 
time passed as a missionary in Africa— 
returned to this country and returned 
to Athens, Ohio—the early home of his 
childhood, the theatre of his youthful 
days. He trod again the old Campus, 
walked through the old college halls, 
stood upon the cliff—the rocky rostrum 
of college boys. He examined the old 
paths, and inquired for the companions 
of his youth. Changes had passed upon 
every scene. He was asked to preach 
at night, and to give some account of 
his life in Africa. At the close of the 
services, a very respectable and aged 
gentleman approached, and desired him 
to take a walk. 

They passed on, and, when they had 
reached a somewhat retired place, the 
gentleman turned and said: 

“Brother Lindley, if a man has ever 
done wrong, has committted a sin, don’t 
you think he should confess it?” 

“Why, yes,” said Mr. Lindley, “if 
thereby he may glorify God, if it will 
make amends to the party wronged, or 
do good to the party who sinned.” 

“Well, that is just what I think. Iam 
in that predicament. I have long de- 
- sired and prayed for an opportunity to 
make a confession and amendment to 
you. When we were boys together fifty 
year ago, we were playing together. 
You dropped a quarter of a dollar, and I 
snatched it up and put it in my pocket. 
I claimed it as my own and kept it. It 
was, perhaps, a little, mean, dirty trick; 
and it has worried me and troubled me 
ever since.” 

“Oh, it was a small matter, and I have 
no recollection of it,” said Mr. Lindley. 

“Ah, you may call it a small matter, 
but it has been a mighty burden for me 
to bear. I have carried it now for fifty 
years; I would not carry it for fifty more 
for all the gold in California. And sup- 
pose I had to carry it for fifty thousand 
years, or for all eternity! No, sir, it is 
no small matter; it has been growing 


ANECDOTES 39 
bigger and heavier, and I want to get rid 
of it. I have no doubt you have forgot- 
ten it, but I could never forget it. I 
have not, for the last fifty years, heard 
your name mentioned, or the name of 
your father, or any of the family, but 
that quarter has come in connection. 
Why, the very buttons on your coat— 
everything that is round—represents a 
quarter. The moon and stars are mag- 
nified and illuminated quarters. You 
need not call it a little sin; if it was, it 
bas grown mighty to plague me, and de- 
servedly too. 

With this the gentleman took from 
his pocket-book a five-franc piece, worn 
bright and smooth, and said; 

“I wish you to take this; it belongs 
to you, it is rightfully yours, and will be 
no burden to you. And if this is not 
enough I will give you more.” 

Mr. Lindley accepted it, and the 
gentleman raised himself erect and drew 
a long breath, as a man who has thrown 
off a heavy load. He was at last re- 
lieved. 

The sense of guilt is enduring and tor- 
menting, and can only die or be re- 
lieved by repentance, confession, amend- 
ment or atonement. It needs not that it 
be the theft, fraud or wrong, amounting 
to a thousand, ten, twenty, fifty or a 
hundred thousand dollars, in order that 
the soul be oppressed by its burden; a 
twenty-five cents—a quarter of a dollar 
sin—may become larger than the globe, 
weightier than many worlds, with a pun- 
ishment like the sin of Cain—unendur- 
able.—N. Y. Observer. 


Ce sg ees 
A LITTLE SLAVE’S FAITH 


A missionary in India, passing one 
day through the school-room, observed 
a little boy engaged in prayer, and over- 
heard him say, “Oh, Lord Jesus, I thank 
Thee for sending big ship into my coun- 
try and wicked men to steal me and 
bring me here, that I might hear about 
Thee and love Thee. And now, Lord 
Jesus, I have one great favor to ask 
Thee. Please to send wicked men with 


49 


another big ship, and let them catch my 
father and my mother, and bring them 
to this country, that they may hear the 
missionaries preach and love Thee.” 

The missionary in a few days after 
saw him standing on the sea-shore, look- 
ing very intently as the ships came in. 

“What are you looking at, Tom?” 

“T am looking to see if Jesus Christ 
answers prayer.” 

For two years he was to be seen day 
after day watching the arrival of every 
ship. One day, as the missionary was 
viewing him, he observed him capering 
about and exhibiting the liveliest joy. 

“Well, Tom, what gives you so much 
joy?” 

“Oh, Jesus Christ answers prayer. 
Father and mother came in that ship,” 
which was actually the case.—Sel. 


90 —— 
A PERILOUS PLANK 


“We were on shipboard,” relates a 
captain’s wife, “lying in a Southern har- 
bor. We were obliged, first to make 
our way ashore. ‘The waves were roll- 
ing heavily. I became frightened at the 
thought of attempting it, when one came 
to me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid: I will 
take care of you.’ 

“He bore a peculiarly shaped dark- 
lantern, only a single ray of light being 
emitted from a small circular opening. 
‘Now,’ said he, ‘take my hand; hold fast, 
do not fear. Do not look about you, or 
on either side of you, only on the little 
spot lighted by my lantern, and place 
your footsteps firmly right there.’ 

“T heard the rushing of the waters, and 
was still conscious of fear; but by look- 
ing steadily only where the light fell, and 
planting my footsteps just there, hot 
turning either to the right or the left, 
clasping firmly the strong hand, the 
danger was overcome, and the shore 
reached in safety.” 

“The next day my kind guide said, 
“Would you Ike to see the way by which 
you came last night? Then he showed 
me where our vessel had been lying, 
and the very narrow plank by which we 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


had reached the shore. He knew that 
had I turned either to the right or left 
I should, in all probability, have lost my 
balance and gone over into those dark 
waters; but by holding fast and treading 
just where the light fell all danger would 
be averted.” 

The believer often comes to some 
dark passage, or encounters some severe 
trial, which so overshadows the way that 
he fears to go forward less he fall. But 
when he clasps the hand of his heavenly 
Father, he is led gently over the rough 
and dangerous places and landed safely 
in some secure spot. The storms may 
rage and angry waves threaten to en- 
gulf, but if we keep our eye on Jesus we 
shall outride the storms, and have an 
abundant entrance into the heaven of 
eternal rest.—Words of Life. 


91 —— 
PARENTAL HONOR 


The words, “Honor thy father and thy 
mother,” means four things—always do 
what they bid you, always tell them the 
truth, always treat them lovingly, and 
take care of th:m when they are sick 
or grown old. I never yet knew a boy 
who trampled on the wishes of his par- 
ents who turned out’ weil. God never 
blesses a willfully disobedient son. 

When Washington was sixteen years 
old, he determined to leave home and be 
a midshipman in the colonial navy. After 
he had sent off his trunk, he bade his 
mother good-bye. She wept so bitterly 
because he was going away that he said 
to the negro servant, “Bring back my 
trunk. 1m not going to make my moth- 
er suffer so by leaving her.” 

He remained at home to please his 
mother. 

This decision led to his becoming a 
surveyor, and afterwards a soldier. His 
whole glorious career in life turned on 
this one simple act of trying to make his 
mother happy. And happy, too, is the 
child who never had occasion to shed 
tears for any act of unkindness to his 
parents. Let us not forget that God has 
said, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” 
—Youth’s Companion. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 4l 


dee oy Bl Ladi 
SELF-DENIAL GIVING FOR 


CHURCH BUILDING 


The pastor of the People’s Tabernacle 
of New York, writing in April 1900 of 
the Easter offering made by his con- 
gregation for their Church Building 
Fund the previous week, said: 

“This $271.85 was contributed by 365 
persons, and we wish we could estimate 
the value of these gifts by the self- 
denial they cost. But this is impossible. 
We do, however, know some facts 
which show that these gifts were the 
tributes of loving hearts. A few weeks 
ago, we called upon one of the members 
of the church. The carpetless floor 
was scrubbed clean. Neither the hus- 
band nor wife could find employment, 
and they were so poor as to have 
scarcely anything to eat, and as they 
could not buy coal, she sat in a cold 
room or went to a neighbor’s to warm. 
Yet the offering from that family was 
more than two dollars. 

The family of a widow, who earns 
her living at the wash-tub, with the 
help of one daughter, while the other 
goes to school, contributed $5.50. To 
increase the size of their offering, the 
girls did without sugar for a week. This 
same family, not long ago, filled out 
cards promising to give a dollar a week 
to support the church. They were told 
that that was too much for them, and 
that they should give less than half of 
that sum. 

Lack of space will not permit us to 
give other instances showing the self- 
denial of the contributors to this Easter 
offering, but God knows all about it, 
and we believe that this cheerful and 
generous giving by the poor will not go 
unrewarded. The Lord will surely an- 
swer their prayers, and dispose those 
who are able to give large sums with 
less self-denial to do so, and the $18,000 
still needed to build the church will be 
supplied.” 

To the above we may now add, June 
8, 1916, that the money needed for the 


erection of the church was all volun- 
tarily offered in answer to prayer. We 
made no personal appeals nor did we 
have fairs and festivals to raise money, 
but rather prayer meetings. And 
toward the last of the Fund money 
came at the average rate of $50 a day 
for more than 500 days, so that we had 
sufficient when the corner stone was 
laid, April 7, 1901, to erect the building 
without debt.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


93 


SAVED IN BATTLE BY PRAYER. 


Within twenty miles of Augusta, Me., 
seven brothers reside, whose ages vary 
from sixty-three to eighty. They all 
have a very firm belief in the power of 
prayer. They are the sons of Enoch and 
Mary Hallowell Merrill. All but one of 
these brothers served in the Civili War. 
During the darkest and most trying days 
of the war, when five of the brothers 
were still at the front, their grandfather, 
Dean Hallowell, of Windsor, Me., was 
deeply concerned for their safety, as well 
as that of his son John, who was also a 
volunteer for the Union cause. There 
was much anxiety, much weeping, much 
prayer for them. One morning the good 
deacon hastened to his daughter’s home 
and greeted her with these words: 
“Polly, you needn’t worry any more 
about the boys. God has told me they 
are all coming back alive and so is John.” 
His faith had prevailed, and so he cou! 
take .this .welcome .assurance .to .the 
daughter. James served four years. 
Enoch and Melvin enlisted twice, and 
all saw active service. Two only were 
wounded, but the lives of more than one 
was despaired of through illness, yet 
death seemed to have no power to claim 
them. John Hallowell, the deacon’s son, 
is still living at an advanced age. 

In striking contrast to this story of re- 
markable preservation during the perils 
of war, was the fate of the seven sons of 
a near neighbor of the Merrills. These 
also enlisted in the same war and went 
to the front, but not one returned alive. 

—Carrie H. Kendall. 








{ 


42 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Saag 4 ees 


MONEY NOT THE OBJECT. 


Twenty years ago, a discouraged 
young doctor in one of our large cities 
was visited by his old father, who came 
from a rural district to look after his 
boy. 

“Well, son” he said, “how are you 
getting along?” 

“I’m not getting along at all,” was 
the disheartened answer. “I’m not doing 
a thing.” 

The old man’s countenance fell, but 
he spoke of courage, patience and per- 
severance. Later in the day, he went 
with his son to the “Free Dispensary,” 
where the young doctor had an un- 
salaried position, and where he spent 
an hour or more every day. 

The father sat by, a silent but in- 
tensely interested spectator, while 
twenty-five poor unfortunates received 
help. The doctor forgot his visitor, 
while he bent his skilled energies to this 
task; but hardly had the door closed 
on the last patient, when the old man 
burst forth: 

“T thought you told me you were not 
doing anything!” he thundered. “Not 
doing anything! Why, if I had helped 
twenty-five people in a month as much 
as you have in an hour, I would thank 
God that my life counted for some- 
thing.” 

“There isn’t any money in it though,” 
explained the son, somewhat abashed at 
his companion’s vehemence. 

“Money!” the old man shouted, still 
scornfully. “Money! What is money 
in comparison with being of use to your 
fellow-men? Never mind about money; 
you go right along at this work every 
day. I’ll go back to the farm, and gladly 
earn money enough to support you as 
long as I live,—yes, and sleep sound 
every night with the thought that I 
have helped you to help your fellow- 
men.” 

That speech went into the bones of 
the young doctor’s life, and strength- 
ened him for a life of unselfish useful- 
ness, But it had taken sixty years of 


every day. Who wins? 


noble living, struggling against sin and 
self, pressing forward in paths of right- 
eousness, bearing the cross, following 
hard after the Perfect Man, to prepare 
that old Christian to make the speech. 
Then the moment came, and he was 
ready to teach the glorious lesson. 
—Selected. 


sl 


TWO MEN INSIDE. 


An old Indian once asked a white man 
to give him some tobacco for his pipe. 
The man gave him a loose handfull from 
his pocket. The next day he came back 
and asked for the white man. “For.” 
said he, “I found a quarter of a dollar 
among the tobacco.” 

“Why don’t you keep it?” asked a 
bystander. 

“T’ve got a good man and a bad man 
here,” said the Indian, pointing to his 
breast, “and the good man say, ‘It is not 
mine; give it back to the owner.’ The 
bad man say, ‘Never mind, you got it, 
and it is your own now.’ The good man 
say, ‘No, no! you must not keep it.’ 
So I don’t know what to do, and I think 
to go to sleep, but the good and bad 
men keep talking all night, and trouble 
me; and now I bring the money back 
I feel good.” 

Like the old Indian, we have all a 
good and a bad man within. The bad 
man is Temptation and the good man is 
Conscience, and they keep talking for 
and against many things that we do 
Stand up for 
duty; down with sin. Wrestle with 
Temptation lawfully. Never, never give 
up the war till you win.—Selected. 


ae 96 —— 


KIND SEVERITY. 


The Christian Intelligencer records 
this incident of a stage-coach trip in 
Western Montana, twenty-five years 
ago. A mother and her infant child were 
the only passengers. A sudden change 
of weather subjected the woman to 
more exposure than she was provided 
for, and before the journey was half 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


over the freezing cold began to creep 
into her blood. She could protect her 
babe, but her own life was in danger. 
As soon as the driver knew how 
severely she was suffering he gave her 
all his extra wraps, and quickened the 
pace of his team as much as possible, 
hoping to reach warmth and refuge be- 
fore her condition became serious. His 
passenger’s welfare was now his only 
thought, and by frequent inquiries he 
sought to assure himself of her safety. 
But the fatal drowsiness had stolen 
over her, and when no answers were re- 
turned to his questions he stopped, and 
tore open the coach door. The woman’s 
head was swaying from side to side. 


Instantly he took the babe from her, 
and bestowed it as comfortably as he 
could in a furry bundle under the shelter 
of the seat; then, seizing the mother 
roughly by the arms, he dragged her 
out upon the frozen ground. His 
violence partly awakened her, but when 
he banged the door together and sprang 
to his box and drove on, leaving her 
in the road, she began to scream. 

The driver looked back and saw her 
running madly after him. 

“My baby! my baby! O my baby!” 

The horror of her loss made her for- 
_ get the cold. By and by, when certain 
that she had warmed her blood into 
healthy circulation the driver slackened 
the speed of his horses and allowed her 
to overtake him and resume her place 
in the coach with her living and un- 
harmed child. 

Was the man cruel? That mother did 
not say so when she knew—knew that 
he had aroused her and brought her 
back to life. He had done as God does 
some times, to shake us out of soul- 
lethargy and moral sleep. 

When the sordid care and selfish suc- 
cess are deadening every spiritual sense, 
till our loyalty to Him, and even our 
consciousness of right and wrong, are 
being chilled to death, a sudden terror 
is often the surest as well as the quick- 
est rescue. A warning incident or shock 
of misfortune may be the salvation of a 


ANECDOTES 43 
character, the restoration of a life worth 
living. Such discipline is not God’s 
cruelty. It is his kindness. 


washed palo 


A MOTHER OF MEN. 


, Years ago a family of four—a father, 
a mother, and two sons—dwelt in a 
small house situated in the roughest 
locality of the rocky town of Ashford, 
Conn. The family was very poor. A 
few acres of stony land, a dozen sheep 
and one cow, supported them, The sheep 
clothed them, and the cow gave milk and. 
Gid the work of a horse in ploughing and 
harrowing. Corn bread, milk and bean 
porridge was their fare. The father be- 
ing laid aside by ill-health, the burden of 
supporting the family rested on the 
mother. She did her work in the house, 
and helped the boys do theirs on the 
farm. Once, in the dead of winter, one 
of the boys required a new suit of clothes, 
There was neither money nor wool on 
hand. The mother sheared the half- 
grown fleece from the sheep, and in one 
week the suit was on the boy. The shorn 
sheep was protected from the cold by a 
garment made of braided straw. The 
family lived four miles from the “meet- 
ing-house.” Yet every Sabbath the 
mother and her two sons walked to 
church. One of these sons became the 
pastor of the church in Franklin, Conn., 
to whom he preached sixty-one years. 
Two generations went from that church 
to make the world better. The other 
son also became a minister, and then one 
of the most successful of college presi- 
dents. Hundreds of young men were 
molded by him. That heroic Christian 
woman’s name was Deborah Nott. She 
was the mother of Rev. Samuel! Nott. D. 
D., and of Eliphalet Nott, D. D., L. L. 
D., president of Union College.—Sel. 

A fact, not brought out in the preced- 
ing narrative, rendering the heroism of 
Deborah Nott the more conspicuous, is 
that she was a highly-cultured woman. 
It was largely under their mother’s tui- 
tion that her sons were prepared for col- 
lege.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


44 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


(eV OR tae 


THE SWITCHMAN AND HIS 
CHILD 

On one of the railroads in Prussia a 
switchman was just taking his place, in 
order to turn a coming train, then in 
sight, on to a different track, to prevent 
a collision with a train approaching in a 
contrary direction. Just at this moment, 
on turning his head, he discovered his 
little son playing on the track of the ad- 
vancing engine. What could he do? 
Thought was quick at such a moment of 
peril. He might spring to his child and 
rescue him; but he could not do this and 
turn the points in time, and, for want of 
that, hundreds of lives might be lost. 

Although in sore trouble, he could not 
neglect his greater duty; but, exclaiming 
in a loud voice to his son, “Lie down!” 
he went to his post, and saw the train 
safely turned on to its proper track. His 
boy, accustomed to obedience, did as his 
father commanded him, and the fearful 
heavy train thundered over him. Little 
did the passengers dream, as they found 
themselves quietly resting on that turn- 
out, what terrible anguish their approach 
had that day caused to one noble heart. 
The father rushed forward to where his 
boy lay, fearful lest he should find only a 
mangled corpse; but, to his great joy 
and gratitude, he found him alive and 
unharmed. 

The circumstances connected with this 
event were made known to the king of 
Prussia, who the next day sent for the 
man, and presented him with a medal of 
honor for his heroism. 

The boy was saved from a horrible 
death. What was it that saved him? 
Prompt obedience to his father’s com- 
mand. He did not hesitate; he did not 
wait to ask why the command was given; 
he simply heard and obeyed, and was 
saved! 

Dear reader, if you are still unsaved, 
may you learn a lesson from this simple 
tale. 

God not only tells men how they may 
be saved—He not only invites them to 
come to Him, and even beseeches them, 


through His servants, to be reconciled to 
Him, but God also commands! “And 
this is His commandment, that we should 
believe on the name of His Son Jesus 
Christ.” (1 John 3:23.) Just as the 
switchman, in that moment of fearful 
peril, commanded his son to do that 
which alone could save him from death, 
so God in infinite compassion commands 
you to believe in Jesus—to trust in Him 
as your Saviour because there is no 
other way by which you can be delivered 
from the awful punishment of sin. “The 
wages of sin is death”’—eternal death, 
but Jesus died—‘‘the just for the unjust,” 
and therefore, “whosoever believeth in 
Him shall receive remission of sins.” 
(Acts 10 :43.)—Selected. 


Sense ON ees 
OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES 


William Rippin was a watchmaker in 
England. .Three or four years after he 
began business he caught cold in his 
eyes, and at the age of twenty-eight be- 
came blind. .Did he therefore murmur 
or repine? Not in the least. Without 
delay he fell to learning his trade over 
again, as it were, and soon grew as 
clever as before; cleaning and repairing 
watches, clocks and musical instru- 
ments, and other articles, with a skill 
that was little short of marvelous. The 
only help he needed in taking a watch 
to pieces and fitting it together again 
was in the unpinning and pinning of the 
hair-spring, which a sightless man could 


not do, but which he taught his wife 
‘to do for him. There were often a 


hundred watches at a time in his shop 
waiting for repairs, many coming to him 
from a distance of one hundred to two 
hundred miles. Every watch he knew 
by touch, every customer by voice. In- 
telligent, handsome, five feet ten inches 
in height, he was a striking figure, and 
many who spoke with him were not 
aware that he was blind. 

_ Truly this blind William Rippin, find- 
ing his work to his hand and doing it 
ne his might, was every inth a hero.— 

el. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 45 


aa 100 —— 


INSTANT SALVATION 


Some years ago a messenger met me 
hurriedly as I was going out of church 
one Sunday morning, and begged me to 
cross the street to see a man who was 
said to be dying. I crossed the street, 
entered the sick chamber, and drew 
near the bedside of the young man, who, 
as a commercial traveller, had been pass- 
ing through the city and was taken 
suddenly and seriously ill. I took him 
by the hand and said, “You are very 
BE Bate 

“Yes,” and with a pitiful look he ad- 
ded, “the physician says I have but a 
few hours to live.” 

I said, “Are you ready?” 

“Oh no, no; I wish I had three weeks, 
and I could be ready.” 

Said I, “My dear friend, let me show 
you that you only need three minutes in 
order to be ready, if you will do what 
God says.” And I then opened the 
Scriptures and showed him how God 
had laid our sins upon Jesus; and I said, 
“Now the word is, ‘Behold the lamb of 
God’; look unto Him, even with your 
dying eyes, and say, ‘O lamb of God, 
that taketh away the sin of the World, 
- have mercy on me!’ Cast your soul on 
Him.” I asked, “Is not that plain?” 

“But tell me how to do it.” 

So I turned to the tenth chapter of 
Romans and read, “If thou shalt con- 
fess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, 
and shalt believe in thy heart that God 
hath raised Him from the dead, thou 
shalt be saved.” 


“Now,” I said, “do you receive Jesus 
Christ?” 

“I do, according to the best of my 
ability.” 


“Then just open your mouth and 
cenfess it, and God says you can be 
saved.” It was all done in a few brief 
moments.. 

At six o’clock I returned, greatly anx- 
ious to hear from the young man. As 
I entered the house I met the landlady. 
I asked, “How is he?” 


“He is gone; but,” she added, “I wish 
you could have been here and seen him 
die. I never witnessed such a triumph- 
ant death. It was amazing. After you 
went out, he sent for my husband, who 
had been for years a backslider, and 
had not prayed. He said to him, “I 
want you to kneel down by my bedside 
and praise God that He sent a man who 
told me how I could be saved in three 
minutes.” 

The poor man said, “I do not know 
how to pray.” 

“But you must.” And there, in spite 
of his protestations, he compelled this 
backslider to get down on his knees to 
praise God that He saved him in three 
minutes. It was a new life for him, as 
well as for the other, 

Five years afterwards, I was called to 
preach in a strange place, and went 
much against my will; for I was so 
busy, I did not see how I could go. 
In the course of my sermon I related 
the story of the young man who had 
been saved in three minutes. On the 
Saturday following I was asked to at- 
tend the funeral of a man who had died; 
and as I drew near the corpse and 
looked into his face, I said, “I know 
that man; I knew him fifteen years ago 
when, week after week, his Christian 
wife used to rise in my meeting and re- 
quest prayers for her husband. For 
years I have not seen him; but here I 
am called to attend his funeral.” And 
while I was talking a young man step- 
ped up to me and said: 

“IT would like to see you a moment. 
I heard you preach last Sunday and tell 
the story about a man who was saved 
in three minutes. When I got home I 
was so filled with it that I said, ‘I will 
go in and tell this sick man. I went in, 
sat down by his bedside, and just told 
the story as you had told it, about the 
young man who was saved in three 
minutes; and the grey-headed man said, 
“That is remarkable, is it not? I could 
do that.’ ” 

He did just the same thing; he con- 
fessed Christ, sent for his family, and 


46 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


they gathered around his bed; and 
there, with his dying breath, he, too, con- 
fessed Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. 
And so God used that word twice, and 
I have told it the third time now. Per- 
chance some careless one or some 
serious one—perchance some worldly 
one, perchance some thoughtful one— 
may just believe it, and in the silence of 
this hour lift the eyes to Him who hung 
on the cross, and is now on the throne, 
and say, “O Lamb of God I trust Thee, 
I take Thee!”—A. J. Gordon. 


—— 101 —— 
MANNA IN THE DESERT 


A Christian physician relates this bit 
of personal experience. God is certainly 
a rewarder of all those who seek Him 
diligently: 

“I was going to California in the year 
1850 across the plains. We had used up 
all our provisions, Our last crust of 
bread was gone. Starvation stared us 
in the face. We were in a desert, far 
from all human help. I felt if there 
ever was a time when I should exercise 
faith in God, now was the time. I went 
out of the camp, and got down before 
the Lord and besought him for deliver- 
ence. While I was on my knees, plead- 
ing for God to help us, I was directed 
to go up a stream that ran near us, and 
TY should find bread. I then arose and 
started, feeling confident that my prayer 
was answered and that we should find 
help. It was then nearly dark, and I 
went on until the last vestige of twi- 
light had disappeared. It was quite 
dark, but I pressed forward. Suddenly 
as I went around a bend of the creek 
I came upon a party of about forty men. 
The first man I met was a college class- 
mate of mine. .They were a party of 
miners who were out prospecting, and 
had become bewildered and lost. They 
had wandered about, supposing they 
were on the other side of the Nevada 
Mountains. They were well supplied 
with provisions, and were about to 
throw away sacks of flour and other 
articles, of which we stood in need. 


They supplied our wants and we furn- 
ished them with some boots and shoes, 
which they greatly needed, and gave 
them such information as to their 
whereabouts and such directions as en- 
abled them to reach the place they de- 
sired. We were made a blessing to one 
another and went on our way rejoicing. 
I believe God sent us this help just as 
truly as if he had rained us down bread 
from Heaven.” 


—— 102 —— 
THE PRICE THAT WAS PAID 


The Classmate tells a story of a 
preacher of the Gospel who had gone 
down into a coal mine during the noon 
hour to tell the miners about Jesus 
Christ. Meeting the foreman, he asked 
him what he thought of God’s way of 
salvation. 

“Oh, it is too cheap; I cannot believe 
in such a religion as that.” 

Without an immediate answer to his 
remark, the preacher asked: “How do 
you get out of this place?” 

“Simply by getting in the cage,” was 
the reply. 

“Well, that certainly is very easy and 
simple. But do you not need to help 
raise yourself?” said the preacher. 

“Of course not,” replied the miner. 
“As I have said, you have nothing to do 
but get into the cage.” 

“But what about the people who sank 
the shaft and perfected all this arrange- 
ment; was there much labor about it?” 

“Indeed, yes; the shaft is eighteen 
hundred feet deep, and it was sunk at 
great cost to the proprietor.” 

“Just so; and when God’s Word tells 
you that whosoever believeth on the 
Son of God hath everlasting life you at 
once say: “Too cheap! too cheap!’ for- 
getting that God’s work to bring you 
and others out of the pit of destruction 
and death was accomplished at a vast 
cost, the price being the death of his only 
Son. Men forget that the Lord Jesus 
Christ himself purged our sins, and that 
their part is but to accept what has been 
done, and thank God for it.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 47 


103 
THIRSTING FOR SOULS 


You will remember how Christ sat one 
day at the well of Sychar weary and 
athirst, but how He forgot His physical 
thirst as He found a thirsting soul long- 
ing for salvation, and found His meat 
and drink in leading that soul to know 
Him, and rejoice in His salvation. So 
it was ever with Him. We could not 
imagine Him ever once losing an offered 
opportunity to win a soul. 

I desire to relate to you an incident 
which I believe will help us at this point. 
I have it from the lips of the man him- 
self of whom I am to speak, and who 
lives in my own State of Illinois. Some 
years ago this gentleman was stopped on 
the street by an acquaintance, who said 
to him, “Mr. R., how long have we 
known each other?” After a moment’s 
deliberation he replied that he thought 
it was about fifteen years. “Well, Mr. 
R., I believe you profess to be a Christ- 
ian?” “Yes, sir,” was the reply. “Mr. 
R., do you really believe that if I should 
die to-day, without accepting Jesus 
Christ as my Saviour, my soul would be 
lost?” The sudden question startled 
him, but Mr. R. said he was bound to 
believe that it would be so. 
friend replied, “Well, you may think you 
believe it, but I do not believe that you 
really do believe it. Why, sir, you and I 
have walked these streets together; we 
have sat at the same table; we have 
talked about almost every subject under 
heaven, and yet you have never once so 
much as uttered one syllable to show 
that you had any concern for my soul. 
You may imagine that you are inter- 
ested in my soul’s welfare, but I do not 
believe it.” 

In shame and humility Mr. R. con- 
fessed that he had neglected many an of- 
fered opportunity to say something of 
his hope in Christ to the souls that were 
near to him. Then he asked his friend 
what had happened to arouse him con- 
cerning his soul’s welfare. He replied 
in substance as follows: “Yesterday, as 
T sat in the car at the station at Chicago, 








But the. 


a gentleman came in and asked to share 
my seat, and began a conversation which 
was something like this: ‘Pleasant day.’ 
“Yes, very pleasant.’ ‘Fine crops re- 
ported.’ ‘So I understand.’ “We ought 
to be thankful to the good Lord for all 
his blessings.’ ‘Why, yes, I suppose we 
ought.’ ‘My friend, are you a Chris- 
tian?’ ‘Well, really, I—I think the 
church is a good thing, but I never gave 
much thought to this subject. ‘My 
friend, as a sensible man, do you think 
it wise to go on in life without giving 
earnest thought to this subject?’ ‘No, 
I can’t say that I do.’ ‘Dear friend, I 
would like to pray with you.’ ‘Why, 
really, I don’t know that I would object, 
if we ever met in a proper place for 
prayer.’ ‘Oh, we will never get a better 
place than this. Put your head right 
down here back of this seat.’ And Mr. 
R., before I realized it, he had drawn me 
down to his side and was praying for 
the salvation of my soul, praying that 
God would lead me to see the truth as 
it is in Christ, giving me no peace until 
I found it in Christ. I never heard such 
a prayer as that, and I shall never for- 
get it. Suddenly the brakeman called 
out the name of the station, and he said, 
‘I must get out here. Good-bye. Remem- 
ber, now is the accepted time—now is 
the day of salvation.’ He was leaving the 
car when I realized that I did not know 
his name, and hurrying after him I call- 
ed to him, as he stepped to the plat- 
form, ‘Sir, will you kindly give me your 
name?’ He answered, ‘My name is D. 
L. Moody.’ “Mr. R.,” the friend con- 
tinued, “there is one man in the world 
who is interested in the salvation of my 
soul. I have no reason to think any one 
in this town is concerned about it. But 
I am going to Chicago to find Mr. 
Moody and settle this matter.” But 
Mr. R. was too much of a Christian to 
permit his friend to go away until he 
had helped him and before they sepa- 
rated his friend had given his heart to 
Jesus Christ. 

Brethren, that incident has been a 
powerful sermon to me for years. It 
has led me to speak to many a soul 


48 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


whom I would have passed by; so many 
times I have found them wondering 
why I had not spoken sooner. How is 
it with you? Are there those who touch 
your lives every day who could say that 
you never revealed a real interst in 
souls? If so, brethren, if so, I beseech 
you to see to it that not another week 
will pass without something being done 
to show them that you have within you 
something of Christ’s longing for souls 
which impelled you to speak unto them. 
—Sel. 


——- 104 —— 
“STRONG IN THE LORD.” 


Some thirty years ago, W. J. Davis, 
an African missionary, related to Will- 
iam Taylor, afterward known as the 
missionary Bishop of Africa, the follow- 
ing incident which occurred in his early 
missionary experience. 

“When I was stationed at Clarkebury 
in 1832, the Tambokie Chief, ‘Vadana,’ 
coveted a pot we daily used in our cook- 
ing. He came and begged me every 
day for that pot for along time. I gave 
him many presents, but we could not 
spare the pot, and I positively refused to 
give it up. 

“Finally the chief said, ‘Davis, I'll 
have that pot!’ The next day Vadana 
came with thirty of his warriors, all 
armed with assagais—a kind of javelin, 
their principal war weapon. 

“They stood in defiant array before 
me, and the chief said, ‘Davis, we have 
come for that pot.’ 

““We need that pot,’ I replied, ‘for 
cooking our food, and, as I told you be- 
fore, I will not give it to you.’ 

““You must give it to us, or we'll 
take it.’ 

“*With thirty armed warriors against 
one unarmed missionary, you have the 
power to take it, but if that is the way 
you are going to treat your missionary, 
just give me a safe passage out of your 
country, and I’ll leave you.’ 

“Davis, are you not afraid of us?’ 
demanded the chief sharply. 

“*No, I’m not afraid of you. I know 
you can kill me, but if I had been afraid 


to die I never would have come among 
such a set of savages as you are.’ 

““Davis,’ repeated the chief sternly, 
‘are you not afraid to die?’ 

““No! If you kill me I have a home 
in heaven, where the wicked cease from 
troubling, and the weary are at rest.’ 

“Then, turning to his men, the chief 
said, “Well, this is a strange thing. 
Here’s a man who is not afraid to die, 
and we will have to let him keep his pot.’ 

“When the chief was turning to go 
away, he said, ‘Davis, I love you less 
now than I did before, but I fear you 
more.’ ” 

The chief never gave the missionary 
any further trouble about his pot, but 
showed greater respect for him than ever 
before.—The Christian. 


en 105——- 


WHAT: INFIDELITY DOES 


After an infidel had concluded a lec- 
ture in a village in England, he chal- 
lenged those present to discussion. Who 
should accept the challenge but an old, 
bent woman, in antiquated attire, who 
went up to the lecturer and said: 

“Sir, I have a question to put to you.” 

“Well, my good woman, what is it?” 

“Ten years ago,” she said, “I was left 
a widow, with eight children utterly un- 
provided for, and nothing to call my own 
but this Bible. By its direction, and 
lcoking to God for strength, I have been 
enabled to feed myself and family. I 
am tottering to the grave; but I am per- 
fectly happy, because I look forward to 
a life of immortality with Jesus. That’s 
what my religion has done for me. What 
has your way of thinking done for you?” 

“Well, my good lady, rejoined the 
lecturer, “I don’t want to disturb your 
comfort; but—” 

“Oh! that’s not the question,” said 
she, “keep to the point, sir. What has 
your way of thinking done for you?” 

The infidel endeavored to shirk the 
matter again; the meeting gave vent to 
uproarious applause, and the champion 
had to go away discomfited by an old 
woman. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 49 


—— 106 —— 
HUNGRY FOR KIND WORDS. 


When the late C. P. Leland, so many 
years the famous auditor of the Lake 
Shore Railroad, was stricken with the 
illness that finally ended his life, Mr. 
Newell, the president, was very solicit- 
ous as to his condition. He asked about 
him frequently and went to see him 
whenever he could. Mr. Newell was 
stern and unappreciative, and practically 
worked himself to death. 

One morning he was shown into the 
sick room, and made his usual inquiries. 

Mr. Leland lay silent for a little space, 
gazing fixedly at his chief. Then he 
spoke. 

“Mr. Newell,” said he, “I know that 
the end of my life is very near. The 
doctors have known it for some time, 
but they only told me of it to-day. If 
my work is ended here, I am ready to 
go. But, before I go, may I ask you 
just one question.” 

“Certainly,” said Mr. Newell. 

“IT have held an important position 
under you for many years. It was a 
work to which my life has been given; 
into which my whole heart entered. 
What I want to ask you is this: In ail 
that work, in those long years of ser- 
vice, has there ever been one little thing 
of which you approved? One single bit 
of that work that was worthy of your 
commendation? One single item any- 
where upon which you could lay your 
finger and say, ‘This thing has been 
well done?’ ” 

Mr. Newell answered: “Leland, you 
know that your work was well done, and 
that it always met with my approval.” 

“Then why did you not tell me so?” 

The iron mask fell, Mr. Newell’s eyes 
filled with tears. He took the hand of 
the dying man in his. 

Then he let the other for a moment 
see into his soul. “ I have tried to do 
these things, but I cannot. They will 
not out. That is the only excuse I 
have. I thought you knew how your 
work has always seemed to me. [1 


ought to have told you so. Is it too 
late that I tell you now?” 

Little words of kindness are worth 
more than gold. They should have free 
coinage.—Selected 


—— 107 —— 
A SUBMISSIVE WIFE 


A good woman’s husband was spend- 
ing an evening at a tavern. The con- 
versation turned on their wives. The 
husband said his wife was excellent, only 
she was religious. “But,” said he, “such 
is the command she has of her temper 
that were I to take you home at mid- 
night and order her to get a supper, she 
would be all submission and cheerful- 
ness.” The company regarded this as a 
boast, and dared him to try it. The 
bargain was made. 

“Where is your mistress?” said the 
husband to the servant who sat up for 
him. 

“Gone to bed, sir.” 

“Call her up. I have brought some 
friends home and desire supper.” She 
came down and received the company, 
told them she had some chickens ready, 
and that supper should be got. It was 
served with much cheerfulness. 

One of them said to this lady: “Your 
civility fills us all with surprise. Our 
visit is in consequence of a wager, which 
we have lost. As you cannot approve 
our conduct, why so much kindness to 
us?” 

“Sir, when I married, my husband and 
myself were unconverted. It pleased 
God to call me out of that danger. My 
huband continues in it. Were he to die 
he must be miserable forever. I think 
it my duty to render his present exist- 
ence as comfortable as possible.” 

This affected the whole company, and 
left a deep impression on the husband’s 
mind. 

“Do you, my dear,” he said, “really 
think I will be eternally miserable? [I 
thank you for the warning. By the 
grace of God I will change my conduct.” 
He became a Christian and a good hus- 
band.—Sel. 


—— 108 —— 
A SERMON BY A HORSE 


A young minister walked along a busy 
street one raw November day. He was 
discouraged and embittered, because he 
thought he was being overworked, and 
was not receiving the recognition he de- 
served. His mood was bitter and rebell- 
ious, a mood tha is found among min- 
isters perhaps as often as among other 
people. 

Out of the din of the traffic there 
came to his ears the rumble of a heavily 
loaded dray and the sound of iron-shod 
hoofs striking the pavement. A dray, 
loaded with huge rolls of paper and 
drawn by a pair of magnificient horses, 
was coming briskly up a slight rise in 
the street. The driver, a little wrinkled 
Irishman, crouched lazily on his seat, 
with the reins hanging loose from his 
fingers. The two splendid beasts, with- 
out a word or a touch from him were 
doing their work with perfect intellig- 
ence and willingness. The minister 
paused upon the curb to watch them. 

Suddenly the horse nearest to him 
trod upon a slippery manhole cover, lost 
his footing and went down on his side 
with a resounding crash. A quick little 
gasp of pity came from the watchers on 
the sidewalk. But it was wasted pity. 
For before the dray had lost its head- 
way, before the little old driver had 
gathered up his reins, the great horse, 
with a violent scramble, got his feet 
again, and threw himself into his collar 
with an energy that threatened to tear 
the heavy harness off his back. 

As the dray topped the rise and rum- 
bled round the corner, the minister turn- 
ed slowly away. His eyes were moist 
and his heart humbled. His impulse 
was to follow that horse all day, and 
learn his spirit of generous co-operation. 
And that night as he knelt at his bedside, 
he prayed a strange prayer: 

“O, God, make me like that horse. 
Teach me what You want me to do, and 
help me to want to do it without being 
driven. When I stumble, may I rise at 
once and pull all the harder to make up 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


for lost time. Bless my life with a feel- 
ing of harmony and co-operation with 
Thyself. Amen.” 

Neéxt Sabbath morning he preached a 
sermon from the text, “Henceforth I call 
you not servants; for the servant know- 
eth not what his lord doeth; but I have 
called you friends.” It was a good ser- 
mon; the people spoke to him very 
warmly about it after church. But the 
minister knew in his heart that the ser- 
mon really came from a great dumb 
brute that had never been to church in 
his life. —Youth’s Companion. 


109 —— 


KILLING THE GUIDE 


Sir Samuel Baker relates the following 
incident: 


“Many year ago, when the Egyptian 
troops first conquered Nubia, a regiment 
was destroyed by thirst in crossing the 
Nubian desert. The men, being upon a 
limited allowance of water, suffered 
from extreme thirst; and deceived by 
the appearance of a mirage that exactly 
resembled a beautiful lake, they insist- 
ed on being taken to its banks by the 
Arab guide. It was in vain that the 
guide assured them that the lake was 
unreal, and he refused to lose the prec- 
icus time by wandering from his 
course. Words led to blows, and he 
was killed by the soldiers, whose lives 
depended upon his guidance. The 
whole regiment turned from the track 
and rushed toward the welcome waters. 
Thirsty and faint, over the burning 
sands they hurried; heavier and heav- 
ier their footsteps became; hotter and 
hotter their breath as deeper they push- 
ed into the desert, farther and farther 
from the lost track, where the pilot lay 
in his blood; and still the mocking spir- 
its of the desert, the afreets of the mir- 
age, led them on, and the lake, glisten- 
ing in the sunshine, tempted them to 
bathe in its cool waters, close to their 
eyes, but never at their lips. At length 
the delusion vanished—the fatal lake 
had turned to burning sand! Raging 
thirst, and horrible despair! the pathless 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


desert and the murdered guide! Lost! 
lost! all lost! Not a man ever left the 
Gesert, but they were subsequently dis- 
covered, parched and withered corpses, 
by the Arabs sent upon the search.” 

So sin lures unwary souls from the 
path of righteousness. The Holy Spirit 
warns and entreats them. Him they 
grieve and drive away, and when too 
late they mourn their folly. 


110 
VICTORY OVER TEMPTATION 


Wendell Phillips is an example of 
what a rich young man may become who 
resists the temptations of early dissipa- 
tion. He developed a grand moral char- 
acter, and must ever remain one of the 
noblest figures in the history of New 
England. An interesting story is re- 
lated of his early boyhood: One day, 
after hearing Dr. Lyman _ Beecher 
preach, he repaired to his room, threw 
himself on the floor, and cried, “O God, 
I belong to thee. Take what is thine 
own. I ask this, that whenever a thing 
be wrong it may have no power of temp- 
tation over me; and whenever a thing 
is right it may take no courage to do it.” 
“And,” observed Mr. Phillips, in later 
years of life, “I have never found any- 
thing that has impressed me as being 
wrong, exerting any temptation over 
me, nor has it required any courage on 
my part to do whatever I believed to be 
right,” In other words, in that supreme 
hour his moral nature conquered and 
subjugated his lower self. For him 
thenceforth there was no compromise 
with animalism, with selfishness, cupid- 
ity, or, in a word, with any debasing in- 
clination; they were suppliants at the 
feet of his soul.—Selected. 


—— 111 
PROSPERITY AND LIBERALITY. 


A London correspondent of the West- 
ern Christian Advocate, writing some 
years ago of the raising of a fund for the 
extinction of debts on chapels, gives the 
following incident: 











ANECDOTES 5l 

“A gentleman named Wilkes, who 
has promised a subscription of one thou- 
sand guineas to this fund, has a history 
so remarkable as to be worth relating 
across the Atlantic. Seven years ago he 
was a journeyman mechanic. Having 
invented and patented some kind of a 
crank or spindle used in the cotton man- 
ufacture, and needing capital to start 
himself in the business of making them, 
he made it a matter of earnest prayer 
that he might be directed to some one 
able and willing to assist him. In a sin- 
gular and unexpected manner he fell in 
with an elderly Quaker, a perfect strang- 
er, who accosted him with the strange 
inquiry: ‘Friend, I should like to know 
if a little money would be of any service 
to thee.’ Having satisfied himself as to 
Wilkes’ genius and honesty, the Quaker 
at once advanced him the required 
amount. The praying mechanic started 
in business on his own account, and 
everything he has touched of late ap- 
peared to prosper. 

“Hearing of a field in Ireland offered 
for sale, in which was a deserted mine, 
he went over to see it; bought the field 
for a small sum, recommenced working 
the mine, and it now turns out to yield 
abundance of excellent copper. For the 
year 1852 he promised to give the Mis- 
sionary Society a guinea a day; but such 
abundance has poured in upon him dur- 
ing the year, that he felt that to be be- 
low his duty, and has, therefore, en- 
larged his subscription for the present 
year sevenfold. He is actually giving 
to that noble cause seven guineas daily, 
or upwards of $10,500 a year, during 
this year, 1853; in addition to which he 
has just given one thousand guineas to 
the fund above referred to. It is pleas- 
ing to add,” says the writer, “that this 
remarkable man retains the utmost 
simplicity.” 

Would that liberality and prosperity 
might ever go hand in hand. Often, as 
wealth increases liberality is starved 
out, and the rich give far less than the 
poor in proportion to their means and 
ability. 


52 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 112 —— 


THE STORY OF A NEW TESTA- 
MENT. 


A little girl expressed to her parents 
one day a wish that they would give her 
two New Testaments. To the question 
of her parents why it must be two New 
Testaments, the child replied that one 
was for herself and the other to send to 
the heathen. 

She was given the two volumes and in 
one of them she wrote: “A little girl 
who loves the Lord Jesus wishes with all 
her heart that whosoever reads this 
should also love and believe on Him.” 

This New Testament went to India 
and found its way to a station in the in- 
terior. A Hindoo lady obtained it. She 
could read, but was unable to write; and, 
as she longed to be able to write, her at- 
tention was immediately drawn to the 
inscription on the fly-leaf. The large 
and distinct characters of the child’s 
hand-writing attracted her so much that 
she tried to imitate them again and 
again. i 

Gradually the sense of the words made 
an impression upon her, and the question 
arose, “May not those words have been 
written just for me?” She began then 
earnestly to read the New Testament; 
her eyes were opened, and she learned to 
know and love her Saviour 

Years passed. The little girl had 
meanwhile grown up, and thought ne 
more of the New Testament which she 
had sent once upon a time to the heath- 
en. But her love for missions had grown 
up with her, and it was her deepest de- 
sire to serve the Lord among the 
heathen. She was accepted as a mis- 
sionary, and sent to a rather out-of-the- 
way station in India. 

There she entered, one day, the house 
ef a Hindoo Christian lady. In the 
course of conversation the Hindoo lady 
showed her visitor a book, a New Testa- 
ment, and told how she, a Hindoo hea- 
then, had been, by its means, brought to 
Jesus, her Saviour. You may imagine 
the joyful astonishment of the lady mis- 
sionary when she recognized in the book 


the same New Testament on whose fly- 
leaf she had, many years ago, as a little 
girl, written those words which had 
served to show the poor Hindoo lady the 
way to Jesus. Together they knelt 
down, praised God’s wonderful ways, 
and thanked Him who had drawn them 
both to himself. 

“Cast thy bread upon the waters, and 
thou shalt find it after many days.’”— 
Feuille Religeuse. 





113—— 


BREAD UPON THE WATERS. 


A lady in Scotland, whose husband 
had left her a competence, had two prof- 
ligate sons who wasted her substance 
with riotous living. When she saw that 
her property was being squandered, she 
determined to make an offering to 
the Lord. She took twenty pounds and 
gave it to the London Missionary So- 
ciety. Her sons were very angry at this, 
and told her she might as well cast the 
money into the sea. “I will cast it into 
the sea,” she replied, “and it shall be 
my bread upon the waters.” 

The sons, having spent all they could 
get, enlisted in a regiment and were sent 
to India. Their positions were far apart, 
but God so ordered in His providence 
that both were stationed near good mis- 
sionaries. The elder one was led to re- 
pent of sin and embrace Christ. He 
shortly afterward died. 

Meanwhile the widowed mother was 
praying for her boys. One evening, as 
she was taking down her family Bible to 
pray, the door softly opened and the 
younger son appeared to greet the aged 
mother. He told her he had turned to 
God, and Christ had blotted out all his 
sins 

Then he narrated his past history in 
connection with the influence the mis- 
sionaries of the Cross had on his mind; 
while his mother, with tears of overflow- 
ing gratitude, exclaimed: “Oh, my 
twenty pounds! my twenty pounds! I 
have cast my bread upon the waters, and 
now I have found it after many days.”— 
Gospel in All Lands. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 53 


—— 114 — 


HOW “BEN HUR” WAS WRITTEN 


The Lutheran Observer tells the fol- 
lowing interesting story: 

“It is related that ‘Ben Hur’ was writ- 
ten by Gen. Lew Wallace after investi- 
gating a series of questions which were 
propounded to him by Col. Ingersoll. 
Gen. Wallace says he was going on an 
eastern-bound train, and while going 
through a drawing-room car he passed 
the open door of a compartment in 
which sat Col. Robert G. Ingersoll. 
‘Come in,’ said the latter. ‘I’m lonely 
in here, and want someone to chat with.’ 
Wallace entered and seated himself. 
‘All right, Colonel,’ he said; ‘what shall 
we chat about?’ Lots of things,’ re- 
plied Ingersoll. ‘Is there a future life?’ 
Looking out of the window dreamingly, 
as the express sped on, he answered his 
own query. ‘I don’t know—do you? 
Is there a God? I don’t know—do 
you? Was Christ the Son of God? I 
don’t know—do you?’ He paused and 
looked keenly at Wallace. The Gen- 
eral was a little embarrassed by the 
abruptness of the great infidel’s inter- 
rogatories. He replied: ‘Really, Inger- 
soll, I have never given much thought 
or study to the questions you propound. 
I had a Christian training, and I have 
always tacitly accepted them.’ “Indeed!’ 
said Col. Ingersoll. ‘Why, man, you 
surprise me! They are vital issues. I 
have studied the subject thoroughly. 
Every man ought to. Now, take my 
advice and look into the matter. You 
will find you’ll agree with me.’ ‘I went 
away from this interview both embar- 
rassed and mortified,’ said the General, 
‘that I did not feel competent to discuss 
so important a matter with so learned a 
thinker. I ‘made up my mind that I 
would never place myself again in so 
embarrassing a situation. I took down 
my books and read every authority I 
could lay my hands on. After a year’s 
study, so far from agreeing with the 
great agnostic in his opinions, I wrote 
“Ben Hur.” That is my reply to him.’ 


“Those who have read ‘Ben Hur’ will 
remember how powerfully the author 
shows the sublimity of Christ’s charac- 
ter and proves His divinity. The above 
story reminds us of the story of Gilbert 
West and Lord Lyttleton. They were 
both infidels. In conversation one day 
they agreed to take the two cardinal 
facts in Christianity, and by disproving 
them, to overthrow Christianity. Lord 
Lyttleton selected the resurrection of 
Christ, Gilbert West the conversion of 
Paul. The separated and spent some 
months in the study of their respective 
subjects. They met again by appoint- 
ment, when, lo and behold! to the 
astonishment of each, they had both 
been converted. Christianity  chal- 
lenges investigaton. The more one 
studies it, the stronger he will become 
in faith.” 


—— 115 —— 


VOLTAIRE’S SNEER AT NEWTON 


Sir Isaac Newton wrote a work upon 
the prophet Daniel, and another upon 
the Book of Revelation, in one of which 
he said that in order to fulfil certain 
prophecies before a certain date was ter- 
minated, namely, 1260 years, there 
would be a mode of traveling of which 
the men of his time had no conception; 
that the knowledge of mankind would 
be so increased that they should be able 
to travel at the rate of fifty miles an 
hour. Voltaire, who did not believe in 
the inspiration of the scriptures, got hold 
of this and said: “Now, look at that 
mighty mind of Newton, who discovered 
gravity, and told us such marvels for us 
all to admire. When he became an old 
man, and got into his dotage, he began 
to study that book called the Bible; and 
it seems, that in order to credit its fab- 
ulous nonsense, we must believe that 
the knowledge of mankind will be so in- 
creased that we shall be able to travel 
at the rate of fifty miles an hour. The 
poor dotard!” exclaimed the philosophic 
infidel, Voltaire, in the self-complacency 
of his philosophy..—-But who is the dot- 
ard?—-Earnest Christian. 


54 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 116-—— 
A WONDERFUL ANSWER TO 
PRAYER. 


Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, of the Re- 
formed Church, a veteran of the “Arcot” 
mission, India, some time ago in New 
York City related the following personal 
experience to strengthen the faith of his 
Christian audience in the power of 
prayer. 

While upon a tour, which lasted five 
months, he found himself overtaken by 
the rainy season and on the outskirts of 
the jungle. He applied to the authorities 
for forty coolies or bearers. They were 
furnished with a guard to prevent the 
others from forsaking him. They had 
not proceeded far before both guard and 
coolies ran away rather than face the 
terrors of the jungle at that season. 

Proceeding as best he could to the 
nearest station of the province, he de- 
manded assistance. The governor said 
“No” with emphasis, adding that not 
a man could be obtained to enter the 
dreaded jungle, where the ground was 
covered with water, where lurked the 
fever and man-eating tigers, more 
ravenous than usual since the flocks 
upon which they preyed had been driven 
to the uplands. The doctor showed to 
the governor a firman compelling every 
one, under severe penalties for dis- 
obedience, to assist him all he needed. 
Under this pressure forty-four coolies 
were obtained, divided into four com- 
panies of eleven each, watched over by 
the doctor’s four native assistants, the 
doctor himself proceeding on horseback, 
with a loaded revolver to menace the 
men and kill wild beasts. The coolies 
were paid full wages in advance, with 
the promise of as much more at the 
end of the journey. Their objective 
point was the foot of a cataract about 
sixty miles distant, where they ex- 
pected to find a boat on which they 
might float down the river. Above the 
cataract not a boat could be found, and 
the river had overflowed its bank. All 
day they waded in the jungle under 
alternations of heavy showers and a 


broiling, sickening sun. Toward evening 
the doctor met two hunters returning 
from the examination of their traps, who 
were now running to reach (if possible) 
before nightfall the highlands. In 
answer to questions the doctor was told 
there was not a hill, not even a hillock, 
on which he could spread his tents for 
the night—nothing but water, water, 
and endless stretches of it, like that 
they were splashing through. What 
could he do for himself and the band 
that looked to him for leadership? 
Nothing. Where on earth could he find 
the means of reaching the cataract and 
boat? Nowhere. Must they all perish? 


In this extremity the doctor, on the 
back of his horse, prayed to his covenant 
God, saying in substance, “Oh, Lord, I 
am helplesss to extricate myself from 
this dangerous situation. Yet I am thy 
servant, and in obedience to the com- 
mand of the Lord Jesus have come to 
India to preach the gospel to the 
heathen. In his service I have been 
brought into this difficulty and peril. 
Be pleased to show me where I am to 
go.’ Immediately an answer came, as 
distinctly pronounced in the ear of his 
soul as ever any words were spoken to 
the ear of his body. “Turn to your 
left, go to the river, and you will find 
that which you need.” Immedately he 
consulted his guides, who assured him 
of the folly of proceeding in the di- 
rection indicated. Then came the voice 
the second time, repeating the direction 
first given. Consulting the guides again 
he was told that the river had over- 
flowed its banks, and it was impossible 
that a rescue could come from that 
quarter. For the third time the voice 
came, saying, “Turn to the left, pro- 
ceed to the river, and you will find that 
which you need.” 


Then, as master in command for the 
company, he gave the order to turn to 
the left, and coming to the river—the 
Godavery,—what did he see? The very 
thing he needed most—a large flat-boat, 
and in it two boatmen, who, mistaking 
him for an English officer, began to 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 55 


apologize for the boat’s appearance fn 
such a strange spot. They said the 
flood in the river had loosened the boat 
from its moorings, and that the “devil 
himself seemed to be in the boat,” for 
despite their efforts to the contrary it 
persisted in floating to the spot where 
it was found. 

Dr. Chamberlain, armed with author- 
ity from the English government, took 
possession of the boat, which he found 
just broad enough to allow the spread- 
ing of his tent, under which they safe- 
ly rested that night undisturbed by the 
hungry tigers. Next morning they be- 
gan floating down the river until they 
came to the next cataract, where they 
found another boat, and with it relief 
from all anxiety.—The Watchword. 


—— 117 — 


SAVED FROM WOLVES. 


A little girl only nine years old, 
named Sutherland, living at Platteville, 
Col., was recently saved from death by 
ferocious wolves as follows: The child 
went with her father on a cold afternoon 
to the woods to find the cattle, and was 
told to follow the calves home, while the 
father continued his search for the cows. 
She did so, but the calves misled her, 
and very soon she became conscious 
that she was lost. Night came on, and 
with it the cold of November and the 
dreaded wolves. With a strange calm- 
ness she continued on her uncertain way. 
The next day, Sunday, at 10 a. m., she 
reached, in her wanderings, the house 
of John Beebe, near a place called Evans, 
having traveled constantly eighteen 
hours, and a distance of not less than 
twenty-five miles. All night the wolves 
growled around her, but harmed her 
not, neither was she in the least 
frightened by them. 

All know that in ordinary cases fierce 
packs of bloodthirsty wolves would de- 
your a man, and even a horse. But this 
little one was invincible in her trusting, 
simple faith. The narrative states: 
“She said that the wolves kept close to 
her heels and snapped at her feet; but 


her mother told her that if she was good 
the Lord would always take care of her; 
so she asked the Lord to take care of her, 
and she knew the wolves would not 
hurt her, because God wouldn't let 
them!” The child was hunted for by a 
great number of people, and being found 
was restored shortly to her parents in 
perfect health and soundness.—Selected. 


—— 118 
A LITTLE BOY’S FAITH 


Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon used to tell 
the following story of the faith of a little 
boy in one of the schools of Edinburgh. 
His teacher had charge of a certain 
prayer-meeting which John attended. 
One day, the boy came to his teacher 
and said, “Teacher, I wish my sister 
could be got to read the Bible; she 
never reads it.” 

“Why, Johnny, should your sister 
read the Bible?” 

“Because if she once read it I am 
sure it would do her good, and she 
would be converted and saved.” 

“Do you think so, Johnny?” 

“Yes, 1 do, sir; and I wish the next 
time there was a prayer-meeting you 
would ask the people to pray for my 
sister, that she may begin to read the 
Bible.” 

“Well, well, it shall be done, John.” 

So the teacher gave out that a little 
boy was anxious that prayer should be 
offered that his sister might read the 
Bible. John was observed to get up 
and go out. The teacher thought it 
very rude of the boy to disturb the 
people in a crowded room, and so the 
next day, when the lad came, he said: 

“John, I thought it very rude of you 
to get up in the prayer-meeting and go 
out. You ought not to have done so.” 

“O, sir,” said the boy, “I did not mean 
to be rude, but I thought I should like 
to go home and see my sister reading the 
Bible for the first time.” 

True to his faith, when he reached his 
home, he found the little girl reading 
her Bible. 





56 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 119 —— 


A DREADED DUTY AND SAVING 
RESULTS 


Normand Smith, Jr., of Hartford Ct., 
was accustomed to take part of the ap- 
prentices, whom he had in his business, 
into his family, that he might watch 
over their moral and religious welfare. 
They were always present at family 
worship. He had occasion to leave 
home for a week or ten days, and his 
wife, who had been searching her heart 
of late, and endeavoring to make a per- 
fect consecration of herself to the Lord, 
suddenly found this question raised in 
her mind: “Are you willing to pray in 
your family during the absence of your 
husband?” She shrank from such a 
trial, for she was young, her disposition 
- Was retiring and timid, and the appren- 
tices were from sixteen to twenty years 
of age. Her mental distress was great, 
but she wisely carried the matter before 
the Lord. Leaving all the household 
matters with her widowed mother, who 
resided with her, she gave up the day 
to prayer, from the morning hour, and it 
was not till late in the afternoon that 
alone in her room with God, she felt 
that she had gained the victory, and was 
prepared for the dreaded duty. 

Then great peace came at once into 
her soul, and she realized the privilege 
of presenting those young men to God 
in prayer. To use her own words, in a 
letter to the author: “In the morning 
worship. I only had to open my mouth, 
and God filled it. The room, and even 
the house, seemed so full of God, that it 
was impressed on my mind that God 
was willing to do a work in the 
family. So I invited Mr. Barrows (now 
Rev. Prof. E. P. Barrows, D. D.) to call 
at tea-time and converse with the young 
men. He did so, and one of them gave 
his heart to God during the conversa- 
tion; and, before the week was out, two 
others did the same, as did three of 
their companions in the next house. One 
of them soon began to prepare for the 
ministry, and is now a settled pastor.” 


When her husband returned to the city 
he did not follow his usual custom of 
going first to the store, but came direct- 
ly to the house. Mrs. 8. said to him, “I 
am afraid you will not believe what has 
taken place in the family, during your 
absence, if I tell you.” He replied, “I 
am prepared to believe anything; for my 
mental exercises were such, while I was 
away, that I knew that something had 
taken place, and I came directly to the 
house, without going to the store, that 
I might learn what had occurred.” 

And this was the beginning of a prec- 
ious revival of religion.—Sel. 


—— 120 —— 
A TRANSFORMED DEMON 


When Robert Moffat proposed to go 
to Africaner, the terrible demon of the 
Dark Continent, he was warned that he 
was an incarnate fiend, who would make 
a virtue of cruelty, and murder him that 
he might make a drum-head of his skin 
and a drinking-cup of his skull. But 
Moffat had faith in the gospel of the 
grace of God. This Hottentot chief had 
been driven north by Dutch invaders un- 
til, taking his refuge beyond the Or- 
ange River, he became a daring and 
desperate outlaw, robbing and murder- 
ing his victims, and swaying a wide re- 
gion with the iron sceptre of terror. The 
colonial government set a price upon 
his capture, dead or alive, and hired 
neighboring chiefs to make war upon 
him; but in vain. In 1818 Moffat ven- 
tured to take up his abode with Afric- 
aner. A change took place in the di- 
abolical ruffian, so complete that it was 
a new creation. His outward and 
inward life was transformed; he be- 
came a man of peace; the helper, friend, 
nurse of the missionary; a student of 
the New Testament, an evangelist in 
Spirit, a winner of souls. Robert Mof- 
fat’s success was based on his confidence 
in the power of the gospel to tame the 
fiercest and most ferocious men, and he 
saw that man, who in himself combined 
wolf, bear, leopard and lion, turned into 
a lamb.—Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 12] — 


A STRANGE WARNING 


“T think the most remarkable instance 
of supernatural interference for the bene- 
fit of humanity which I have personal 
knowledge of,” said Mr. H——, “occur- 
red when I was in the freight depart- 
ment of the Providence and Worcester 
Railroad. As the tracks entered the 
depot here, some few rods up the road 
there was a combination of switches, 
which, if covered by a standing train, 
could not be re-arranged; so that a 
down train would, unless signaled to 
stop, inevitably rush on to what stood 
in the way. One night the freight train, 
which always arrived in time to make 
its changes and get out of the way be- 
fore the Shore Line express should ar- 
rive, was late. 

“There was but twenty-five minutes 
to make all arrangements and clear the 
track. This was no unusual occurrence; 
and as the signal red light at the mast- 
head was up and brightly burning, there 
was no apparent danger of any thing to 
produce the slightest nervousness. The 
delays very frequently occurred, and 
were thus provided for by the signal. I 
remember very distinctly, however, that 
on this occasion I walked out to the very 
end of the depot platform, and that I 
suddenly hear in my ear these words, 
twice repeated, and with impressive dis- 
tinctness: 

“ ‘TT——, the light will go out! H——, 
the light will go out!’ 

“The second was so positive, and 
struck me with such strange power, that 
I instantly looked at my watch, saw that 
the Shore Line express was due in three 
minutes, grabbed the red lantern on the 
last car of the freight train, and ran up 
the track with all the speed of which I 
was capable. Along I fairly flew, im- 
pelled by some strange intuition that 
there,was danger, and never questioning 
for an instant as I ran why I was run- 
ning, or what I was to do. Arrived at 
the first end of the curve near the Cor- 
liss Engine Works, I stopped, and for 
an instant turned and looked back at the 


ANECDOTES 57 
red light. It was burning; but in a sec- 
ond it fluttered a little, and suddenly 
went out. A world of emotions then 
seemed to rush through my mind, for 
the light on the oncoming express al- 
1eady illuminated the rails. I swung my 
lantern round and round, shouted, and 
danced up and down in my terrible anx- 
lety. It seemed a thousand years be- 
fore I heard the whistle for ‘down 
brakes.’ The fate of the crowded train, 
the horrible telescoping of the cars as 
they would inevitably crush into that 
solid freight train, seemed to rise like 
a vision of Hades before me. But at last 
the engine was stopped. Without in- 
dicating to him his previous danger, I in- 
formed the enginer that the signal had 
gone out, and that I was statoned to 
warn him, and started back to the depot. 
When I got to the switch, I found the 
switchman running round and round it, 
almost mad with terror, for he could not 
light the treacherous lantern, and had 
anticipated a most horrible disaster. 
When he saw me, and heard that all was 
safe, he put his arms around my neck, 
and he—we—. Well, he cried like a 
child, and I believe I offered up a pray- 
er of praise and thanksgiving. I im- 
mediately established a series of three 
lights as signals, so that nothing of the 
kind could possibly occur again. 

“We examined the light, and could 
see no possible reason why it should 
have gone out. It was full of oil, with 
a perfect wick, and there was no wind 
blowing; although, if there had been, it 
should have remained burning, as it had 
before through many a storm. Now, 
what was it that spoke in my ear? 
What was it that forced me to save that 
train? There were ordinarily but two 
passenger cars on the express, and this 
night there were seven, all full.”—Sel. 


122 —— 
A BRAND FROM THE BURNING. 


“T don’t want to hear anything about 
God nor religion nor the church,” ex- 
claimed a sick man in response to a re- 
mark by his missionary visitor from 





58 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the Tabernacle, and he emphasized his 
declaration by turning his face to the 
wall and motioned her away with his 
hand. “The Bible is a humbug and all 
the church is after is the money!” he 
exclaimed. 


Here was an immortal soul, perishing 
in darkness and sin, and the missionary, 
undaunted, would not be put off. She 
accepted the chaallenge. “You say the 
church is only after the money and you 
will have nothing to do with it. Per- 
haps you patronized the saloons when 
you were well,—and he had—and I 
would like to know what the saloon is 
after.” 

This was a home-thrust and it touched 
a tender spot and he wilted at once, 
and in an altered tone and with tears in 
his eyes he replied, “You are right my 
good woman. The saloon is after the 
money.” She then said, “I don’t warit 
you to believe that I am after your 
money. What do you think I get for 
the work I am doing?” “I don’t know, 
but I suppose you are well paid,” he re- 
plied. “Yes, I am,” she answered, “I 
receive $5 per month and my board.” 
“You don’t mean to say that you live on 
$5 a month!” “Yes, I do, and I live 
well too,” said she. 

The barriers were now down and she 
had access to his heart. She found that 
he was in a serious condition of health, 
likely to live but a short time, and yet an 
avowed infidel. He was a man in middle 
life, entirely friendless and destitute, and 
occupied a furnished room in a wretched 
tenement house. He remained there by 
the sufferance of the poor woman who 
owned the room, for he was unable long- 
er to pay her anything. 

The missionary learned that he had 
nothing to eat, and she supplied him 
with some suitable nourishment, and she 
spoke to him of the love of God in 
Christ, and offered up an earnest prayer 
in his behalf and when she went away 
he thanked her for her kindness and ask- 
ed her to call again. 

She did call again soon, and was glad 
to note his changed spiritual condition. 


He listened attentively to what she had 
to say, and said “Amen” to her fervent 
prayer, and thanked her for it. He was 
willing to come to Christ, and was glad 
to be shown the way. At a subsequent 
visit he declared that he was trusting in 
Jesus as his Saviour, and he gave evi- 
dence of the wonderful change wrought 
in him by himself offering an earnest 
prayer to God, and that too in the pres- 
ence of some of his former associates in 
sin. 

Through the persistent efforts of his 
missionary friend, although his case was 
incurable, he was admitted to a good 
hospital, and ten days later the sick man, 
Henry Wagner, passed from this world 
of suffering to a better world, we trust, 
“a brand plucked from the burning.” 

—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


4 93 
JUDGE NOT 


How often we misjudge people’s mo- 
tives; and that, sometimes, because we 
see at the moment but a part of what 
they are about. If we knew the whole 
of a matter, our opinions would often be 
greatly changed. Amongst the lots put 
up at an auction was one, “A pretty 
pair of crutches.” In the crowd was a 
poor cripple boy, and the crutches was 
just the thing for him. He was the 
first to bid for them. An elderly, well- 
dressed man bid against him. There 
were cries of “Shame, shame!” in the 
crowd. The boy bid again; and so did 
the old gentleman. The boy bid all he 
had, but the old gentleman outbid him 
once more, and the poor little lad turn- 
ed away with tears in his eyes. The 
crutches were knocked down to the 
elderly man, who, to the great surprise 
of all, took them to the poor little crip- 
ple, and made him a present of them. 
The crowd was now as enthusiastic in 
their praise as they had just been with 
their abuse, but the old gentleman heard 
nothing of it; he had disappeared even 
before the little boy could thank him. 
To judge by a part is often to misjudge 
the whole.—Sel. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


——— 124 —— 
THE MISSIONARY’S DEFENCE. 


The following occurence was related 
by Missionary Von Asselt, a Rhenish 
missionary in Sumatra from 1856 to 
1876, on a visit to Lubeck: 

“When I first went to Sumatra, in the 
year 1856, I was the first European mis- 
sionary to go among the wild Battas, 
although, twenty years prior, two Amer- 
ican missionaries had come to them with 
the Gospel; but they had been killed and 
eaten. Since then no effort had been 
made to bring the Gospel to these people, 
and, naturally, they had remained the 
same cruel savages. 

“What it means to stand alone among 
a savage people, unable to make himself 
understood, not understanding a single 
sound of their language, but whose sus- 
picious, hostile looks and gestures speak 
only a too-well-understood language — 
yes, it is hard for me to realize that. 
The first two years which I spent among 
the Battas, at first all alone and after- 
ward with my wife, were so hard that 
it makes me shudder even now when I 
think of them. Often it seemed, as if 
We were not only encompassed by hos- 
tile men, but also by hostile powers of 
darkness; for often an inexplicable fear 
would come over us, so that we had to 
get up at night and go on our knees to 
pray or read the Word of God, in order 
to find relief. 

“After we had lived in this place for 
two years we moved several hours’ jour- 
ney inland, among a tribe somewhat 
civilized, who received us more kindly. 
There we built a small house with three 
rooms—a living room, a bed room and a 
small reception room—and life for us 
became a little more easy and cheerful. 

“When I had been in this new place 
for some months, a man came to me 
from the district where we had been, 
and whom I had known there. I was 
sitting on the bench in front of our 
house, and he sat down besides me, and 
for awhile talked of this, that, and the 
other. Finally he began: 

““ Now, teacher, I have yet one re- 


ANECDOTES 59 
quest.’ 

‘And what is that?’ 

“*T would like to have a look at your 
watchmen close at hand.’ 

“*What watchmen do you mean? I 
do not have any.’ 

“*T mean the watchmen whom you 
station around your house at night, to 
protect you.’ 

“ “But I have no watchmen,’ I said 
again; ‘I have only a little herdsboy and 
a little cook, and they would make poor 
watchmen.’ 

“Then the man looked at me incredu- 
lously, as if he wished to say: ‘Oh, do 
not try to make me believe otherwise, 
for I know better.’ 

“ Then he asked: ‘ May I look through 
your house, to see if they are hid there?’ 

““Yes, certainly,’ I said, laughing; 
‘look through it; you will not find any- 
body.’ So he went in and searched in 
every corner, even through the beds, but 
came to me very much disappointed. 


“Then I began a little probing myself, 
and requested him to tell me the circum- 
stances about those watchmen of whom 
he spoke, and this is what he related 
to me: 


“* When you first came to us, teacher, 
we wete very angry at you. We did 
not want you to live amongst us; we did 
not trust you, and believed you had 
some design against us. Therefore we 
came together, and resolved to kill you 
and your wife. Accordingly, we went 
to your house night after night; but 
when we came near, there stood always, 
close around the house, a double row of 
watchmen with glittering weapons, and 
we did not venture to attack them to 
get into your house. But we were not 
willing to abandon our plan, so we went 
to a professional assassin (there still was 
among the savage Battas at that time a 
special guild of assassins, who killed for 
hire any one whom it was desired to get 
out of the way), and asked him if he 
would undertake to kill you and your 
wife. He laughed at us because of our 
cowardice, and said, “I fear no God, and 
no devil. I will get through those watch- 


69 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


men easily.” So we came all together 
in the evening, and the assassin, swing- 
ing his weapon about his head, went 
courageously on before us. As we neared 
your house, we remained behind, and 
let him go on alone. But ina short time 
he came running back hastily, and said, 
“No, I dare not risk to go through alone; 
two rows of big strong men there, very 
close together, shoulder to shoulder, and 
their weapons shine like fire.’ Then we 
gave up killing you. But now, tell me, 
teacher, who are these watchmen? Have 
you never seen them?’ 

“* No, I have never seen them.’ 

“*And your wife did not see them 
also?’ 

“*No, my wife did not see them.’ 

“* But yet we have all seen them; how 
is that?’ 

“Then I went in, and brought a Bible 
from our house, and holding it open be- 
fore him, said: ‘See here; this book is 
the Word of our great God, in which he 
promises to guard and defend us, and 
we firmly believe that Word; therefore 
we need not see the watchmen; but you 
do not believe, therefore the great God 
has to show you the watchmen, in order 
that you may learn to believe.’” 


125 
THE POWER OF A SMILE 


A young man was once confined in a 
darkened chamber by a long and painful 
illness. The inmates of the house were 
distant relatives, and seemed to think 
that they were doing their whole duty 
toward the friendless youth by allowing 
him to remain there. They seldom went 
into his room, and his attendant was a 
sad-faced woman who never smiled. 

The young man became despondent, 
and resolved to commit suicide. While 
he was writing a note telling his reasons 
for ending his life a knock was heard 
upon the door, and a sweet-faced lady 
entered. She was a neighbor, and hear- 
ing of his illness had sought him out. 

She smiled so sweetly that even be- 
fore she spoke the young man gave up 

the idea of the crime which he had con- 








other side of the entrance. 


templated. She spoke a few encourag- 
ing words to him, and when she placed 
her soft hand upon his thot forehead in a 
motherly way he broke down and sobbed 
like a child. She smiled again and knelt 
in silent prayer by his bedside, with the 
sweet love-token by which God spoke to 
him still glowing upon her bright, wom- 
anly face. 

In that holy silence all his bitterness 
of soul left him, and there came an in- 
tense desire to seek and find Christ. The 
repentant one felt the presence of God’s 
Spirit, and his hungry soul cried out 
for rest and peace. Ere the smile faded 
from the upturned face of the Christian 
woman the loving Saviour had entered 
the open door of the seeking soul. 


In a week’s time the young man left 
the dim chamber of pain, and went out 
into the great world to do the Master’s 
work.—The American Messenger. 


—— 126—— 
HUMBLE WORK FOR CHRIST. 


Humble work for Christ may be of vi- 
tal importance. The way in which the 
well-known song whose chorus begins, 
“Let the lower lights be burning,” was 
written, may be unknown to many. 
Some years ago a steamer, in the midst 
of a terrific gale, was trying to make the 
harbor at Cleveland, Ohio. Two lights 
ordinarily indicated the entrance to the 
harbor—one, the upper light, on the 
bluffs of the coast; the other, the lower 
light, that of a beacon on a bar at the 
The look- 
out strained his eyes to catch the lights. 
Finally he saw the upper light, but it 
alone could not serve as a guide. Where 
was the lower light? It had not been 
attended to. Beaten by wind and wave, 
the ship staggered on with its many pas- 
sengers. If it missed the entrance there 
was little hope of escaping the rocks. 
Of a sudden, the lower light was kindled, 
at last, but too late! They had missed 
the entrance, and in the attempt to tack 
about the ship went down with all on 
board.—Selected. 


mami Alena 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 127 —— 


WHY HE WAS CRIPPLED 


One of Dr. A. J. Gordon’s favorite say- 
ings was that God never makes a half 
providence any more than a man makes 
a half pair of shears. A good many years 
ago a little Scotch boy, four years old, 
was caught in a threshing machine and 
his right arm was torn off. That wasa 
terrible accident in every sense of the 
word, for the boy not only lost the use of 
his arm, but was deprived of a future 
livelihood. Iie was a farmer’s son, and 
it was supposed could himself be noth- 
ing but a farmer. Now, what would 
happen to him when he grew up? 

This problem the boy’s mother took to 
heart. There she held her multilated 
laddie, and prayed that God would make 
him a prophet. As his service on the 
farm was out of question, she prayed 
that he might be used for a nobler hus- 
bandry. Thus the boy grew up, with 
his mother’s prayers of dedication ring- 
ing in his heart, and in spite cf himself 
they formed his life. He could not 
evade them. Her prayers shut him in 
with God. 

The lad grew and studied, and was 
admitted to the University of Edin- 
burgh. He is the student of whom the 
story has often been told, how Dr. 
Blackie asked the country boy to rise 
and recite. Geggie—for that was his 
name—arose and held his book awk- 
wardly in his left hand. 

“Take your book in your right hand, 
mon!” said the teacher, sternly. 

“T hae noe right hand,” answered the 
youth, holding up his stump. 

There was a moment’s silence, which 
was broken by the hisses of the class. 
Tears of mortification were in the stu- 
dent’s eyes. Then Dr. Blackie ran 
down from his desk, and putting his 
arm about the lad’s shoulder, as a 
father might, said: 

“T did not mean to hurt you, lad. I 
did not know.” 

Then the hisses were changed to loud 
cheers, and Dr. Blackie thanked the stu- 


ANECDOTES 61 


dents for the opportunity of teaching a 
class of gentlemen. 

It was about the time that Maj. Whit- 
tle came to the University, and in the 
great awakening that followed Geggie 
was the first to give himself up to the 
service of Christ. 

Sometime afterward Dr. Gordon 
was telling the story to his congrega- 
tion in Boston. There was an impres- 
sive stillness, and after the service had 
closed with more than usual solemnity, 
a stranger walked up the aisle. The 
congregation noticed that he had 
only one arm. With a feeling of pecu- 
liar presentiment Dr. Gordon came 
down the pulpit stairs to meet him. 

“I am your Geggie,” the stranger 
said, with great emotion. 

Dr. Gordon, with a ringing voice, 
called his congregation back and told 
them that his illustration was before 
them. The student was asked to speak. 
He related the story of his accident, 
his mother’s prayers, and how he had 
now consecrated his life. 

As the congregation left the church 
that morning, the thought came to more 
than one: “Every man’s life is divinely 
planned. If adversity is inevitable, 
God makes the misfortune fit the plan. 
Many a youth, without knowing it, is 
working out the life to which his 
mother’s piety devoted him; and her 
vows and the Infinite Wisdom are parts 
of a perfect providence.”—Selected. 


—— 128 —— 
THE VOICE OF GOD. 


Those who believe only in the “sub- 
jective” value of prayer, that is in its 
effect on the one uttering the prayer, 
might well consider the following inci- 
dent which is vouched for by W. R. 
Smith of Pryor, Oklahoma, in an article 
written for the Evangelical Visitor. 

Some years ago a missionary was | 
traveling on foot in a thinly settled part 
of one of the Western States. 

Iie was weary in spirit and body, and 
as he tramped along over the prairie 
road, he lifted up his heart in prayer 


62 ILLUSTRATIVE 
to God, that he would in his divine provi- 
dence bring about such a condition that 
would permit him to ride part of the 
journey that yet remained before him. 
On reaching the summit of a high hill 
he saw a buggy apparently standing 
still in the road, and headed in the same 
way that he was going. 

The preacher soon came up to it, and 
found a man sitting on the seat, as 
though waiting for someone. The man 
spoke to the missionary, saying, “I did 
not see you the first two times that you 
called on me to stop, which I did, and 
looked all around, but seeing no one, I 
again drove on, but when you called me 
the third time, I stopped again, and, look- 
ing back, saw you on top of the hill, and 
have waited for you.” “Well,” said the 
preacher, “I did call, but not on you, but 
to my heavenly Father, to send me an 
opportunity to ride, for I was weary. I 
did not speak above a whisper.” The 
man said, “That is very strange, for I 
heard a voice clear and distinct, calling 
for me to ‘stop,’ and I did so. Three 
times this voice spoke to me, saying each 
time ‘stop.’ ” “What do you think it 
meant?” “It means,” replied the mis- 
sionary, “that the Holy Spirit called on 
you to help answer my prayer.” The 
preacher was invited into the buggy, and 
rode several miles with the man, in 
whom he found a friend and helper, in 
sowing the good seed of the kingdom, in 
these far western wilds. How true it is 
that God still often movesin a mysteri 
ous way his wonders to perform, and 
help his wayworn children, when they 
call to him for aid in time of need.— 
Selected. 


—— 129 —— 


WRONG WITH THE STATE 


In the city of Brooklyn, two or three 
years ago, a detective went into a drug 
store, laid his hand upon the shoulder of 
a man about thirty years of age, and 
said, “You are wanted.” “What do you 
mean?” asked the man. “You know 
what I mean. You were in the peniten- 
tiary several years ago; you escaped and 


ANECDOTES 


went west. You married out there and 
came back here and settled; and we 
have been on your track ever since. 
Now we have you. You need not deny 
it.” He said, “That is true; I won't 
deny it; but I would like to go home 
and say good-bye to my wife and child.” 
“All right.” They went to his home. 
He met his wife and little child in the 
parlor and said: “Wife, haven’t I been 
a good father and worked hard to make 
a living?” She replied, “Yes, what do 
you mean?” “I mean that I am an es- 
caped convict from the penitentiary. 
Since I met you, your love for me has 
made a different man out of me; but I 
am an escaped criminal, and must go 
back to the peniteniary.” He was all 
right with his wife, child and neighbors, 
but all wrong with the State of New 
York. His being right with his wife 
and child did not put him right with the 
State of New York. You may be all 
right with your friends and neighbors, 
but all wrong with God; and, unless you 
are born again, you can never get right 
with God.—Selected., 


omens 130) meee 


WHY BUNYAN RETURNED. 


It being well known to some of his 
persecutors in London that Bunyan 
was often out of prison, they sent an of- 
ficer to talk with him on the subject. 
Bunyan was at home with his family, 
but so restless that he could not sleep; 
he therefore acquainted his wife that, 
though the jailer had given him liberty 
to stay till the morning, yet, from his 
uneasiness, he must immediately return. 
He did so, and the jailer blamed him for 
coming at so unreasonable an hour. 

Early in the morning the messenger 
came, and, interrogating the jailer, said: 
“Are all the prisoners safe?” “Yes,” “Is 
John Bunyan safe?” “Yes.” “Let me 
see him.” He was called, and appeared, 
and all was well. After the messenger 
was gone, the jailer, addressing Bunyan, 
said, “Well, you may go out again just 
when you think proper, for you know 
when to return better than I can tell 
you.”—Sel, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 63 


—— 131 -—— 


HOW GOOD EXAMPLE HELPS. 


A well dressed but unassuming man 
walked quietly into the offices of the 
American Committee for Armenian and 
Syrian Relief, 70 Fifth Avenue, New 
York, one day this week and inquired 
for the secretary. He named a Middle 
West State as his home and said he had 
been thinking about making a contribu- 
tion to help the Armenian refugees in 
Turkey and had concluded from what 
he had read in the newspapers that 
money is badly needed now. “I can 
give $5,000,” he said, “but I would like 
to hear something about the facts.” 

The assistant secretary of the commit- 
tee, Walter Mallory, summarized the sit- 
uation in accordance with information 
which had been received in recent letters 
and cablegrams. One of the facts stated 
by Mr. Mallory is that there are about 
a million Armenian and Syrian Christian 
refugees in Turkey and Persia, largely 
women and children, nearly all of whom 
are destitute. Deported from their 
homes by Turkish soldiers, many thou- 
sands are suffering for lack of the bare 
necessities of life. Then he began to tell 
of sacrifices which contributors to the re- 
lief fund had made. The visitor listened 
to the story of a minister in Chio, who 
had written that, from a salary of $80 
a month, his wife and himself would 
contribute $40 a month for six months. 
“Well,” said the stranger, “if they can 
make a sacrifice like that I think I can 
give $10,000. 

On the way to the office of Charles 
R. Crane, the treasurer, the donor was 
told of an old woman who wrote she had 
no money, but would give her old Pais- 
ley shawl—an heirloom which had been 
in the family many years and had once 
been her mother’s. He listened also to 
a letter from the mother of a little girl, 
four years, old, who had earned two 
cents sweeping the sidewalk. She wanted 
to give one cent to the Belgian babies 
and the other to the starving Armenians. 
“If other people are willing to give up 
things,” commented the stranger, “I 


ought to be willing to do the same. I 
think that everyone ought to help save 
this old Christian race. I believe I can 
give $15,000.” Before he entered the 
treasurer’s office the stranger seemed to 
make some mental calculations and 
when he wrote out his check it read 
$18,000 “Under no circumstances is my 
name to be made public,” said the 
stranger, so the treasurer, to keep his 
faith, personally deposited the check in 
the bank.—The Christian Work, June 
17, 1916. 


—— 132 — 
GOD IS NOT A MERCHANT 


For by grace are ye saved through 
faith, and not that of yourselves; it is 
the gift of God. Eph. 2:8. 

Once there was a poor woman stand- 
ing before the window of a royal con- 
servatory which looked into the public 
street. It was the dead of winter, and 
no flowers were in the garden, and no 
leaves upon the trees. But in the hot- 
house a splendid bunch of grapes hung 
from the glass ceiling, basking in the 
bright winter sun, and the poor woman 
gazed at them until the water came into 
her mouth and she sighed: “Oh, I wish 
I could take it to my sick darling.” She 
went home and sat down to her spin- 
ning wheel, and wrought until she had 
earned half a crown. She then went to 
the king’s gardener, and offered that 
sum for a bunch of grapes; but the 
gardener received her unkindly and told 
her not to come again. She returned 
home and looked around her little cot- 
tage to see whether there was anything 
she could dispense with. It was a se- 
vere winter, yet she thought she could 
do without a blanket for a week or two; 
so she pawned it for half a crown, and 
went to the king’s gardener and now of- 
fered him ten shillings. But the gardener 
scolded her and took her by the arm 
rather roughly and thrust her out. It 
just happened, however, that the king’s 
daughter was near at hand; and when 
she heard the angry words of the gar- 
dener and the crying of the woman, she 
came up and inquired into the matter. 


64 


When the poor woman had told her 
story the noble princess said, with a 
kind smile, “My dear woman, you are 
mistaken; my father is not a merchant, 
but a king; his business is not to sell, 
but to give;” whereupon she plucked 
the bunch from the vine, and gently 
dropped it into the old woman’s apron. 
So the woman obtained as a free gift 
that which the labor of many days and 
nights had been unable to procure. 

The salvation of the soul is the great- 
est thing you can desire. But you can- 
not buy it with all the riches of the 
world, with all the prayers you can 
pray, with all the alms you can give, 
with all the useful works you could 
perform during a life as long as that 
of Methuselah. The fact is, your soul’s 
salvation is in the hands of a King, and 
not of a merchant. If you receive it at 
all, it must be as a gift, for you never 
can buy it.—Sel. 


13S 


SAVED BY A SONG. 


When the English steamer, Stella, 
was wrecked on the Casquet Rocks, 
twelve women were put into a boat, 
which the storm whirled away into the 
waters without a man to steer it, and 
without an oar which the women could 
use. All they could do was to sit still 
in the boat, and let the winds and 
waves carry them whither they would. 

They passed a terrible night, not 
knowing to what fate destiny was con- 
ducting them. Cold and wet, they must 








have been quite overcome but for the 


courage, presence of mind and musical 
gifts of one of their number. This one 
was Miss Margaret Williams, a contralto 
singer of much ability, well known as a 
singer in oratorios. 

At the risk of ruining her voice, Miss 
Williams began to sing to her compan- 
ions. Through the greater part of the 
night her voice rang out over the waters. 
She sang as much of certain well-known 
oratorios as she could, particularly the 
contralto songs of “The Messiah” and 
“Elijah, and of several hyms. Her 
voice and sacred words inspired the wo- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


men in the boat to endure their suffer- 
ings. 

At about four o’clock in the morning, 
while it was still dark, a small steam 
craft which had been sent out to try to 
rescue some of the floating victims of 
the wreck, coming to pause on the 
waters, heard a woman’s strong voice 
some distance away. It seemed to be 
lifted in song. The men on the little 
steam craft listened, and to their aston- 
ishment heard the words, “Oh, rest in 
the Lord,” borne through the darkness. 
They steered in its direction, and before 
long came in sight of the boat contain- 
ing the twelve women, and they were 
taken aboard. 

If it had not been for Miss William’s 
singing they would not have been ob- 
served, and very likely would have drift- 
ed on to death, as so many other victims 
of the wreck did.—Selected. 


Paes f44 
A SUCCESSFUL SERMON | 


The Rev. Dr. Talbot W. Chambers, 
whose recent decease the church 
mourns, a few years since prepared a 
sermon in behalf of the cause of foreign 
missions. The Board of the Reformed 
Church was at the time largely in debt. 
Dr. Chambers was to preach his sermon 
on a Sunday evening. When the even- 
ing arrived it was exceedingly stormy, 
and the church was very sparsely at- 
tended. The Doctor considered the 
propriety of postponing the particular 
service, and was advised to so do. He, 
however, did not do it. At the close of 
the service, as he was about to leave the 
church, a gentleman, not connected with 
the congregation, and not a resident of 
New York, stopped him with the in- 
quiry, “What did you say the amount 
of the debt was?” He was answered 
$53,000. “I will send you my check for 
that amount,” the inquirer replied, and 
he did. A note from Dr. Chambers to 
his liberal friend would probably have 
brought no such result, nor probably 
would his sermon, if it had not been 
heard.—Assembly Herald. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 65 


—— 135 —— 


THEIR BREAKFAST CAME. 


In his biography of George Muller of 
Bristol, England, Arthur T. Pierson, D. 
D., gives the following illustration of 
how God wonderfully provided for the 
needs of the hundreds of orphans under 
the care of Mr. Muller: 


“On one occasion, when there were no 
funds in hand to provide breakfast for 
the orphans, a gentleman had occasion 
to go to his office in Bristol early that 
morning before breakfast, and on the 
way the thought occurred to him, ‘T 
will go to Mr. Muller’s orphan house 
and make them a donation.’ Accord- 
ingly he turned and walked about a 
quarter of a mile toward the orphan- 
age, when he stopped, saying to him- 
self, ‘How foolish of me to be neglect- 
ing the business I came out to attend 
to! I can give money to the orphans an- 
other time.’ 

“He turned around and started back 
toward his office, but soon felt he must 
return. He said to himself, ‘The orphans 
may be needing the money now. I may 
be leaving them in want when God has 
sent me to help them.’ So strong was 
this impression that he again turned 
around and walked back till he reached 
the orphanages, and handed in the 
money which provided them with break- 
fast.” 

In relating this incident to a large 
gathering, Mr. Muller’s comment was, 
“Just like my gracious heavenly Fath- 
er!” and then proceeded to urge his 
hearers to trust and prove what a faith- 
ful covenant-keeping God He is to 
those who put their trust in Him. 


—— 136 —— 
THE POWER HOUSE. 


The power house is usually the small- 
est and quietest building connected with 
a factory. At one side, away from the 
noise and clatter, the rattle and bang of 
the machinery, is the power which 
makes everything go The Everywhere 


Evangelist tells of a man who learned 
the way to the power house. 

“Once upon a time an evangelist had 
been booked for a meeting in a town, 
but, finding that he could not go at the 
time named, he sent a young preacher, 
who had been with him in the work, to 
begin, with the understanding he would 
follow in a few days. The young man 
began the meeting, but was soon told 
that the evangelist would, in all proba- 
bility, not be present at ail. What was 
he to do? He had had but little experi- 
ence and few sermons; and then, the 
people had not engaged him to hold the 
meeting. Must he retreat or must he 
storm the fort? He determined to con- 
tinue the meeting, after talking with his 
heavenly Father about it. Great crowds 
came to hear him; the people were 
moved; the church was aroused and sin- 
ners came to Christ. At the close of the 
meeting the evangelist came and was 
surprised, but delighted, to see that the 
work had succeeded so well. The young 
man, in relating his experience to the 
evangelist, said: ‘Come and go with me 
to the power house.” He went with him 
to a little old-fashioned log-cabin and 
there he found two old women who 
trusted in Jesus. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘I came 
each day, and here got down and to- 
gether we talked with God; and after 
receiving power I went into the pulpit, 
and God blessed the words spoken 
through His child.’ ”—Christian. 


—— 137 —— 
SAVED IN ANSWER TO PRAYER. 


I had a singular experience, which is 
very vivid to my mind. The precise 
year I cannot say, and I may be mis- 
taken in the name of the vessel. But 
somewhere about the year 1860, the 
bark Benjamin Burgess sailed from 
Boston for Cienfugos. The crew were 
mostly from the house of which I had 
charge. There had been, and there still 
was, a powerful religious influence per- 
vading our house. I said to the men as 
they were going on board: “Remember, 


66 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


I shall pray for you every day.” I made 
it a practice, directly after 12 m., to re- 
tire, and pray, and commune with God. 
One day, after the bark had been gone 
about six weeks, while bringing up be- 
fore the Lord the different cases, this 
crew was presented with unusual inter- 
est. I was thrown into an agony of 
feeling before God, and I cried to Him 
to have mercy on that crew. Such were 
my feelings. I noted the time. After 
the terrible struggle in prayer for God to 
save that crew, with strong cries and 
tears, there came into my feeling a great 
peace, as though prayer were answered, 
and that crew made safe. 

Unbeknown to me, the bark was char- 
tered to go to Antwerp, and thence to 
Boston. On their arrival back, I said: 
“Boys, did you have a hard time in 
either passage?” “Yes,” said they, “a 
fearful time on the voyage from Cien- 
fugos to Antwerp. We were being driven 
upon the rocks in a terrible gale and 
storm, Captain Snow said to us: 
‘Boys, there is no hope and no deliver- 
ance, unless God helps us;’ and sure 
enough, to our great astonishment, there 
came a wind from off the shore, and we 
were saved.” The day of my agony of 
prayer before the Lord for that crew, 
that they might be saved, was the day 
they were having that terrible ex- 
perience on the bark. I have no com- 
ments to make on that experience. I 
simply give the facts in the case.—N. 
Hamilton, in Christian Witness. 


138 —— 
TAUGHT BY HIS HAND 


Rev. E. P. Dunlap, D. D., for many 
years a missionary in Siam, at a meet- 
ing held some years ago, related the 
following remarkable incident: 


In one of the Southern provinces was 
found an old man, the Lieut. Governor 
of the province, who was already a 
Christian. In his early life he was a 
maker and worshiper of idols. One day 
he was looking at his own hands, and 
said to his wife, “These hands of ours 





are very wonderful. There must be 
some power above us to make such 
hands. Gods that we make cannot do it. 
Why should we worship them?” So 
they decided not to worship them 
any more, but to worship this unknown 
power, under a name meaning the 
“Supreme of the Universe.” 

This they did for many years. One 
day in Bangkok the old man saw a man 
selling books, and said to him, “What 
books are those you are selling?” The 
man replied: 

“The best of books, which tells us 
about God who made all things. “That 
is what I want,” the old man said, and 
bought several, one being a Bible, which 
he opened at the first chapter of Genesis, 
and read with delight. He and his wife 
read it and studied it carefully for 
months. They then said, “We will wor- 
ship the Supreme under the name of 
Jesus, which they did for years. 

Dr. Dunlap baptized them, and the 
old man built a house for him and the 
missionaries who came that way and 
entertained them. One day he went to 
a silver casket and took out some papers. 
He told Dr. Dunlap that his friends 
said to him, “What do you believe, 
what must we believe if we do not 
worship idols?” So without any help 
from any one, lead by the Spirit of God 
he had formulated a creed from the 
Word of God. It began: 

“I believe in God the father, I be- 
lieve in God the Son; I believe in God 
the Holy Spirit,” and so on, containing 
all the essential points of our evan- 
gelical faith. The one point of difference 
was his refusal to eat things strangled, 
in obedience to the first council of the 
church at Jerusalem. 

What a commentary upon the power 
of God’s word and the necessity of giv- 
ing it free circulation, without note or 
comment. How true the promise, “My 
word shall not return unto me void, 
but it shall accomplish that which I 
please and it shall prosper in the thing 
SH Na I sent it.”—Rev. Henry M. Tyn- 

all. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ego 2 
COMPOUND INTEREST. 


The Christian tells of a minister in 
Ohio, who in 1860 was engaged to stated- 
ly supply a congregation who were in 
arrears for a whole year’s salary to their 
former pastor, and were only able to 
promise their “supply” five dollars a 
Sunday till the old debt should be paid. 
At the close of the year, only about 
two-thirds of this amount had been paid. 
So it was not strange their “supply” 
soon found himself in arrears for many 
things. That year the cost of his peri- 
odicals alone had amounted to sixteen 
dollars. This he could not pay, and as 
none of them could be stopped without 
payment of arrearages the debt must 
continue to increase. 


On New Year’s day the minister was 
called to marry a couple, and gave the 
fee, five dollars, to his wife, saying, “I 
want you to get yourself a dress with 
this.” There was a kind of material 
much worn then, which she had very 
much admired, a dress of which would 
cost four dollars. So she went to the 
Mission periodicals to find the address 
of the Mission Secretary, thinking to 
send the extra dollar there. But as she 
glanced over its pages and noticed the 
trials and straits of the missionaries, 
and the embarrassment of the Board 
that year, her heart was touched and 
she felt that they needed the money 
more than she did the dress, and instead 
of the one she concluded to send the 
five dollars, 

She went to her husband and read 
her letter to him. ‘O,” said he, “I am 
afraid we are too poor to give so much.” 
With a little feeling of disappointment 
she said, “Well, give me the change and 
I will send what I intended at first.” 
“No,” said he, “you have given it, and 
I dare not take it back.” 

And so with a prayer that God would 
accept and bless the gift she signed her 
letter. “A Friend of Missions,” think- 
ing, as no one would know the authcr, 
that was the last she would hear about 
it in this world. 


ANECDOTES 67 


The ladies of that congregation were 
accustomed to meet weekly at the par- 
sonage to sew for those in need. The 
next week a lady who was visiting in 
the place came with her friends, and as 
she entered the parlor she tossed a 
bundle into the lap of the minister’s 
wife, saying, “Mrs. , here is a 
present for you.” 

The present was a dress pattern of 
the same kind of material she had in- 
tended to purchase. And as she thought 
to herself, “God has given me this in 
place of what I have given,” she was 
reminded of the words, “Give, and it 
shall be given you.” But that was not 
the end, 

A short time afterwards she received 
a letter from the Secretary of the Board 
of Missions, enclosing a printed copy 
of her own letter, and asking if she was 
the author of it; and added, “If so, a 
large-hearted man in New York has 
authorized me to send you twenty-five 
dollars, with a special request that you 
purchase a dress worth five dollars, and 
give the rest to your husband and 
children.” There was her five dollars 
back, with four times as much more 
added to it. 


—— 140 -— 
TRUE TO HIS MOTHER. 


When General Cass was stumping 
Illinois in the interest of Buchanan, one 
day after a political talk he said he 
wanted to say a word to the young men. 
This is what he said: “When I was yet 
in my teens I made up my mind to go 
to the west from my home in the Alle- 
ghany Mountains in Pennsylvania. Our. 
family was large and pvor, so I told 
my mother that I must go. “Well, 
Lewis,” she said, “if you are determined 
to go I will do the best I can to fit you 
out.” So in ten days she had my outfit 
ready. I immediately dressed myself in 
my new suit, which consisted of three 
pairs of socks, four shirts, a new cap 
and shoes and a suit of homespun, and 
four dollars in money. 


When she kissed me good-bye, she 


68 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


said, “Lewis, you are going away from 
home and friends. I ask you to promise 
me that you will keep away from the 
dram shop and the gaming table, that 
you will keep good company and go to 
church on Sunday. Will you do ail 
this? Answer me, Lewis,” she said, as 
the tears were streaming down her 
cheeks. I said, ‘Mother, I will.” And 
I have kept my promise. Since then I 
have sat at the tables of three kings in 
Europe; I have ‘been intrusted with 
many of the highest offices in my coun- 
try and once was a candidate for the 
presidency, and I owe it all to taking 
that mother’s advice. I would say to 
you young men, “Take your mother’s ad- 
vice and you will bless the day you did 
so when I am dead and gone.”—George 
Quinan. 


—— 141-—— 


THE MISDIRECTED ENVELOPES. 


James Jerrold was out of work. He 
was a young married man. The dissolu- 
tion of a firm threw him out of employ- 
ment. Repeated failures to obtain work 
nearly disheartened him. But his good 
wife kept him hopeful, and daily prayer 
preserved his strength and courage, for 
James Jerrold believed in God. 

One evening the mail brought him two 
letters. One from Slater & Bunce offer- 
ing him a situation and a large salary; 
the other was from Wallace & Co. offer- 
ing a situation and a small salary. He 
did as doubtless hundreds of others 
would have done. He wrote to Slater & 
Bunce accepting their offer, and another 
to Wallace & Co. declining. 

The next day he received answers to 
his letters. Slater & Bunce wrote their 
regrets that he had declined their offer, 
and Wallace & Co. named the time 
when he should report for duty. 

James had carelessly changed the en- 
velopes in replying, and each firm had 
received the letter intended for the 
other. He hurried to the city to rectify 
his mistake. He was too late. The 
vacancy in Slater & Bunce had been 
filled. Then James could only accept 


the inevitable. He went to his new 
work and small salary with a heavy 
heart. Wallace & Co. were an old and 
safe firm, and they were pleased with 
him. One day James was startled by a 
piece of news. He hurried home to tell 
his wife. Slater & Bunce had failed. 
James Jerrold’s mistake proved a bless- 
ing in disguise.—Selected. 


—— 142 —— 
A FEARLESS CONFESSION. 


It is recorded that Frederick the Great 
of Prussia was once ridiculing Christ 
and Christianity in the presence of a 
gathering of his nobles and generals, 
who were convulsed with laughter at 
his coarse and impious witticisms, There 
was one brave general, however, who 
sat gloomily silent while the laugh went 
around. 

This was Joachin Ven Lietan, one 
of the ablest and bravest of them all. 
Unable longer to endure it, he “dares” 
something for his Master, whom he 
loved even more than he loved his king. 
See him! With the utmost gravity he 
arose from his seat, shakes his gray 
head, and addressing the king, said in 
solemn tone: 

“Your Majesty knows well that in 
war I have never feared any danger, and 
everywhere I have boldly risked my life 
for you and my country; but there is 
One above us who is greater than you 
and me, greater than all men; He is the 
Saviour and Redeemer, who has died 
also for your Majesty, and has dearly 
bought us all with His own blood. This 
Holy One I can never allow to be mock- 
ed or insulted; for on Him repose my 
faith, my comfort, and my hope in life 
and death. In the power of this faith, 
you undermine at the same time the 
welfare of your state. I salute your 
Majesty.” 

The brave old general sat down. Fred- 
erick looked at him in amazement and 
unconcealed admiration, and then and 
there apologized in the presence of those 
whom he had entertained with his vul- 
gar jests.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 69 


eoeewe 143 
HE SAID, “NO!” 


The great Young Men’s Christian As- 
sociation Convention, recently held in 
Boston, brought delegates from all parts 
of the world to testify to the value of 
the Christian religion as the highest rule 
of conduct for practical life. The fol- 
lowing was told by one who had travel- 
ed 8,000 miles to attend the meetings: 

“My father was a rancher on a small 
scale in Australia. He was an English 
emigrant of sturdy yoeman stock, and 
while the free life of a shepherd had 
taught him tolerance and kindness, he 
remained true in principal to the strict 
lessons of his early yea4rs. 

The nearest neighbor or station was 
ten miles away, but the ranchmen used 
to think nothing of riding twenty or for- 
ty miles to a centrally located farm on 
Saturday, to spend the night in carousal, 
and ride back on Sunday. When the 
men came together once a week this 
way, drinking and gambling seemed in- 
evitable. 

“At last it was my father’s turn to en- 
tertain. He must invite the herders of 
the kraals and ranches within a radius 
of nearly fifty miles. 

“* Boys,’ he said to his two sons, my 
brother and myself, ‘it’s the parting of 
the ways. We either live as we have 
~ lived, simply in the fear of God, minding 
our business, paying our debts, if we 
can, saving our money, if possibie, and 
being cut by every man around here, or 
fall into the ways of our neighbors, and 
drink and gamble ourselves into perdi- 
tion. I am not going to break your 
mother’s heart and I say, ‘No,’ even if 
they burn us down.’ So it came about 
that my brother and I divided the circuit 
between us, and I rode to the north and 
he to the south. To every ranchntan 
this message went: ‘Father invites you 
for Saturday and Sunday as_ usual. 
There will be no cards or liquor—only 
a quiet talk about old New England and 
the welfare of the colony.’ 

“We waited that Saturday afternoon 
with trembling, not expecting a single 


guest; but the whole section was repre- 
sented. 

“With mother opposite him, father 
said grace at the table, and we boys saw 
tears flow down rugged cheeks. That 
night the men talked along about bush- 
men and rabbits, and fences, and 


‘drought, and how to stand by each other. 


“The next morning, as he did every 
Sunday morning, father conducted pray- 
ers, this time before fifty of the roughest 
men I had ever seen assembled; and 
there was singing of hymns, broken here 
and there by sobs and tears. When they 
parted, my father, although a recent 
comer, was acknowledged leader of the 
community 

“That section became the most pros- 
perous section in all the country around, 
and I thought if Christian courage could 
accomplish that, it was good enough to 
live and die by. My father’s ‘No,’ was 
the one thing needed to save the com- 
munity, and it saved it.”——Youth’s Com- 
panion. 


dances 1a 
THE MISJUDGED HEN. 


One of the members of our church 
living in the upper part of the city had 
a hen which annoyed her by cackling as 
though she had laid anegg. She would 
seem to delight in getting into the pres- 
ence of her mistress and then cackle as 
if wonders had been done as regards 
egg-laying. But diligent search failed 
to discover any eggs. This kept on un- 
til Mrs. Lion, decided the hen was prac- 
ticing deception, and she so despised 
liars that one day after the hen had de- 
clared her egg-laying qualities with 
more vehemence than usual, Mrs. Lion, 
determined to no longer tolerate the 
deceitful thing ‘and so the hen was 
killed and prepared for the pot. But 
the grief and surprise of the mistress 
may be imagined when a few days later, 
a nest full of beautiful eggs were found. 
When Mrs. Lion saw she had so mis- 
judged the faithful hen, her self-re- 
proach made her nearly sick. 

Moral:—Judge not.—Rev. 
Tyndail. 


H. M. 


70 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


——— 145 —— 


HENRY RYAN’S VISIT TO ETHAN 
ALLEN. 


On one of the Lorenzo Dow’s erratic 
evangelistic tours through New York 
State he happened on a community 
where a young Irish Catholic, Henry 
Ryan, was teaching school. The fame 
of Dow was in all the land in those 
days, and the people gathered, coming 
on horseback for many miles, to hear 
him. Ryan had never attended any ex- 
cept the services of the Roman Catholic 
Church, but his curiosity to hear and 
see Lorenzo Dow overcame his scru- 
ples, and he became one of the attend- 
ants on the meetings of the evangelist. 
As he listened to what seemed to him 
a new Gospel he became deeply con- 
victed of sin, and at once renounced his 
errors both of doctrine and life, and be- 
came a very happy Methodist. 


When his parents came to know of 
his conversion they were very angry, 
and after arguing with him in vain gave 
him his choice between giving up his 
new religion or forfeiting all associa- 
tion with his home. As he would not 
give up his religion, he was disowned, 
and with the exception of his sister, 
who went with him, saying she would 
not belong to a church that was “desti- 
tute of the grace of forgiveness,” he was 
ever afterwards separated from his 
family. 

Ryan soon began to exhort, and not 
long after was convicted that it was his 
duty to become a preacher. A little 
while later he became deeply in love 
with Miss Huldah Lord, the daughter 
of a wealthy gentleman who was very 
much opposed to the Methodists, but 
as his daughter’s heart was completely 
given to Ryan he finally reluctantly con- 
sented to their marriage. Mr. Lord 
then offered to advance the money to 
set his son-in-law up in business, on 
condition that he would give up his 
preaching, but Ryan would not do that, 
and was proof against all persuasion. 


<The territory of the New York Con- 


ference at that time was very great, and 
in the year 1800, the first year of Ryan’s 
ministry, his circuit embraced a large 
part of the State of Vermont. A great 
test of faith came to him at the very 
outset of his itinerancy. For some time 
nothing had been paid on their salary, 
and their funds were completely ex- 
hausted. Hunger and starvation stared 
them in the face, and there was now a 
little child to suffer with them. Mrs. 
Ryan had bravely tried to be a faithful 
Methodist preacher’s wife, but when 
she saw her little child hungry she; 
urged her husband once more to give 
up preaching and go home to her father 
and set up in business. It was a dark 
hour for Ryan, and he could see no light 
in the sky. He felt that he did not dare 
to give up his ministry, and yet he could 
not let his wife and child starve. Final- 
ly, just as the darkness was coming on 
one evening, he said to his wife that he 
would go alone into a forest nearby and 
pray to God for guidance, and he felt 
sure that they would be guided aright. 
The hours wore on, but he did not re- 
turn to the house, and Mrs. Ryan was 
naturally almost crazy with anxiety. 
She saw nothing of him until that long 
sleepless night had passed and the morn- 
ing dawned. Then, after having spent 
the whole night in prayer, he came from 
the woods and met her with a smiling 
face, saying “I believe God will send us 
help to-day. If help does not come to- 
day I will take you to your father’s, and 
go in business as he wishes me.” 

The fragments left for breakfast were 
soon eaten, and there was as yet no sign 
of deliverance. About the middle of 
the forenoon, however, a stranger rode 
up to the door, and without alighting 
from his horse inquired, “Does the 
Methodist preacher live here?’* He 
does,” was the reply, and Mr. Ryan 
went to see what was wanted. The 
stranger was none other than the far- 
famed Revolutionary soldier and avow- 
ed infidel, Colonel Ethan Allen, who, 
having told his name, continued, I am 
not a professor of religion, but I respect 
brave men, and from all I can learn you 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


are no hypocrite, I want you to come 
to my house and bring your wife with 
you as my wife wants to get acquainted 
with her.” And shaking hands with 
Ryan the brusque old soldier left ten 


dollars in his hand. From that time as 
long as Ryan remained in that neigh- 
borhood the family found a warm friend 
and generous supporter in Ethan Allen. 

Henry Ryan became one of the found- 
ers of Methodism in Canada, and trav- 
eled the Canada district as a presid- 
ing elder for several years. He was a 
very large man, being not only six feet 
high, but became exceedingly broad and 
corpulant, so that no one horse was able 
to carry him around on his district. He 
was compelled to use two, riding one 
and leading the other, and thus chang- 
ing his mount every other day. Some- 
thing of the character of the work may 
be imagined when it is stated that it 
was no unusual occurrence for him to 
start from Canada on horseback to at- 
tend a session of conference at New 
York or Baltimore; and he did it with 
as much cheerfulness as the minister of 
to-day would take a ticket for his state- 
room in a Pullman car for his trip by 
the night express. 

Mrs. Ryan, ‘too, developed all the 
courage of the heroine in the later years 
of their life. On one occasion, when 
she was alone with the children in the 
Canadian woods, the house was filled 
with Indians, painted and armed with 
their scalping knives and tomahawks. 
The Indians began to loot the house, 
and she and the children were much 
alarmed. Knowing that resistance was 
useless, Mrs, Ryan called her terrified 
children around her, took the large fami- 
ly Bible from the stand, and commenced 
reading it aloud. The Indians watched 
her for a time, but as she calmly con- 
tinued her reading they came to the 
conclusion that she must be a witch, and 
that, with the aid of her “Big Book,” 
she was about to cast a spell upon them. 
A panic seized them. They threw down 
the things which they had collected and 
fled from the house.—Sel. 


ANECDOTES ‘ya 


ea beees 
HOW THE FOG WAS LIFTED. 


Soon after his conversion Captain 
Lewis W. Pennington was sent to sea in 
command of the Morro Castle, of the 
Ciyde Line. During this voyage an in- 
cident occurred which made a deep im- 
pression on his mind and led him to 
meditate much on the unlimited power 


of prayer. His vessel was bound from 
New York to Charleston, N. C. For 
two days and nights she had been sur- 
rounded by a dense fog. 

The captain, almost worn out by loss 
of rest and anxiety, was about to enter 
the pilot-house, about four o’clock in the 
morning, when the thought occurred to 
him that he had the privilege of commit- 
ting the responsibility which was weigh- 
ing upon him to an all-wise God. He 
turned into his own room and, kneeling 
down, besought God’s help. It was no 
vague prayer, but a definite petition that 
God would remove the fog. He felt as- 
sured that his prayer was heard. Enter- 
ing the pilot-house, his cheerful face was 
noticed by the officers of the watch, who 
inquired what had happened. The cap- 
tain said that he expected the fog to 
clear immediately. His attention was 
called to the fact that there was no sun 
nor any sign of anything that could lift 
it. The captain told them that he had 
prayed about it, and he believed that his 
prayer would be answered. His hearers, 
however, would have had more faith in 
a gleam of sunshine, and one of them, as 
he went out of the pilot house, muttered 
an expression of contempt for prayer in 
such cases. The captain followed him 
to speak a word of reproof, when both 
saw three vivid flashes of lightning, 
which seemed almost to strike the ship. 
The sailor stopped his ridicule and stag- 
gered back in amazement as he saw the 
fog completely dispersed by the electric 
fiash, We understand that one of the 
officers on board was so impressed with 
the occurrence that it ultimately led to 
his conversion—Selected. 


72. ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 147 — 
THE FIVE-DOLLAR GOLD-PIECE. 


“A friend,’ says a venerable clergy- 
man, Rev. Mr. H 7; at a atime 
when gold was scarce, made me a pres- 
ent of a five-dollar gold-piece. I re- 
solved not to spend it, and for a long 
time carried it in my pocket as a token 
of friendship. In riding about the coun- 
try, I one day fell in with an acquain- 
tance, who presented a subscription 
book for the erectio of a church in a 
destitute place. 

“T can do nothing for you, Mr. B 
said I; “my heart is in this good under- 
taking, but my pocket is entirely empty ; 
having no money, you must excuse me.” 

“Oh, certainly,” said he; “all right, 
sir. We know you always give when 
it is in your power.” 

“We parted; and after I had proceed- 
ed some distance, I bethought me of 
the piece of gold in my vest pocket. 
“What,” said I to myself “I told that 
man I had no money, when I had by me 
all this time this gold pocket-piece. 
This was an untruth, and I had done 
wrong.” I kept reproaching myself in 
this way until I stopped and took from 
my pocket the five-dollar piece. 

“Of what use,” said I, “is this piece 
of money stowed away so nicely in my 
pocket?” I made up my mind to turn 
back, and rode as fast as I could until 
I overtook Mr. B , to whom I 
gave the coin, and resumed my journey. 

“A few days after I stopped at the 
house of a lady who treated me very 
hospitably, for which I could make no 
return, except in thanks and Christian 
counsel. When I took leave, she slipped 
into my vest pocket a little folded 
paper, which she told me to give to my 
wife. I supposed it was some trifle for 
the children, and thought no more of it 
until I reached home. I handed it to 
my wife, who opened it, and to my as- 
tonishment, it was a five-dollar gold 
piece, the identical pocket-piece I had 
parted with but a few days before. I 
knew it was the same, for I had made 
amark upon it; how this had been 








%» 
> 





brought about wes a mystery, but that 
the hand of the Lord was in it I could 
not doubt. “See,” said I to my wife; 
“I thought I gave that money, but I 
only lent it; how soon has the Lord re- 
turned it! Never again will I doubt his 
word.” 

“T afterward learned that Mr. B 
had paid over the coin to the husband 
of the lady at whose house I staid, along 
with some other money, in payment for 
lumber, and he had given it to his wife. 


“Take my advice, and when appealed 
to for aid, fear not to give of your pov- 
erty; depend upon it the Lord will not 
let you lose it, if you wish to do good. 
If you wish to prosper, ‘Give, and it 
shall be given unto you; for with the 
same measure that ye mete, it shall be 
measured to you again.’ ‘Trust in the 
Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell 
in the land and verily thou shalt be 
fed.’ ”—Sel. 





—— 148 —— 
WHAT THE RAIN DID. 


A merchant was one day returning 
from market. He was on horseback, 
and behind his saddle was a bag filled 
with money. The ruin fell with vio- 
lence, and the old man was wet to the 
skin. At this he was quite vexed and 
murmured because God had given him 
such bad weather for his journey. He 
soon reached the border of a thick 
forest. What was his terror on behold- 
ing on one side of the road a robber, 
who, with a gun, was aiming at him, 
and attempting to shoot him! But the 
powder being wet with the rain, the gun 
did not go off; and the merchant, giving 
spurs to his horse, fortunately had time 
to escape. As soon as he found himself 
safe, he said: “How wrong was I not 
to endure the shower patiently, as it 
was sent by Providence! If the weath- 
er had been dry and fair, I should not, 
probably, have been alive at this hour; 
the rain, which caused me to murmur, 
came at a fortunate moment to save my 
life, and preserve to me my property.” 

—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ogee AQ aan 


THE ANGEL OF MERCY. 


At the close of the first bloody day 
of the battle of Fredericksburg, hun- 
dreds of the Union wounded were leit 
lying on the ground, and the road 
ascending Mary’s Heights, All night 
and most of the next day, the open 
Space was swept by artillery shot from 
both the opposing lines, and no one 
could venture to the sufferer’s relief. All 
that time their agonized cries went up 
for “Water! water!” But there was no 
one to help them, and the roar of the 
guns mocked their distress. 

At length, however, one brave fellow, 
behind the stone ramparts where the 
Southern forces lay, gave way to his 
sympathy, and rose superior to his love 
of life. He was a sergeant in a South 
Carolina regiment, and his name was 
Richard Kirkland. In the afternoon he 
hurried to General Kershaw’s headquar- 
ters, and finding the commanding officer, 
said to him excitedly: 

“General, I can’t stand this any long- 
er. Those poor souls out there have 
been praying and crying all night and 
all day, and it’s more than I can bear. 
I ask your permission to go and give 
them water.” 

“But, do you know,” said the gen- 
eral, admiring the soldier’s noble spirit, 
“do you know that as soon as you show 
yourself to the enemy you will be shot?” 

“Yes, sir; I know it; but to carry a 
little comfort to those poor dying men, 
1’m willing to run the risk.” 

The general hesitated for a moment, 
but finally said with emotion: 

“Kirkland, it’s sending you to your 
death, but I cannot oppose such a mo- 
tive at yours. For the sake of it I hope 
God will protect you. Go.” 

Furnished with a supply of water, the 
brave sergeant immediately stepped 
over the wall, and applied himself to his 
work of Christ-like mercy. Wondering 
eyes looked on as he knelt by the nearest 
sufferer, and, tenderly raising his head, 
held the cooling cup to his parched lips. 
Before his first service of love was 
finished, everyone in the Union lines 


ANECDOTES 13 
understood the mission of the noble sol- 
dier in gray, and not a man fired a shot. 
He staid there on that terrible field an 
hour and a half, giving drink to the 
thirsty and dying, straightening their 
cramped and mangled limbs, pillowing 
their heads on their knapsacks, and 
spreading their army coats and blankets 
over them, as mother would cover her 
child; and all the while he was so en- 
gaged, until his gentle ministry was 
finished, the fusilade of death was 
hushed. 

So it is on life’s battlefield. The can- 
nonade of sin and wickedness is hushed 
and powerless before the fearless Chris- 
tian soldier who dares to do right, even 
though his life hangs in the balance.— 
N, W. Christian Advocate. 


—— 150 —— 
HOW A LITTLE GIRL WORKED. 


“A little child shall lead them.” A 
modern illustration is recounted in the 
London Christian. There are ninety 
villages belonging to the city of Tyre in 
Syria, and not a Bible, was to be found 
in any of them not so long ago. 

But a little girl who had been taught 
about Jesus in the British Syrian Sun- 
day schools, at Beirut, went to Tyre, to 
spend her summer holidays. She took 
her Arabic Testament with her, and read 
verses from it to the people. They be- 
gan to get quite interested, and used to 
look forward to her coming to them day 
by day. But at last her holidays were 
over, and they had to say goodby to the 
Book and its little teacher. 

They often thought and talked about 
her and about the beautiful words she 
used to read, until after two years they 
felt they must get a teacher of their 
own. So they wrote to Beirut, and ask- 
ed for one to come: and who do you 
think was sent? Why, this same little 
girl, who had by this time left school 
and was old enough to go as a teacher 
herself; and she worked up quite a 
flourishing school. 

Now there are twenty-nine schools in 
different places, in which 3,000 children 
are being taught about Jesus.—Selected. 


74, ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


———- 151 ——— 


FINDING THE LOST $20. BILL 

Whether wisely or not, Mrs. Nathan 
Bullock had signed a note with her 
son, Walter, for $20. to enable him to 
buy a horse. It was her motherly in- 
stinct alone which prompted her to do 
this, without the knowledge of her hus- 
band. The title of their little home 
stood in her name, and if that should 
have to be mortgaged to pay the note, 
it would indeed be a serious matter. 
To guard against such liability she 
treasured her small savings during the 
summer, and by working industriousty 
that autumn at fruit drying, she at last 
had the satisfaction of knowing that 
the $20 was on hand, in case her son 
should be unable to pay the note when 
it fell due. This $20 was in the form 
of a bill, which was neatly folded and 
carefully placed within her purse, which 
was never out of the possession of the 
owner, 

One day toward the last of December, 
Mrs. Powell, the daughter of Mrs. Bul- 
lock, paid a visit to her mother. When 
her daughter took her departure, since 
she was to walk home, Mrs. Bullock 
proposed to goa piece with her. When 
they had reached a point in the rdad 
marked by a large stone at the road- 
side, they stood conversing for a few 
moments, and just before separating the 
thought came to Mrs. Bullock to make 
her daughter a present of a dollar, 
which she knew would be quite ac- 
ceptable. She took out her purse, 
handed the dollar to her daughter, 
kissed her good bye, and returned to 
her home. 

Not long after, Mrs. Bullock had oc- 
casion to open her purse again, and it 
occurred to her to make sure of having 
the $20 bill. it took but:a moment to 
discover that it was missing. She 
looked through the purse again and 
again, but the bill was gone. The purse 
had not left the custody of its owner, 
neither had it been opened since she 
gave the dollar to her daughter. She 
went at once to the place where she had 
parted with her daughter, thinking that 


perhaps the bill had dropped from the 
purse and had blown to the roadside, 
and that possibly she might find it. The 
search was in vain. 

After her fruitless search she return- 
ed home, and made known her loss to 
her aged Christian mother, who resided 
with her, and then had a good cry. The 
loss represented the savings of half a 
year. And the note would be due in 
the spring, and what would she do? 
Her mother encouraged her to think 
that the bill would yet be found. It 
may have been folded with the one she 
gave her daughter. But when she saw 
her daughter a few days later and 
learned that she knew nothing of the 
lost $20 bill, all hope in that direction 
was gone. Winter storms came on and 
to recover the bill from the road-side, or 
from the fields into which it may have 
blown seemed out of the question. 

Although not a professed Christian, 
Mrs. Bullock was a believer in the etti- 
Gacy of prayer, so when her mother pro- 
posed that they pray about it, she will- 
ingly agreed She told the Lord all 
about her trouble. She confessed she 
had not served him, nor done as she 
ought, but with humbled heart and 
streaming eyes, she promised her Heav- 
enly Father that if he would restore the 
bill to her she would serve him there- 
after and acknowledge to her friends 
that he had answered her prayer. She 
arose from her knees with a determina- 
tion to be a Christian, and was com- 
forted with the hope of finding the 
twenty dollars. 

She continued to make its recovery 
the subject of her prayer for weeks fol- 
lowing, and the wish for its restoration 
was gradually transformed into a set- 
tled conviction that God would in some 
way restore it to her. Once or twice 
when her way had led in that direction 
she had crossed the field toward which 
the wind was blowing the diay she lost 
the money, thinking that possibly she 
might find the lost bill. The weeks 
passed on, the last of March came. 
Thaws had succeeded the frosts of the 
winter, and the rain and warm winds 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


had cleared the fields of snow excepting 
in patches. 

One day Mrs. Bullock felt that she 
ought to go to her daughter’s. The dis- 
tance not being greater than two miles 
she walked. While at dinner, an im- 
pulse came to her to return home. Her 
daughter tried to dissuade her from go- 
ing so early, and told her to wait a little 
later, and Mr. Powell would take her 
home. But Mrs. Bullock felt she should 
go then and go she did. On her return 
home she was overtaken by an acquain- 
tance who invited her to ride which or- 
dinarily she would have gladly done as 
the roads were very muddy. But she 
felt she ought to decline the invitation, 
and she did so. 

As she approached a point in the 
road where by crossing the fields she 
could reach her home, she yielded to 
an impulse to go cross lots, notwith- 
standing the bad walking. As she 
picked her way across the field, she 
scanned the ground in every direction 
for the lost bill. When about half the 
distance had been traversed, she spied 
something fluttering from the top of the 
stubble. She went to it, and lo, behold, 
it was her long lost $20 bill! 

Her heart was so full of rejoicing 
that she could hardly restrain herself 
from shouting aloud God’s praise, and 
when she reached her home she and 
her aged mother beglan to thank God 
with so loud a voice that Mr. Bullock 
came from the barn to find out what 
the trouble was, and then he learned 
for the first time of the loss of the $20 
bill, and of its safe recovery after being 
exposed to the freezing and thawing, 
the snows and the rains of the open 
fields for three months. He was obliged 
to confess that it was marvelous; and 
Mrs. Bullock, true to her vow, never 
tired of telling how God had answered 
her unworthy prayer; and ever after she 
ascribed her conversion to the loss and 
recovery of the $20 bill. 

This is a true story, and the writer 
gives it as he heard it from the lips of 
Mrs Bullock, whom he had known all 
his life—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


ANECDOTES 1 


a——— 152 ——— 
ONLY A BOY. 


There is a striking story of a certain 
missionary who was sent for, on one 
occasion, to go to a little village in an 
out-of-the-way corner of India, to bap- 
tize and receive into church fellowship 
sixty or seventy adult converts from 
Hindooism. 

At the commencement of the pro- 
ceedings, he had noticed a boy about 
fifteen years of age sitting in a back 
corner, looking very anxiously and 
listening very wistfully. He now came 
torward, 

“What, my boy! do you want to join 
the church?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“But you are very young, and if I 
were to receive you into fellowship with 
this church to-day, and then you were 
to slip aside, it would bring discredit 
upon this church and do great injury 
to the cause of Christ. I shall be com- 
ing this way again in about six months. 
Now, you be very loyal to the Lord 
Jesus Christ during that time, and if, 
when I come again at the end of the 
half year, I find you still steadfast and 
true, I will baptize and receive you 
gladly.” 

No sooner was this said, then all the 
people rose to their feet, and some 
speaking for the rest, said, “Why, sir, 
it is he that taught us all that we know 
about Jesus Christ.” 

And so it turned out to be. This was 
the little minister of the little church, 
the honored instrument in the hand of 
God of saving all the rest for Jesus 
Christ.—Forward. 


153 —— 
LIFE’S HARD JOURNEY. 


Certainly if this pilgrimage were all 
the way a way of ease, then we should 
not much desire to hasten on it, or to 
come to the end of it, or to see God in 
heaven; too much satisfied with the 
sweetness of the streams, we should 
stay away from the fountain.—Dr. Chee- 
ver. 





76 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 





mn 154 
CHRIST’S CONSTRAINING LOVE. 


A friend of mine who has charge of 
one hundred and fifty boys in a Reform 
School, is accustomed, when they mis- 
behave, to put them for a time on bread 
and water. What do you think he does 
himself in some of these cases? He 
goes and puts himself with them on 
bread and water! The boys in the 
school see this, and they learn love of 
their superintendent and father. Now, 
when tempted to crime, they must say 
to themselves—“If I do wrong, I shall 
have to live on bread and water; but 
the worst of all is, my father will come 
and eat bread and water with me and 
for my sake; and how can I bear that? 
How can I bear to have my father who 
loves me so well, confine himself to 
bread and water for my sake!” 

So Jesus puts Himself on pain and 
shame and death that you might be for- 
given and saved from sinning; and now 
will you go on to sin more? Have you 
no heart to appreciate his dying love? 
Can you go on and sin yet more and 
none the less for all the love shown you 
on Calvary? 

In that Reform School of which I 
spoke, the effects roduced on even the 
worst boys by the love shown them is 
really striking. The Superintendent had 
long insisted that he did not want locks 
and bars to confine the boys. The Di- 
rectors had said—“You must lock them 
in; if you don’t they will run away.” 
On one occasion, the Superintendent 
was to be absent two weeks. A Direc- 
tor came to him, urging that he must 
lock up the boys before he left, for 
while he was absent they would certain- 
ly run away. The Superintendent re- 
plied—I think not; I have confidence in 
those boys. But, responds the Director, 
give us some guarantee. Are you will- 
ing to pledge your city lot, conditioned 
that if they run away, the lot goes to 
the Reform School Fund? After a little 
reflection, he consents—“I will give you 
my lot—if any of my boys run ‘away 
while I am gone.” Before he sets off 
he calls all the boys together; explains 


to them his pledge; asks them to look 
at his dependent family, and then ap- 
peals to their honor and love for him. 
“Would you be willing to see me strip- 
ped of all my property? I think I can 
trust you.” He went, returned a little 
unexpectedly tand late on one Saturday 
night. Scarce had he entered the yard, 
when the word rang through the sleep- 
ing halls—“Our father has come!” and 
almost in a moment they were greeting 
him and shouting, “We are all here! 
we are all here!” 

Cian not Christ’s love have as much 
power as that? Shall the love the Re- 
form School boys bear to their official 
father hold them to their place during 
the long days and nights of his absence; 
and shall not Christ’s love to us restrain 
us from sinning? What do you say? 
Will you say thus: “If Christ loves me 
so much, then it is plain he won’t send 
me to hell, and therefore I will go on 
and sin all I please.” Do you say that? 
Then there is no hope for you. The 
Gospel that ought to save you can do 
nothing for you but sink you deeper in 
moral and eternal ruin. Because you 
are fully bent to pervert it to your utter 
damnation! If those Reform School 
boys had said thus—“Our Father loves 
us so well, he will eat bread and water 
with us, and therefore we know he will 
not punish us to hurt us”—would they 
not certainly bring a curse on themsel- 
ves? Would not their reformation be 
utterly hopeless? So of the sinner who 
can make light of the Saviour’s dying 
love. Oh, is it possible that when Jesus 
has died for you to save your soul from 
sin and from hell, you can do it again 
and yet again? Will you live on in sin 
only the more because He has loved you 
so much? 

Think of this and make up your mind. 
“If Christ has died to redeem me from 
sin, then away with all sinning hence- 
forth and forever! I forsake all my 
sins from this hour! I can afford to 
live or to die with my Redeemer; why 
not? So help me God, I’ll have no more 
to do with sinning forever !”—President 
Charles G. Finney. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 7 


we 155 ——— 


A WORD IN SEASON. 


In the year 1861, I was present at a 
drawing-room meeting presided over by 
Sir Stevenson Blackwood. His wife, I 
remember, a Duchess, was there. 
Among those present was a young man, 
seventeen years of age, named Archi- 
bald G. Brown, who listened with im- 
patience to the address. At the close 
Mr. Blackwood put his hand on his 
shoulder asking, “Are you a Christian?” 
“I am not, and I do not wish to be,” 
was the quick reply. Sir Stevenson, 
looking at him out of his tender pene- 
trating eyes, simply said, “How sad.” 
These two words, as Mr. Brown said, 
hooked themselves into his soul. They 
remained there until he saw the way of 
salvation through faith in Christ and 
believed in Him. 

Soon after Mr. Brown’s conversion, 
he asked the superintendent of the Sun- 
day school to be alowed to teach a 
class. But, knowing what a wild life 
he had led the superintendent responded 
kindly, but decisively, “No, Archie, we 
cannot let you teach.” Brown then 
asked, “If I can collect a class, will you 
give me a corner of the room to teach 
in?” The next Sunday he came with a 

class of boys he had picked up in the 
- streets. From that starting point, he 
went on until he had graduated trom 
Mr. Spurgeon’s college, and was recom- 
mended by him as pastor of the Stepney 
Green Tabernacle, where he labored for 
thirty years and gathered into church 
fellowship six hundred souls. His 
church was but a short distance from 
Dr. Barnardo’s Edinburgh Castle, and 
while holding meetings there I some- 
times came in contact with him. His 
heart was in deep sympathy with any 
effort for the salvation of men. He has 
I see, been holding meetings in Denver, 
Col., on his way around the world. May 
God’s blessings go with him. 

Those two little words, “How sad,” 
falling from the lips of one who longed 
for his salvation, sent home by the Holy 
Spirit, lead to these grand results. May 


the Lord help us to watch for oppor- 


tunities to speak “Just a word for 
Jesus’—Rev. E. Payson Hammond. 


—— 156 —— 
WHY SHE PREVAILED. 


Living in one of the towns of a West- 
ern State was an excellent Christian 
woman, who had a drunken, infidel hus- 
band, for whom she had long prayed. 
So mean ‘and wicked was he that he 
would never allow her to mention Chris- 
tianity in the house, and often abused 
her. 

An evangelist had been holding a 
meeting in the town, and the last night 
had come. Repeatedly this little Chris- 
tian woman had been to the altar pray- 
ing for this ungodly and unbelieving 
husband. On this night in question, 
she was again there, and realizing what 
it meant for the meeting to close, ap- 
pealed publicly to the evangelist not to 
discontinue the services. Immediately 
in the rear of the house, a man arose, 
a drayman in the town, who had been 
wicked, and made this statement: 

“Last night I was passing a certain 
house in this town, and as I was near 
the fence, a voice attracted my atten- 
tion out in the yard. Stopping, I heard 
a woman praying for her wicked, 
wicked husband, who was at that time 
drunk and had driven her from the 
house. Immediately I fell on my knees, 
I had never prayed before, but I com- 
menced to cry to God for mercy, and 
he spoke peace to my soul. That woman 
is she who has just spoken, and her 
prayer woke me up, and I am saved.” 

While he was speaking, and as he sat 
down, the sound of footsteps on the 
pavement, ‘as a man running, was heard; 
and immediately in rushed a man in dis- 
tress of mind, who at once passed up 
the aisle and begged the people to pray 
for him. It was the infidel husband of 
the little praying woman. 

Prayer had at last prevailed. Impor- 
tunity in prayer had won her husband 
at the last moment, and saved another 
big sinner for good measure.—Cassius, 
in Way of Faith. 


73 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 157 ——— 
THE BANK OF FAITH. 


This is the title of a little book, quaint 
and curious, by a very eccentric Congre- 
gational minister in England, who died 
in 1813. He was noted for his faith in 
divine providence, even to the minutest 
events of daily life, and used to write 
his name thus: William Huntington, 
S. S. 

The S. S. meant Sinner Saved! The 
book is an autobiography from this one 
point of view, and every page discloses 
events in answer to prayer for temporal 
relief. There is space here for but a 
brief extract, which may be taken as a 
specimen of the entire volume. 


Of a time when he was in great need, 
he says: “However, I found that God 
now began much to try my patience, and 
that I ought to importune and watch, 
and wait upon the Lord, and to keep my 
eye fixed upon him, as a servant’s eye 
is on the hand of his master, until I ob- 
tained an answer. And I never waited 
on his Blessed Majesty in vain; 
for it was sure to come at length. Af- 
ter putting up many petitions and 
having been kept long in suspense, I one 
night called on Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in 
Chandler Street, Oxford Road, who 
were great friends to me. Before I de- 
parted, they generously niade me a 
present of three guineas. I humbly 
beg their pardon for mentioning their 
names, and exposing their secret alms; 
but as I prayed to my Father, which 
seeth in secret, and in mercy rewarded 
me openly, I therefore must proclaim it 
upon the house-top, to encourage the 
weak faith of others, that they make 
God thcir Guardian and their Bank. 

Again: “The next morning a person 
knocked at my door, desiring to see me. 

When he came into my study, I look- 
ed at him, and perceived him to be a 
gentleman that I had never seen before. 


He told me that he once heard me 
preach at Dr. Gifford’s meeting-house, 
and once or twice in Margaret St. 
Chapel, and that he had heard me great- 


ly to his satisfaction; and the reason of 
his coming to see me now was, that he 
had been exercised, the last night with 
a dream; that he dreamed the word of 
God came to him, saying, ‘if thy brother 
be waxen poor, thou shalt open thy 
hand to thy poor brother,’ etc. He 
asked me if there was such a portion 
of scripture. I answered, the words 
were these: (the whole connected pas- 
sage being given.) He told me many 
of these words came to him in his sleep; 
and in the morning, when he awoke, he 
felt the power of them. In wondering 
who this poor brother could be, he in- 
formed me, it was impressed on his 
mind that I was the poor brother about 
whom he had dreamed, and asked me 
concerning my circumstances. I then 
told him of the trial I was in, and as 
he was fully satisfied it was of God, he 
wondered much at it. At his departure 
he gave me a pair of doeskin gloves, 
two new white handkerchiefs, a guinea. 
He then blessed me, and left me; and I 
do not remember ever seeing him be- 
fore that time, nor but once since. Thus 
God, who had commanded a widow to 
sustain Elijah, commanded this man to 
relieve me. The next day, a friend told 
me that a person had left a guinea with 
him for me; and while at Mr. Byrch- 
more’s, in Margaret Street, a lady came 
to his door in a coach, inquiring for me. 
When I went to the door, she put her 
hand out, gave me a guinea, and then 
ordered the coachman to drive away, 
having done all the business God sent 
her to do. 

Thus our Most Bountiful Benefactor 
answered these, my poor petitions, also, 
after he had been pleased, for a time, 
to exercise my faith and patience, in 
order to encourage me to a stronger 
confidence in his grace and providence. 
At another time, when Providence had 
been exercising my faith and patience, 
till the cupboard was quite empty, in 
answer to simple prayer, he sent me 
one of the largest hams that I ever saw, 
Indeed I saw clearly, that I had nothing 
to do but to pray, to study and to 
preach, for God took care of me and of 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


my family also, agreeably to his own 
promise: “Seek ye first the kingdom of 
God and his righteousness, and all 
these things shall be added unto you.” 
—Selected. 


—— 158 —— 
WHY SHE SUCCEEDED. 


A number of years ago in a New Eng- 
land Sunday school a class of girls was 
given to a young woman in her teens. 
As fast as the girls were converted they 
were taken out of her class and uncon- 
verted girls took their place. Sixty- 
three girls were under her instruction 
and sixty-one of them were converted. 


She was then put in charge of the in- 
fant class. Some years afterward, dur- 
ing her pastor’s absence, I supplied the 
pulpit and was entertained at the home 
of her father. The church had over 
eight-hundred members, and the new 
church seated 1,400, and was packed to 
the door. 

Two Sundays I visited the infant 
class. There were two hundred and for- 
ty-three in the class. The teacher said, 
“I keep these children till they are ten 
years old, and never expect one to leave 
the class unconverted. I visit every 
home that I may know the inside life 
of the family, and win their confidence 
and love. Then I invite the children to 
my house, and talk and pray with them 
and lead them to Jesus.” 

The first Sunday I was under her fath- 
er’s roof five children came to her house 
to be taught the way to salvation. 


One day at a meeting of ministers her 
pastor was asked: “What is the secret 
of the remarkable growth of your 
church?” He replied: “The greatest 
single human factor is Miss H , the 
teacher of our infant class. One week 
seven new families came to our church. 
Not a church officer knew one of them. 
We asked them how they happened to 
come. Their reply was: ‘Our little chil- 
dren got in Miss H’s infant class!’ ” 

One may say, “She was rich and had 
nothing else to do but call on the chil- 
dren.” You are mistaken. She sup- 





ANECDOTES 19 
ported herself by teaching in the public 
school and did all this work for Christ 
outside of school hours. The next year 
after I visited her church, she was in- 
vited to address the International S. S. 
Convention in Chicago. The next year 
to address the convention in London. 


She became so invaluable to her 
church, that she was employed as assist- 
ant pastor. Then Mr. Wanamaker heara 
of her, and engaged her for fifteen hun- 
dred dollars a year to labor in his great 
school in Philadelphia. She does not 
need to teach in the public schools any 
more to earn her bread; she can give 
her whole time to praying with the chil- 
dren and talking to them about Jesus.— 
Rev. A. M. Mills, in the Revivalist. 


159 
THE KIND OF MEN WANTED. 


Rev. C. A. Dodds relates: “Last au- 
tumn two brothers came from Mardin 
to Adana. For quite a while they 
hunted in vain for work. At last they 
applied to a Moslem agha who owns a 
village some hours from Adana. He 
asked them, ‘What is your religion?’ 
‘We are Christians.’ ‘Yes, but Chris- 
tians are of many kinds. What 
kind are you?’ ‘We are Protest- 
ants.” ‘What! are you Metheny’s 
kind of Christians?’ ‘Metheny? Who’s 
Metheny? We have heard of him.’ 
‘Why, Metheny of the Protestant Mis- 
sion lat Mersina.’ ‘Oh, yes, yes, we 
know the Mersina Protestants. That’s 
the kind of Christians we are.’ ‘Well, 
then, you’re just the kind of men I 
want to work for me. I would like to 
replace all the moslems in my village 
with Christians of that brand. Bring 
your families and come along.’ They 
went, and have been working there ever 
since, to the mutual satisfaction, we un- 
derstand, of employer and employees.” 

(The reference is to Dr. David Meth- 
eny, who was many years medical mis- 
sionary in Mersina, only a few miles 
distant from the ancient Tiarsus, the 
home of Paul.)—The Medical Mission- 
ary. 








—— 160 — 
THE RUNAWAY BOY. 


A number of years ago, before any 
railway came into Chicago, they used 
to bring in the grain from the Western 
prairies in wagons for hundreds of 
miles, so as to have it shipped off by 
the lakes. There was a farmer who 
had a large farm out there, and who 
used to preach the Gospel as well as 
to attend to his farm. One day when 
church business engiaged him, he sent 
his son to Chicago with grain. He 
waited and waited for his son to return, 
but he did not come home. At last he 
could wait no longer, so he saddled his 
horse and rode to the place where his 
son had sold the grain. He found 
that he had been there and got the 
money for his grain; then he began 
to fear that his boy Had been murdered 
and robbed. At last with the aid of a 
detective, they tracked him to a gam- 
bling den, where they found he had 
gambled away the whole of his money. 
He had fallen among thieves and like 
the man who was going to Jericho, they 
stripped him, and then they cared no 
more for him. What could he do? He 
was ashamed to go home and meet his 
father and he fled. The father knew 
what it ‘all meant. He knew the boy 
thought he would be very angry with 
him. He was grieved to think his boy 
should have so little confidence in him. 
That is just exactly like the sinner. He 
thinks because he has sinned God wiil 
have nothing to do with him. 

But what did the father do? Did he 
Say, “Let the boy go?” No, he went 
from town to town, from city to city. 
He would get the ministers to let him 
preach, and at the close he would tell 


his story. “I have got a boy who is a 
wanderer on the face of the earth some- 
where.” He would describe his boy 
and say: If you ever hear of him or 


see him will you not write to me? At 
last he found he had gone to California, 
thousands of miles away. Did the 
father say, “Let him go,” No, off he 
went to the Pacific coast, seeking the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


boy. He went to San Francisco, and ad- 
vertised in the newspapers that he 
would preach at such a church on such 
a day. When he had done, away under 
the gallery, there was a young man who . 
waited until the audience had gone 
out; then he came toward the pulpit. 
The father looked and saw it was his 
own boy, and he ran to him and pressed 
him to his bosom. Tke boy wanted to 
confess but not a word would the father 
hear. He forgave him freely and took 
him home once more. 

I tell you, Christ will welcome you 
this minute if you will come. Say, “I 
will arise and go to my father.” May 
God incline you to take this step. There 
is not one whom Jesus has not sought 
far longer than that father. There has 
not been a day since you left him but 
he has followed you—Christian Herald. 


161 
RECOVERY FROM INSANITY. 


A most remarkable case of recovery 
from insanity is given by President Wil- 
liam M. Brooks, of Tabor College, 
Iowa: 

“A young lady of my acquaintance, of 
ia finished education, lost her reason in 
the winter of 1871-2, and in August, 
1872, was placed in the institution for 
the insane, at Mt. Pleasant, Ia. No 
encouragement was given of her recov- 
ery, and a year later, when her father 
visited her, in June, 1873, she appeared 
so badly, that he said it would be a 
relief to know that she was dead. Soon 
after, Mrs. H., the wife of the Baptist 
minister, who had long known and loved 
her, being shut up for days in a dark 
room, because of inflamed eyes, felt 
drawn out in special prayer in her be- 
half, and finally sent for the father and 
told him of her exercises, and of the 
assurance gained that his daughter 
would be fully restored. 

“In a few days, came news of a sud- 
den change for the better, and in a little 
over two months she returned home 
well, and is now teaching with all her 
powers in full vigor.” 








ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


o——- 162 —— 

A LITTLE CHILD’S TESTIMONY. 

One Saturday night, a woman called 
upon me to see if I would aid her, as 
she said they had scarcely anything in 
the house to eat. After talking a little 
with her, trusting that she and her hus- 
band were the sober, worthy people that 
she claimed they were, I gave her a 
small sum of money which she said was 
sufficient to supply present needs. Mon- 
day morning I called at their home, the 
cheerlessness of which was about what 
I had expected to find. The husband 


accounted for his poverty from lack of 


work, and as neither he nor his wife 
looked like drinking persons it seemed 
quite likely true, 

After some minute’s conversation, I 
told him he could clean off the snow in 
front of one of our Tabernacles, and to 
pay him for it I laid a twenty-five-cent 
piece upon the table. Their little girl, 
about two years old, no sooner saw the 
color of that coin than she surprised me 
with the exclamation, “Some beer!” 
“Some beer now!” “Now get some 
beer!” The mother tried to hush up 
the child, and threatened to whip her if 
she did not be still, but it was no use. 
The little one dodged around a chair, 
and said, “A pint of beer!” 

The mother tried to explain the con- 
duct of the child by saying that she had 
been across the hall to their neighbor’s 
a good deal, and that they were great 
beer drinkers. This explanation was 
hardly satisfactory. I said nothing then, 
but at a subsequent time I had a talk 
with the husband alone, and urged him 
to go without the beer if he had been 
using it, and tried to show him the dan- 
ger the child was in. But he persisted 
he had not bought any beer in two or 
three months. Not a great while after- 
wards, however, one of the officers of 
the church saw him come out of a saloon 
one Sunday with a pail wrapped up with 
a newspaper, which has become so 
fashionable for beer carriers on that day. 

This fact, together with the child’s 
testimony, removed all doubts respect- 


8 


ing the beer-drinking of the family, who 
are now removed from the neighbor- 
hood.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


—— 163 —— 


LED BY PROVIDENCE. 


Quite a number of years ago, a brother 
minister related to the writer an experi- 
ence which he had soon after beginning 
his ministry. He had felt that he ought 
to become a preacher, but, at times, was 
uncertain whether God had really called 
him to the work. He was married, his 
means were very moderate and for what 
preaching he had already done he had 
received but little pay. In order to be as- 
sured that God wanted him to continue 
in the work, he resolved to institute a 
certain test—he would continue preach- 
ing until the food which was already in 
the house was exhausted; then, if it were 
God’s will that he should continue to 
preach, he would look to Him for a fur- 
ther supply of provisions Of course he 
told his wife of his plan. After a few 
days, she informed her husband that 
there was no longer any food in the 
house. Accordingly, the minister went 
apart and prayed that God would send 
provisions to his family as an indication 
that he should continue in his work, if 
it were indeed God’s will he should do so. 

Not long after, two men, living some 
distance away, drove up to the house 
with a load of provisions such as farmers 
usually have in store. Both of them 
were ungodly men. They told the pas- 
tor that they had been suddenly troubled 
about him that morning, so much so that 
they could not go to work as usual until 
they had brought him something to eat. 
They did not know whether he was des- 
titute or not, but they felt that they 
must take him some provisions. 

The minister was now completely con- 
vinced that it was God’s will that he 
should go on with his work. He after- 
wards told the writer that those men 
who came to him so opportunely re- 
minded him of the ravens that fed Elijah 
in the wilderness. And little wonder !— 
Rev. C. H. Wetherbe. 


82 ILLUSTRATIVE 


6d ees 


AN ARMY MIRACULOUSLY 
DELIVERED. 


The following is taken from an epistle 
of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aure- 
lius, who was born in the year 121 and 
died in the year 180: 

The Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius 
Antonius, to the people of Rome, and to 
the sacred senate, greeting: I explained 
to you my grand design, and what ad- 
vantages I gained on the confines of 
Germany, with much labor and suffer- 
ing, in consequence of the circumstance 
that I was surrounded by the enemy; I 
myself being shut up in Carauntum by 
seventy-four cohorts, nine miles off. 

And the enemy being at hand, the 
scouts pointed out to us, and our gen- 
eral Pompeianus showed us, that there 
was close on us a mass of a mixed mul- 
titude of 977,000 men, which, indeed, we 
saw; and I was shut up by this vast 
host, having with me only a batallion 
composed of the first, tenth, double and 
marine legions. Having then examined 
my own position, and my host, with 
respect to the vast mass of barbarians 
and of the enemy, I quickly betook my- 
self to prayer and to the gods of my 
country. But being disregarded by 
them I summoned those who among us 
go by the name of Christians. 

And having made inquiry, I discov- 
ered a great number and vast host of 
them, and raged against them, which 
was by no means becoming; for after- 
wards I learned their power. Where- 
fore they began the battle, not by pre- 
paring weapons, nor arms, nor bugles; 
for such preparation is hateful to them, 
on account of the God they bear about 
in their conscience. Therefore it is 
probable that those whom we suppose 
to be atheists, have God as their ruling 
power entrenched in their conscience. 
For having cast themselves on the 
ground, they prayed not only for me, 
but also for the whole army as it stood, 
that they might be delivered from the 
present thirst and famine. For during 


ANECDOTES 


five days we had got no water, because 
there was none, being in the heart of 
Germany, and in the enemy’s territory. 
And simultaneously with casting them- 
selves on the ground, and praying to 
God (a God of whom I am ignorant), 
water poured from heaven upon us, most 
refreshingly cool, but upon the enemies 
of Rome a withering hail. 

And immediately we recognized the 
presence of God following on the prayer 
—a God unconquerable and indistruc- 
tible. Founding upon this, then, let us 
pardon such as are Christians, lest they 
pray for and obtain such a weapon 
against ourselves. And I counsel that 
mo such person be accused on the ground 
of his being a Christian. But if any one 
be found laying to the charge of a 
Christian that he is a Christian, I desire 
that it be made manifest that he who is 
accused as a Christian, and acknowl- 
edges that he is one, is accused of noth- 
ing else than only this, that he is a Chris- 
tian; but that he who arraigns him be 
burned alive. And I further desire, that 
he who is entrusted with the government 
of the province shall not compel the 
Christian, who confesses and certifies 
such a matter, to retract; neither shall 
he commit him. 

And I desire that these things be con- 
firmed by a decree of the senate. And I 
command this my edict to be published 
in the Forum of Trajan, in order that it 
may be read. The prefect Vitrasius 
Pollio will see that it be transmitted to 
all the provinces found about, and that 
no one who wishes to make use or pos- 
sess it be hindered from obtaining a 
copy from the document I now publish. 


—— 165 —— 
IMPRESSED TO GIVE £100. 


I was engaged in an effort to build 
Sunday schools in the south of London. 
A benevolent friend promised a hundred 
pounds if I could get nine hundred 
pounds more within a week. I did my 
utmost, and by desperate efforts, with 
the assistance of friends, did get eight 
hundred pounds, but not one penny 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


more. We reached Saturday, and the 
terms of all the promises were that un- 
less we obtained a thousand pounds that 
week we could not proceed with the 
building scheme, and the entire enter- 
prise might have been postponed for 
years, and, indeed, never be accom- 
plished on this large scale. 

On Saturday morning one of my prin- 
cipal church officers called, and said he 
had come upon an extraordinary busi- 
ness; that a Christian woman in that 
neighborhood whom I did not know, of 
whom I had never heard, who had no 
connection whatever with my church, 
had that morning been lying awake in 
bed, and an extraordinary impression 
had come to her that she was at once to 
give one hundred pounds. She naturally 
resisted so extraordinary an impression 
aS a Caprice or a delusion. But it re- 
fused to leave her; it became stronger 
and stronger, until at last she was deep- 
ly convinced that it was the wiil of God. 
What made it more extraordinary was 
the fact that she had never before had, 
and would, in probability, never again 
have one hundred pounds at her dis- 
posal for any such purpose. But that 
morning she sent me the money through 
my friend, who produced it in the form 
of crisp Bank of England notes. From 
that day to this I have no idea whatever 
who she was, as she wished to conceal 
her name from me. Whether she is 
alive, or in heaven, I cannot say; but 
what I do know is that this extraor- 
dinary answer to our prayers secured 
the rest of the money, and led to the 
erection of one of the finest schools in 
London, in which there are more than 
a thousand scholars today.—Rev. Hugh 
Price Hughes. 


———— 166 ——= 
PROTECTIVE PROVIDENCE. 


John Brentz of Wurtemburg, a friend 
of Luther and a reformer of the first 
rank, was an object of peculiar hatred 
to Charles V. and the Papists. The em- 
peror made more than one special effort 
to get him into his hands. On the last 


83 


of these occasions a troop of Spanish 
cavalry was employed for the purpose. 
The colonel, on his way to Stuttgard, 
supped at Munich with the Elector, and 
mentioned at table the purport of his ex- 
pedition, A cousin of the Duchess of 
Wurtemburg being present, slipped out 
and sent warning to the duke, who, in 
his turn, warned the faithful minister 
whom he was quite unable to protect. 

Brentz immediately cast himself upon 
God in prayer and at once received on 
his mind an impression as distinct as if 
a human voice said to him, “Take a loaf 
of bread and go into the upper town, 
and where thou findest a door open, 
enter and hide thyself under the roof.” 

He at once acted accordingly, and 
found only one door, and that the last, 
open. Unnoticed he climbed to the top, 
crept on all fours behind lumber and 
straw, and lay hid in a corner, 

Next day the imperial troop entered, 
and setting a close watch at all the gates, 
entered every house, and examined every 
room, probing bed-chests and straw-loits 
with their swords and spears. 

Brentz, listening to words spoken out- 
side, knew from day to day that the 
search was still proceeding. For four- 
teen days it continued, till every house 
had been examined, that in which he lay 
hid being one of the last visited, the 
spears thrust into the straw coming as 
near to him as possible. Then with joy 
he heard the word of command, “March! 
he is not here!” He had not wanted food 
during this long concealment. The loaf 
he took with him as directed, would have 
been altogether insufficient, but the very 
first day, to his amazement, a hen came 
up to the garret and laid an egg, and 
that without any of the usual cackling. 
Next day she did the same, and so on 
for fourteen days in succession. The 
fifteenth day she did not come, and 
Brentz heard the people in the street say, 
“They are gone at last!” although he 
was afraid to venture out until the eve- 
nine. She had fulfilled her commission 
with the egg of the previous day.—Se- 
lected. 


ANECDOTES 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 167 —— 
ANSWERS TO PRAYER. 


“The writer’s brother, when superin- 
tendent of a Sunday school, felt a strong 
impulse, one Sunday evening, to call on 
a member of his Bible class, whom he 
had never visited before and to inquire 
if he was in any need. He found him 
very ill. Though the mother and sister 
seemed in comfortable circumstances, 
he felt constrained to inquire if he could 
aid them in any way. ‘They burst into 
tears, and said that the young man had 
been asking for food which they had no 
power to supply, and that, on Monday, 
some of their goods were to be taken 
in default of the payment of rates. 
When he knocked at the door they were 
on their knees in prayer for help to be 
sent. By the aid of a few friends the 
difficulty was at once met—but the 
timely succor was felt to be the Divine 
response to prayer. 

“With that brother, the writer was 
once climbing the Cima di Jazzi, one of 
the mountains in the chain of Monte 
Rosa. When nearly at the top, they 
entered a dense fog. Presently the 
guides faced right about and grounded 
their axes on the frozen snow-slope. 
The brother—seeing the slope still be- 
yond, and not knowing it was merely 
the cornice, overhanging a precipice of 
several thousand feet—rushed onward. 
The writer will never forget their cry of 
agonized warning. His brother stood a 
moment on the very summit, and then 
the snow yielding, began to fall through. 
One of the guides, at great risk, rushed 
after him and seized him by the coat. 
This tore away, leaving only three inch- 
es of cloth, by which he was dragged 
back. It seemed impossible to be near- 
er death and yet escape. On his return 
home, an invalid member of his congre- 
gation told him that she had been much 
in prayer for his safety, and mentioned 
a special time when she particularly 
was earnest, as if imploring deliverance 
from some great peril. The times cor- 
responded! Was not that prayer instru- 


ANECDOTES 


mental in preserving that life?” 
—Dr, Newman Hall. 


———— 168 ——— 


CONSECRATED TO GOD. 


Give your heart to God and then fill 
your life with good works. Consecrate 
to him your store, your shop, your bank- 
ing house, your factory, and your home. 
They say no one will hear it. God will 
hear it, That is enough. 

In the latter part of the last century a 
girl in England became a kitchen-maid 
in a farm-house. She had many styles 
of work and much hard work. Time 
rolled on, and she married the son of a 
weaver of Halifax. They were industri- 
ous; they saved money enough after 
awhile to build them a home. On the 
morning of the day when they were to 
enter that home, the young wife arose 
at four o’clock, entered the front door- 
yard, knelt down, consecrated the place 
to God, and there made this solemn vow: 
“O Lord if thou wilt bless me in this 
place, the poor shall have a share of it.” 

Time rolled on and a fortune rolled in. 
Children grew up around them, and they 
all became affluent, one a member of 
Parliament, in a public place declared 
that his success came from that prayer 
of his mother in the door-yard. All of 
them were affluent. Four thousand hands 
in their factories. They built dwelling 
houses for laborers at cheap rents, and 
when they were invalid and could not 
pay they had the houses for nothing. 
One of these sons came to this country, 
admired our parks, went back, bought 
land, opened a great public park, and 
made it a present to the city of Halifax, 
England They endowed an orphanage, 
they endowed two almshouses. All Eng- 
land has heard of the generosity and 
good works of the Crossleys. Moral: 
Consecrate to God your small means ani 
your humble surroundings, and you will 
have larger means and grander surround- 
ings. “Godliness is profitable unto all 
things, having promise of the life that 
now is and of that which is to come.”— 
Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 85 


—— 169 —— 
THE LATCH-STRING. 


One of the solitary habitations in the 
back settlements was occupied by a 
Quakers family, who lived in such secure 
simplicity that they had hitherto had no 
apprehension of danger, and used neither 
bar nor bolt to their door, having no 
other means of securing their dwelling 
from intrusion than in drawing in the 
leathern thong by which the wooden 
latch inside was lifted from without. 
The Indians had committed frightful 
ravages all about, burning and murdering 
without mercy. Every evening brought 
new tidings of horror, and every night 
the unhappy settlers surrounded them- 
selves with such defences as they could 
muster—even then, for dread, scarcely 
able to sleep. 

The Quaker and his family, who had 
hitherto put no trust in the arm of flesh, 
but had left all in the keeping of God, 
believing that man often runs into his 
own injury, had used so little precaution 
that they had slept without even with- 
drawing the latch, and were as yet un- 
injured. Alarmed, however, by the fears 
of others, and by the dreadful rumors 
that surrounded them, they yielded to 
their fears on one particular night, and 
before retiring to rest drew in the string, 
and thus secured themselves as well as 
they were able. 

In the dead of night, the Quaker, who 
had not been able to sleep, asked his 
wife if she slept; and she replied that 
she could not, for her mind was uneasy. 
Upon this he confessed that the same 
was his case, and that he believed that 
it would be safest for him to rise and 
put out the string of the latch as usual. 
On her approving of this, it was done, 
and the two again lay down, commend- 
ing themselves to the keeping of God. 

This had not occured above ten min- 
utes, when the dismal sound of the war- 
whoop echoed through the forest, filling 
every heart with dread, and almost im- 
mediately afterward they counted the 
footsteps of seven men pass the window 
of their chamber, which was on the 


ground floor and the next moment the 
door string was pulled, the latch lifted 
and the door opened. A debate of a few 
minutes took place, the purport of which, 
as it was in the Indian language, was 
unintelligible; but that it was favorable 
to them was proved by the door being 
again closed, and the Indians retiring 
without crossing the threshold. 

The next morning they saw the smoke 
rising from the burning habitations all 
around them; parents were weeping for 
their children who were carried off, and 
children were lamenting over their par- 
ents who had been cruelly slain. 

Some years afterward, when peace 
was restored, and the colonists had oc- 
casion to hold conference with the In- 
dians, this Quaker was one appointed 
for that purpose, and speaking in rela- 
tion to the Indians, he related the above 
incident; in reply to which the Indian 
observed, that by the simple circum- 
stance of putting out the latch-string, 
which proved confidence rather than fear, 
their lives and property had been saved; 
for that he himself was one of that mar- 
auding party, and that on finding the 
door open it was said, “All these people 
shall live; they will do us no harm, for 
they put their trust in the Great Spirit.” 
~——Selected. 


—— 176 -—. 
THE ESCAPE OF THE SPREE. 


Mr. D. L. Moody and others, who 
were on the disabled steamer Spree, be- 
lieved that the vessel was providentially 
saved in answer to prayer. In the midst 
of a severe storm, on November 27, 
1892, the main shaft broke, and plunged 
through the bottom of the ship. The 
water-logged vessel rolled fearfully, and 
the decks were washed by the waves. 
The passengers became greatly alarmed, 
the indications being that the vessel 
would sink before help could reach it. 
On Sunday, at Mr. Moody’s suggestion, 
a prayer-service was organized. Every 
person on board attended, except the of- 
ficers and crew, who could not leave 
their posts. 


96 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Gen. O. O. Howard, who was one of 
the passengers, says: “It was the most 
impressive religious gathering any of us 
ever attended. Jews, Catholics, and all 
others forgot differences in creeds and 
denominations. There was no room for 
them in such an hour. Mr. Moody read 
the ninety-first and one hundred and 
seventh Psalms, which one of the Gere 
mans translated verse by verse for his 
countrymen. Mr. Moody offered a most 
fervent prayer, and made a short address, 
God heard us and answered us. I went 
to my stateroom to rest after the meet- 
ing, and I was asleep when some one 
touched me. I ‘awoke to find a sweet, 
fond little German girl, the daughter of 
one of the passengers, by my cot. She 
could not understand a word of English, 
but my daughter had drilled her to say 
four English words, which was the mes- 
sage she brought me, ‘The steamer is 
coming,’ and then she added her Ger- 
man ‘hallelujah.’ ” 


Mr. Moody says of the rescue: “There 
never was a more earnest prayer to God 
than that of those seven-hundred souls 
on that helpless, almost sinking ship in 
mid-ocean, Sunday evening, November 
27, when we met in the saloon to im- 
plore God’s help; and God answered us, 
as I knew He would. He sent us a rescu- 
ing ship, and He calmed the sea, and for 
a week it was ‘as smooth as it is in this 
harbor, though there were storms all 
around us. It was the grandest test of 
prayer I ever knew; my son was with me. 
He is a student in Yale College, and the 
learned professors there have instilled 
in him some doubts about God’s direct 
interference in answer to prayer. After 
we had prayed that Sunday night, I had 
reached a point where I cared not 
whether it Was God’s will that we should 
go up or down. I determined to go to 
rest as though we were sailing safely on 
our way. My boy couldn’t rest. We 
were fast drifting out of the track of 
vessels, and our peril was extreme. 
About 2:15 o’clock he came and woke 
me, telling me to come on deck. There 
he pointed out to me an occasional 


glimpse of a tiny light that showed over 


the veaves as our ship rolled heavily 
from side to side. ‘It is our star of Beth- 
lehem,” he cried, ‘and our prayers are 
answered.’ Before daylight the Huron, 
whose masthead light it was, had 
reached us, and the waves had stilled 
and the winds were hushed by Divine 
command, while we were drawn out of 
the direct peril to this safe haven.” 

The Spree arrived at Queenstown 
December 2, with her stern thirty in the 
water, nothwithstanding her pumps had 
been steadily worked from the moment 
of the disaster—Northwestern Chris- 
tion Advocate. 

——171 —— 


CAN CHRISTIANS SACRIFICE? 


People talk of the sacrifice I have 
made in spending so much of my life in 
Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice 
which is simply paid back as a smali 
part of a great debt owing to our God, 
which we can never repay. Is that a 
sacrifice which brings its own blest re- 
ward in healthful activity, the con- 
sciousness of doing good, peace of 
mind, and a bright hope of a glorious 
destiny hereafter? Away with the 
word in such a view, and with such a 
thought! It is emphatically no sacri- 
fice. Say, rather it is a privilege. An- 
xiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, 
now and then, with a foregoing of the 
common conveniences and charities of 
this life, may make us pause, and cause 
the spirit to waver and the soul to sink, 
but let this only be for a moment. All 
these are nothing when compared with 
the glory which shall hereafter be re- 
vealed in and for us. I never made a 
sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk 
when we remember the great sacrifice 
which he made who left his Father’s 
throne on high to give himself for us: 
“Who being the brightness of the 
Father’s glory, and the express image 
of his person, and upholding all things 
by the word of his power, when he had 
by himself purged our sins, sat down on 
the right hand of the Majesty on high.” 

— David Livingston. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“IS THIS GOD?” 


It was one of Victor Hugo’s fine 
thoughts, when he saved the life of a 
mouse and quoted the Divine kindness 
as his reason: “To that little being I am 
Frovidence. [I treat it as, more than 
once, God has treated me.” 

The world has heard of the starving 
child who looked up to her lady bene- 
factor and asked: “Are you God’s wife?” 
Even more effecting, not to say startling 
in its simplicity, was the similar child- 
like question that surprised Mr. J. H. 
Hanan, when he saved nine souls adrift 
on the sinking “Caspian.” 

Mr. Hanan, a wealthy Englishman, 
with a party of American friends whom 
he had invited to join him on his yacht 
“Sagamore,” was returning from the 
West Indies, when, about half a day’s 
sail north of Bermuda, his lookout sight- 
ed a floating wreck. 

For his prompt rescue of the famished 
crew and passengers of the little ship 
he is to receive the Albert medal, but, 
deeper than his sense of this distinguish- 
ed honor the lesson of innocent faith 
that he learned then touched him with 
its revelation and reward. The truth 
that every human helper of human suf- 
fering is a representative of Divine Prov- 
idence was brought home to him in a 
way he will never forget. 

For nine days the disabled “Caspian” 
had been tossing on the bounding waves, 
carried no one knew whither, and despair 
had come to every soul on board, except 
the captain’s wife, Mrs. Gordon. As the 
crew afterward testified this brave wom- 
an prayed, and impressed her own 
resolute Christian trust upon her child, 
Helen Sylvia Gordon, a bright little girl 
of four years. Hour by hour she had 
promised to her: 

“God will save us; He will not let us 
die.” 

When all had been safely transferred 
from the wreck to the deck of the “Saga- 
more,” Mrs. Gordon fell on her knees, 
weeping for jov, her face buried in her 
hands, while Mr. Hanan held her child 


87 


in his arms. “God has answered my 
prayer!” was all she could say. 

The child nestled closely to Mr. Hanan 
sobbing in sympathy. Tears rolled down 
the strong man’s cheeks and were in the 
eyes of everyone on board. 

Then little Helen looked up to her de- 
liverer, and asked: 

“Mamma, is this God?” 

To a friend Mr. Hanan tried to inti- 
mate something of his feeling when the 
innocent eyes gazed into his, with that 
unexpected question. 

“Talk of medals and rewards,” he said. 
“As for the decoration of Queen Vic- 
toria I shall welcome it, of course. Such 
a tribute is one of which any man may 
be proud. But beyond that, the greater 
than that, in my mind, is the memory 
of one thrilling moment—the vibration 
of gratitude thrown from thankful hearts 
into my own. It was the moment when 
little Helen nestled in my arms, asking 
in her childlike simplicity, ‘Mamma, is 
this God.’ ”—Selected. 


173 ——— 
BROTHER WILL. 


_ Just at break of day of a chilly morn- 
ing the people of a little hamlet on the 
coast of Scotland were awakened by the 
booming of a cannon over the stormy 
waves. They knew what it meant, for 
they had heard before the same signal 
of distress. Some poor souls were out 
beyond the breakers perishing on a 
wrecked vessel, and in their last ex- 
tremity calling wildly for human help. 
The people hastened from their houses 
to the shore. Yes, out there in the dis- 
tance was a dismantled vessel pounding 
itself to pieces, with perishing fellow- 
beings clinging to the rigging; every 
now and then some one of them was 
swept off by a furious wave into the 
sea. The life-saving crew were soon 
gathered. : 

“Man the life-boat!” cried the men. 

“Where is Hardy?” 

But the foreman of the crew was not 
there, and the danger was imminent. 
Aid must be immediate or all was los*. 





ag ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


The next in command sprang into the 
frail boat, followed by the rest, all tak- 
ing their lives into their hands in the 
hope of saving others. Oh, how those 
on the shore watched their brave loved 
ones as they dashed on, now over, now 
almost under the waves! They reached 
the wreck. Like angels of deliverance 
they filled their craft with almost dying 
men—men lost but for them. Back 
again they toiled, pulling for the shore, 
bearing their precious freight. The first 
man to help them land was Hardy, 
whose words rang above the roar of the 
breakers: 

“Are all here? Did you save them all?” 

With saddened faces the reply came: 

“All but one. He couldn’t help him- 
self. We had all we could carry. We 
couldn’t save the last one.” 

“Man the life-boat again!” shouted 
Hardy. “I will go. What! leave one 
there to die alone! A fellow-creature 
there and we on the shore! Man the 
life-boat now! We'll save him yet.” 

But who was this aged woman with 
worn garments and disheveled hair, who 
with agonized entreaty fell upon her 
knees beside this brave man? It was his 
mother. 

“Oh, my son! Your father was 
drowned in a storm like this. Your 
brother Will left me eight years ago, 
and I’ve never seen his face since the 
day he sailed. You will be lost, and I 
am poor. O stay with me!” 

“Mother,” cried the men, “where one 
is in peril there’s my place. If I am 
lost, God will surely take care of you. 

The plea of earnest faith prevailed. 
With a “God bless you, my boy!” she 
released him and speeded him on his 
way. 

Once more they watched and prayed 
—those on shore—while every muscle 
was strained toward the fast sinking 
ship by those in the life-saving boat. It 
reached th3 vessel. The clinging figure 
was lifted to its place, where strong 
hands took it in charge. Back came the 
boat. How eagerly they looked and 
called in encouragement, then cheered 


as it came nearer. 

“Did you get him?” was the cry from 
the shore. 

Lifting his hand to his mouth to trum- 
pet the words on in advance of the land- 
ing, Hardy called back: “Tell mother it 
is brother Will.”—Selected 


srt fe 
NEW ENGLAND, HOW SAVED. 


At an early date in our history, 1746, 
the French fitted out a powerful fleet 
for the destruction of New England. 
This fleet consisted of forty ships of 
war, and seemed to all human judgment 
a sufficient force to render that destruc- 
tion certain. It was put under the 
command of the resolute and experi- 
enced Duke d’Anville, and set sail on its 
terrible errand, from Chedabucto, in 
Nova Scotia. 

In the meantime, our pious fore- 
fathers, apprised of their danger, and 
feeling that their safety was in God, 
appointed a season of fasting and pray- 
er, to be observed in all their churches.” 


While the Rev. Mr. Prince was offici- 
ating in Old South church (Boston), on 
this fast-day, and praying most fervent- 
ly to God to avert the dreaded calamity, 
the wind suddenly rose (the day had till 
now been perfectly clear and calm), and 
became so powerful as to rattle violently 
all the windows in the building. The 
man of God startled for a moment, 
paused in his prayer, and cast a look 
round upon the congregation. He then 
resumed his supplications, and besought 
Almighty God to cause that wind to 
frustrate the object of their enemies, 
and save the country from conquest and 
popery. The wind increased to a tem- 
pest, and that very night the greater 
part of the French fleet was wrecked on 
the coast of Nova Scotia. The Duke 
d’Anville, the principal general, and the 
second in command, both committed 
suicide. Many died with disease, and 
thousands were consigned to a watery 
grave. The enterprise was abandoned, 
and never again resumed.—Sel. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


THE SUBSTITUTE. 
Years ago when slavery was permit- 


ted in America, a strange incident took — 


place. 

A lady who owned slaves and had 
educated and treated them kindly, sud- 
denly died, when the estate was sold by 
her trustees in order that the money it 
fetched might be divided amongst her 
numerous relatives. In the auctioneer’s 
advertisement, the slaves—men, women 
and little children—were treated in the 
same way as the horses and cows, only 
considered more valuable. In the list 
was: 

Lot 41.—Julia; a beautiful young 
woman, aged fifteen, fairly educated, al- 
most white, perfect in form, teeth sound, 
hair three feet long, and without a fault. 

Unknown to her, a free colored young 
man thought of her very much, and in- 
tended to save up money to buy her from 
slavery, and try to win her to be his 
wife, having already saved nearly a hun- 
dred dollars for that object. In strength 
he was almost a giant, and in trade a 
skilful joiner who had a good prospect 
of making money. It was a terrible blow 
when he read the advertisement of the 
sale, but he quickly resolved what to do. 
He was present at the auction, and when 
Julia was ordered to step on the block, 
the crowd pushed nearer to view her. 
The bidding commenced, and she was 
finally “knocked down” for $750 to a 
cruel-looking man, who at once paid the 
money, and having taken possession of 
her, led her away as if she had been 
nothing more than a beautiful two- 
legged beast. The young giant followed 
and at a convenient opportunity, show- 
ing himself to the slave-owner, offered 
to take the place of the heart-broken 
girl, The man at first would not hear 
of it though he admitted the young join- 
er was worth five times more than he 
had given for the girl. At length he 
consented to the exchange. Legal papers 
were drawn up, and when the substitute 
placed “the freedom” in the hands of 


the astonished girl, together with his 


ANECDOTES 89 
$100, he gently said, “Julia, in your fu- 
ture for my sake keep from all wrong; 
while I live I shall always feel glad that 
I have taken your place, and one day we 
shall meet each other before the throne 
of God, when we shall both be free for 
evermore!” And with another word, 
“Farewell!” spoken gently but sadly, he 
turned away—a slave! 

Still a mighty joy filled his heart, and 
though the skin of his face was almost 
black, there was a glory in his expres- 
sion which astonished his master, and 
almost made him afraid. On the jour- 
ney up the Mississippi the steamer came 
in collision with a hugh raft of wood, 
and in the confusion several passengers 
were drowned, one of them being the 
newly-made slave. His owner returned 
to New Orleans to claim the girl as his 
slave, but believing she was free 
through the substitute, she resisted him, 
and at once ran to the judge. The de- 
cision was, that as the slave-owner had 
accepted the joiner in exchange for the 
girl, she was free; and she left the court, 
saying to the master who had sought to 
drag her away, “The law says I am free, 
for he whom I shall forever love took 
my place and made me free!” 

That touching story will help you to 
see that your soul is free from the pen- 
alty to which you are condemned, if you 
believe the Gospel which proclaims it. 
Had the girl not believed that the sub- 
stitution of the other had given her free- 
dom, she would have allowed herself to 
be dragged into slavery. She believed 
that the act of the other one had given 
her a just claim to be a free woman, and 
the law upheld her. Likewise, the Gos- 
pel declares that God’s dear Son took our 
place, and laid down his life for us, and 
that whosoever believes this shall be up- 
held in salvation by the power of God.— 
The Watchword. 


176 —— 
A MEMORY OF PICKETT’S 
BRIGADE. 


Tt was years after the war, and some 
veterans of both sides were exchanging 





90 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


reminiscences at a banquet given by the 
Board of Trade of New York. It was 
presided over by the first president, 
Colonel J. J. Phillips, colonel of the 
Ninth Virginia Regiment, Pickett’s di- 
vision, 

“There is nothing else so terrifying 
as a night attack,” said Colonel Phillips. 
“The imagination works with intense 
activity in the darkness, and even in 
peaceful times adds infinitely to the 
fear of perils, real or fancied. How 
much more are the horrors of warfare 
increased when the opposing forces are 
hidden from sight, when the first an- 
nouncement of hostile intention is the 
thunder of guns, the cflack of rifles, the 
flash through darkness—for it is the 
darkest possible night that is always 
selected. 

“One of these night attacks in partic- 
ular—on the Bermuda Hundred lines in 
1864—-I shall never forget; not because 
of its startling horrors, but because of a 
peculiar and sacred circumstance, al- 
most resulting in the compulsory dis- 
obedience of orders, the obeying, as it 
were, of a higher than earthly command. 

“The point of attack had been care- 
fully selected, the awaited dark night 
had arrived, and my command was to 
fire when General Pickett should signal 
the order. There was that dread, inde- 
scribable stillness—that weird, ominous 
silence that lalways settles over every- 
thing just before a fight. It was so 
thick they could cut it with a knife; so 
heavy it weighed you down as if worlds 
were piled upon you; so all-pervasive 
that it filled creation for you. You felt 
that nowhere in the universe was there 
any voice or motion. 

“Suddenly that awesome silence was 
broken by the sound of a deep, full 
voice rolling over the black void like 
the billows of a great sea, directly in 
line with our guns. It was singing the 
old hymn, ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul.’ I 
have heard that grand old music many 
times in circumstances which intensified 
its impressiveness, but never had it 
seemed so solemn as when it broke the 
stillness in which we waited for the 


order to fire. Just as it was given there 
fang through the night the words: 
Cover my defenceless head 
With the shadow of thy wing. 
““Ready—aim to the left, boys—fire,’ I 
said. 

“The guns were shifted, the volley 
blazed out swerved aside, and that de- 
fenceless head was covered with the 
shadow of His wing.” 

A Federal veteran who had been lis- 
tening looked up suddenly and, cfasping 
the colonel’s hand, said: 

“T remember that night, colonel, and 
that midnight attack which carried off 
so many of my comrades. I was the 
singer.” 

There was a second of silence; then 
“Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” rang across 
that banquet board as on that black 


night in 1864 it had rung across the lines 


at Bermuda Hundred.—La Salle Cor- 
bell Pickett, in Lippincott’s. 


—— 177 
PREACHING. 


On 4 certain occasion Gladstone said: 
“One thing I have against the clergy, 
both of the country and in the towns. 
I think they are not severe enough on 
congregations. They do not sufficient- 
ly lay upon the souls and consciences of 
their hearers their moral obligations, 
and probe their hearts and bring up their 
whole lives and actions to the bar of 
conscience. The class of sermons which 
I think are most necded, are of the 
class which once offended Lord Mel- 
bourne. He was seen coming from 
church in the country in a mighty fume. 
Finding a friend, he exclaimed, ‘It is too 
bad I have always been a supporter of 
the church, and I have always upheld 
the clergy, but it is really too bad to 
have to listen to a sermon like that we 
have heard this morning. Why the 
preacher actuclly insisted upon apply- 
ing religion to a man’s private life! 
But that is the kind of preaching which 
I like best, the kind of preaching which 
men need most, but it is, also the kind 
of which they get the least.” 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 178 —— 


FIFTY DOLLARS OR FIFTY 
CENTS. 


There is on the banks of the Con- 
necticut a small church, which, though 
weak and feeble, still, with the help of 
2 Home Missionary Society, supported 
a minister and maintained regular div- 
ine worship. 

About the time when it became nec- 
essary to pay the minister’s salary, 
there moved into the place a man who 
gained his living by carting coal, and 
by other similar labor. It was noticed 
that this man was very regular in his 
attendance at church, and was never 
absent from the prayer-meeting, but, in 
a pecuniary po nt of view, was not con- 
sidered a valuable acquisition. It was 
a custom, when the salary was due, for 
one of the deacons to collect all he could 
from the people, and then get the bal- 
ance from the Home Missionary So- 
ciety. In accordance with this custom, 
one fine morning, Deacon A., a man of 
considerable means and considerable 
penuriousness, started forth, subscrip- 
tion paper in hand, to see how much he 
could squeeze out of the parish for the 
support of the minister. The first per- 
son he met was the above-mentioned 
coal-carter, moving along the road 
with a cart-loa! of that material. 
The deacon considered within himself 
that it might be worth while to ask him 
to contribute, seeing that he was a good 
sort of a person, and every little helps, 
and so accosted him with, ‘““Good morn- 
ing, Mr. B., are you willing to give any- 
thing toward the support of the pas- 
tor?” at the same time handing him the 
paper. The man stopped, stood thought- 
fully for a moment or two, drew a pen- 
cil out of his rocket, and with his dirt- 
begrimed hand he headed the list with 
the sum of fifty dollars. 

The deacon was so taken by surprise 
that he could scarcely believe the evi- 
dence of his eyes, and thinking the man 
had made a mistake, and not wishing 
to take the advantage of him, he asked 
him, “Did you mean that for fifty 


91 


cents?” 

The coal-carter turned, drew himself 
up to his full height, and with great 
earnestness replied: 

“I do not value the gospel at fifty 
cents a year!” 

This answer placed the case in a new 
light. The deacon went immediately to 
the pastor, related the incident, and 
said: 

“Tf that man can give fifty dollars, I 
can give five hundred dollars.” 

The same spirit actuated the rest of 
the parish on hearing the story, and in 
a few days the salary was raised by the 
people themselves without the necessity 
of applying for outside aid. 

Reader, it becomes you to consider 
the question suggested by this incident. 
At how much do you “value the gos- 
pel?” for upon your answer may depend 
your fate for eternity. If by a whole- 
souled christianity you prove that you 
have consecrated time, influence, 
money, all that you have and are, to 
the service of the master, at that dread 
hour all will be well. But if not, then 
this question may well startle you, for, 
according to your valuation of Christ 
here will be his valuation of your ser- 
vices there.—Selected. 


—— 179 ——— 


WOOLEY’S CONVERSION. 

For years, John, G. Wooley, the dis- 
tinguished temperance lecturer and elo- 
quent Prohibitionist, was a helpless, 
hopeless victim of the appetite for strong 
drink. Although he was the possessor 
of one of the brightest intellects in his 
profession, and commanded a Yaw prac- 
tice of $25,000 a year, and was the mas- 
ter of an eloquence that enabled him to 
sway audiences at will, yet he had fallen 
to the very depths of woe and helpless- 
ness. 

How he rose out of this helpless, hope- 
less state is told by his own pen in the 
“Ram’s Horn” and we give it below in 
the hope that it may be used to help 
other poor souls who are still held by 
the grip of a like habit, more remorse- 
less and firm than the chains that bound 


92 


Prometheus to the rock on Mount Cau- 
casus. He says: 

It is enough to say, and so much I 
think is perfectly true, that when I went 
to bed on the night of the 30th of Janu- 
ary, 1888, perfectly conscious that I was 
a slave of alcohol and ruined beyond re- 
trieve. I had had many chances, and 
had forfeited them all. I had suffered 
beyond any power of description, but 
had never acknowledged myself beaten. 
But this was defeat, utter, merciless, 
hopeless. No business offer would have 
tempted me to try again. I knew the 
old fight was done, and that the next 
thing was to be something else, death 
or something. Every fiber of me quiv- 
ered with a sense of something new im- 
pending. I thought the situation over 
with the desperate calm that I have seen 
in men who, waiting in their cells with 
the eye of the death-watch at the wicket, 
listened to the finishing strokes upon the 
gallows that at daybreak was to end all. 

I had had high ideals, but no principles 
and had drifted to ruin, not only against 
reason and interest but against inclina- 
tion, for lack of landmarks. I saw this 
clearly. Shame and sorrow unutterable 
submerged me like a tidal wave. I 
prayed. Despair made me do it; nothing 
else. I had no creed, no “faith.” I suf- 
fered, that was all. The cry brought 
help. “I remembered God,” and my 
broken heart yearned toward him as if 
I had always known him. The Spirit 
bore witness with my spirit that I was 
born of him, not because of anything 
that was happening then (the whole ex- 
perience was absolutely void of any 
definitions or any theology), but just be- 
cause I WAS. 

What followed was simply a decision 
that seemed to be endorsed by omnipo- 
tence. I awakened my wife and told 
her,—her faith was instantaneous and as 
conclusive as my own. The decision 
drew, like a magnet, scriptures that I 
had learned in childhood, experiences 
that had not interested me before, ser- 
mons and teachings, and old feelings of 
my own, long lost to my mind. We rose 
from our bed, brought from my trunk 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


a little Bible given me by my mother on 
my fourteenth birthday, which by some 
good providence had clung to me 
through all the years, opened at ran- 
dom, and read the forty-third chapter 
of Isaiah, which begins like the roll of 
a street organ: “But now thus saith the 
Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he 
that formed thee, O Israel; fear not for I 
have redeemed thee; I have called thee 
by my name; thou art mine.” And when 
the sun rose that morning we two were 
bending over that book weeping to- 
gether.—Religious Telescope. 


180 —— 


FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH. 


In the quaint old Flemish city of 
Bruges, during the persecution of the 
Protestants in the sixteenth century un- 
der the Duke of Alva, a young girl, 
Weynken Van Reneses, not quite eigh- 
teen years of age, met death most 
courageously. 

She was head nurse in the family of a 
burgomaster and was greatly beloved by 
her mistress and the little ones. Weyn- 
ken was the owner of a New Testament. 
left her by her father, who had received 
it from the hands of Tyndale. She had 
been feeding upon this secret treasure 
daily, when the duke’s decree was pub- 
lished, declaring all possessors of the 
Word of God to be heretics punishable 
with death. 

When a friar came to the house and 
accused her, she refused to consent to 
the subterfuge with which her mistress 
sought to shield her, but boldly con- 
fessed her faith in Christ. This confes- 
sion she reiterated when brought before 
the “Council of Blood,” which sentenced 
her to be immured alive in the city wall. 

She was allowed one week. At the 
end of that time, as she stood opposite 
the excavation made ready to receive her, 
she was offered life if she would recant, 
but she refused. Again she was tempted 
after being lowered into the tomb, but 
she would not deny her Lord, and the 
cruel work was completed.—Christian 
Endeavor. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


‘—-— 18] ——— 


A LITTLE GIRL’S FAITH. 


The Rev. Matthew Hale Smith, in his 
Marvels of Prayer, relates the follow- 
ing: “I came home one night very late, 
and had gone to bed to seek needed rest. 
The friend with whom I boarded awoke 
me out of my first refreshing sleep, and 
informed me that a little girl wanted to 
see me, I turned over in bed, and said: 
‘I am very tired, tell her to come in the 
morning, and I will see her.’ 

My friend soon returned and said: ‘I 
think you had better get up. The girl is 
a poor little suffering thing. She is thin- 
ly clad, is without bonnet or shoes. She 
has seated herself on the doorstep, and 
Says she must see you, and will wait till 
you get up.’ 

I dressed myself, and opening the out- 
side door I saw one of the most forlorn 
looking little girls I ever beheld. Want, 
sorrow, suffering, neglect, seemed to 
Strive for the mastery. She looked up 
to my face, and said: ‘Are you the man 
that preached last night, and said that 
Christ could save to the uttermost?’ 

“Yes.’ 

“Well, I was there, and I want you to 
come right down to my house, and try to 
Save my poor father.’ 

-‘What’s the matter with your father?’ 

‘He’s a very good father when he don’t 
drink. He’s out of work, and he drinks 
awfully. He’s almost killed my poor 
mother; but if Jesus can save to the ut- 
termost, He can save him. And I want 
you to come right to our house now.’ 

I took my hat and followed my little 
guide, who trotted on before, halting as 
she turned the corners to see that I was 
coming. Oh, what a miserable den her 
home was! A low, dark, underground 
room, the floor all slush and mud—not 
a chair, table, or bed to be seen. A bit- 
ter cold night, and not a spark of fire on 
the hearth, and the room not only cold, 
but dark. In the corner, on a little dirty 
straw, lay a woman. Her head was 
bound up, and she was moaning as if in 
agony. As we darkened the doorway a 


ANECDOTES 98 
feeble voice said: ‘O my child! my child! 
why have you brought a stranger into 
this horrible place?’ Her story was a 
sad one, but soon told. Her husband, 
out of work, maddened with drink, and 
made desperate, had stabbed her because 
she did not provide him with a supper 
that was not in the house. He was then 
upstairs, and she was expecting every 
moment that he would come down and 
complete the bloody work he had begun. 
While the conversation was going on 
the fiend made his appearance. A fiend 
he looked. He brandished the knife, still 
wet with the blood of his wife. 

The missionary, like the man among 
the tombs, had himself belonged to the 
desperate classes. He was converted at 
the mouth of a coal-pit. He knew the 
disease and the remedy—knew how to 
handle a man on the border of delirium 
tremens. 

Subdued by the tender tones, the mad- 
man calmed down, and took a seat ona 
box. But the talk was interrupted by 
the little girl, who approached the mis- 
sionary, and said: ‘Don’t talk to father; 
it won’t do any good. If talking would 
have saved him, he would have been 
saved long ago. Mother has talked to 
him so much and so good. You must 
ask Jesus who saves to the uttermost to 
save my poor father.’ 

Rebuked by the faith of the little girl, 
the missionary and the miserable sinner 
knelt down together. He prayed as he 
never had prayed before; he intreated 
and interceded, in tones so tender and 
fervent, that it melted the desperate man, 
who cried for mercy, And mercy came. 
He bowed in penitence before the Lord, 
and laid down that night on his pallet 
of straw a pardoned soul. 

Relief came to that dwelling, The 
wife was lifted from her dirty couch, 
and her home made comfortable. On 
Sunday, the reformed man took the hand 
of his little girl and entered the infant 
class, to learn something about the 
Savior ‘who saves to the uttermost.” He 
entered upon a new life. His reform was 
thorough. He found good employment, 


94 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


for when sober he was an excellent work- 
man; and next to his Savior, he blesses 
God for the faith of his little girl, who 
believed in a Savior able to save to the 
uttermost all that come unto God by 
Him.” 


—— 182 —— 


A STRANGE HARVEST. 


It is related that a Bible colporteur in 
Spain one day entered the little village 
of Montalborejo in Toledo province and 
- offered his Bibles for sale. Among others 
he sold a large Bible intended for family 
use. The village priest heard of his 
presence, and ran to the colporteur. He 
tore the book out of the buyer’s hand, 
and angrily exclaimed, “These books of 
the devil shall never enter my parish.” 
He roused the people, and especially the 
pious women, to anger, and they took 
up stones and cast them at the inoffen- 
sive man. 

Six weeks later the colporteur was 
again on the road leading to the self- 
same village. Gladly would he have 
avoided it had he been able to find a 
roundabout way. Approaching the vil- 
lage at dusk, he hoped the inhabitants 
would fail to recognize him. To his 
astonishment the very first man he met 
at the city gate detained him with the 
question: 

“Are you not the man who sold the 
Bible?” 

“Yes I am the man.” 

“Then welcome to our village; every 
one of us desires to purchase your 
book,” was the amazing reply. In his 
utmost astonishment, the man inquired: 

“Are you not the selfsame people who 
only a few weeks ago cast stones at 
me?” 

“Most certainly,” answered the man, 
“but a great change has come over us, 
so that each and every one desires one 
of your books.” 

A merchant of the village had picked 
up the book in the market place, con- 
cluding that the paper might be used. 

Accordingly leaf after leaf was torn 
out to serve as wrappers for salt, sugar, 


rice or other groceries, thus entering 
every hut in the village. 

Through this means, the people be- 
came acquainted with the Gospel, and 
were burning to learn more of the 
wondrous Message which had been con- 
veyed to them by the leaves of that 
Bible, which the priest thought he had 
destroyed beyond recall. The village 
ultimately became a center of Christian 
activity.—Sel. 


—— 183 —— 
A TRANSFORMED MAN. 


Dean Hodges at a meeting of the 
Massachusetts Prison Association, re- 
lated this suggestive incident illustrative 
of the power of kindly deeds to reach 
the worst men. He said: “I have a 
friend in London who has spent forty 
years in prison; and not as the keeper 
of the prison either. He spent those 
forty years in prison because he could 
not get out Eight times he told me, 
he was flogged. And now that man is 
a decent Christian citizen. When I 
saw him he had upon his cap the letters 
‘P. G. B.’ which he told me signified 
Prison Gate Brigade. That man goes 
every morning to the gate of one of the 
London prisons and watches for men to 
come out that he may try to get hold of 
them. What was it that transformed 
him? Not his eight floggings. The 
effect of all that, so far as I could learn, 
was to harden him. He had not found 
in all his long vears of experience, a 
reformatory that reformed, or a peni- 
tentiary that made men penitent. But 
one day when he came out from one of 
these terms of service, he was met at 
the gate by a Christian brother, who be- 
longed to the Salvation Army, who took 
his arm and said ‘Come with me, and 
let me see if something cannot be done 
for you.’ And so the man found a 
friend; and by and by that friend led 
him to his friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who cared for such as he. The conse- 
quence was that the man’s heart was 
touched and he was made over into a 
better man.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


a ET pect 
WAS IT THE HAND OF GOD? 


Col. Henry Watterson, the gallant 
soldier of the Confederacy, and for 
many years recognized as one of the 
most able editors of America in his 
paper the “Louisville Courier Journal” 
has this to say respecting a critical per- 
iod in the history of our Country: 

On the morning of Feb. 3, 1865, upon 
a steamer lying at anchor in Hampton 
Roads off Fortress Monroe, Abraham 
Lincoln, attended by William H. Sew- 
ard, met three Confederate commission- 
ers, Alexander H. Stephens, Robert M. 
T. Hunter and John A. Campbell, ap- 
pointed by Jefferson Davis, “for the 
purpose,” as Mr. Davis wrote, “of se- 
curing peace to the two countries,” but 
as Mr. Lincoln had written, “with the 
view of securing peace to the people of 
Our one common country.” 

There had been many epistolary and 
verbal exchanges between the two 
capitals, Washington and Richmond, 
before this fateful conference had come 
to pass. The parties to it were per- 
sonally well known to one another, Mr. 
Lincoln and Mr. Stephens were, indeed, 
old friends. The proceedings were in- 
formal and without ceremony. At the 
outset it was agreed that no writing or 
memorandum should be made of what 
might be said or done. It is known, 
however, that at a certain point the 
President of the United States and the 
Vice President of the Southern Confed- 
eracy, sitting a little apart from the 
rest, Mr. Lincoln took up a sheet of 
paper and said, by way of completing 
the unreserved conversation that had 
passed between them, “Stephens, let me 
write ‘Union’ at the top of this page and 
you may write below it whatever else 
you please.” He had already com- 
mitted himself, in the event that the 
Southern armies laid down their arms, 
and the Southern States returned to the 
Union, to the payment of $400,000,000 
for the slaves. 

That such an opportunity for the 
South, then on the verge of collapse, 


ANECDOTES 95 
to end the war should have been refused 
will remain forever a mystery bordering 
on the supernatural. 

Two months later Lee surrendered. 
Instead of achieving an honorable peace 
on favorable terms, the Confederacy 
went down in total shipwreck—van- 
quished—the waves of passion and 
plunder for ten succeeding years sweep- 
ing over the stricken survivors as they 
floundered in the sea of reconstruction; 
the Christ man who had thrown out a 
life line gone, no one left having the will 
and the power to stay the fury of the 
elements, 

Was it the hand of God? Could it 
have been that God deemed the South 
not sufficiently punished? Who shall 
tell us? 

Iwo years before the end of the 
Napoleonic drama Matternich, speaking 
for the allied sovereigns, offered the 
Corsican adventurer peace with the 
recognition and confirmation of his dy- 
nasty and a larger France than he had 
found when he overthrew the Directory, 
created the empire and ascended the 
throne, and Napoleon rejected it with 
scorn. He preferred (and took the road 
to ruin. He was war mad. He could 
not see Elba and St. Helena looming 
through the powder clouds of trium- 
phant battle. So he rushed upon 
Waterloo. What fate was it that 
brought the rains that night before the 
battle, delaying the attack and thus con- 
verting a probable victory into a dis- 
astrous defeat? 

Was it the hand of God? Had God 
decided against world conquest and de- 
creed that Bonaparte should sleep in 
the grave with Tamerlane the Great? 
Who shall tell us? 


—— 185 —— 
WHAT A DEAF MUTE DID. 


A great evangelistic service was be- 
ing held, and testimonies were called 
for, One man arose and spoke as fol- 
lows: 

“J was saved five weeks ago by a 
deaf mute. He couldn't talk the Gos- 


96 


pel, but he wrote a line which was the 
means in God’s hands of saving me. 

“T was at a railway station, and about 
to take a train. I was ragged, dirty 
and partly drunk. This deaf and dumb 
man came up to me, and, taking a piece 
of paper from his pocket, wrote on it, 
‘Jesus is my Saviour. He helps me 
every day. Read John 3: 16.’ And he 
put this note in my dirty pocket. I 
had just enough money to pay my way 
to the next station. It seemed as 
though I was more hungry and miser- 
able that night than ever before. 

“I put my hand in my pocket, and 
felt the piece of paper, pulled it out and 
read it. I could not remember what 
John 3: 16 was, and I was weak and 
faint, but I was bound to find it out. 
I went to a house and before I could 
say what I wanted to the woman who 
came to the door, she said sharply, ‘No 
beggars allowed here.’ I said ‘I am not 
begging, but I want to look at your 
Bible a minute” The woman was 
startled, and shut the door in my face. 
I went to the next house, where they 
handed me a Bible. I looked at the 
words and handed the. Bible back. 


“T slept that night in an old shed 
down by the river, but it was the hap- 
piest night of my life. I read the paper 
over and over, and thought of John 3: 
16; and now I am a saved man, and I 
can say, as could the deaf mute, ‘Jesus 
is my Saviour. He helps me every day.” 

The effort of the deaf and dumb man 
was not a very great one. He did not 
write very much on that little slip of 
paper, but God used it to save a soul. 
Are you and I ready to preach the Gos- 
pel in this simple way?—Selected. 


—— 186 —— 
OVERCOME BY KINDNESS. 


There was in a barracks an incorrigi- 
ble soldier, whe had been fined, impris- 
oned, flogged, and put on extra drill, 
but all to no purpose. His colonel, 
seeing him one day in the guardhouse 
for some misdemeanor, said to him, 
“What! You here again?” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“Yes, sir,” he replied, with a dogged 
hardihood that showed he cared for no 
punishment. 

The Colonel turned to the sergeant, 
and said: “I don’t know what to do 
with this fellow. We've flogged him, 
fined him, imprisoned him, put him on 
extra drill; in fact, we’ve tried every- 
thing” 

“No, sir,’ answered the sergeant, 
touching his cap with the military sa- 
lute. “There is one thing you have not 
tried; you’ve never forgiven him.” The 
Colonel held down his head, somewhat 
ashamed, and after consultation with his 
brother officers, returned to the soldier, 
and said to him: “There, sir, you may 
go; you’re forgiven; you will not be pun- 
ished for this.” A new light seemed to 
break upon the mind of that man, and 
from that time, two years past, there 
has not been a better man in the regi- 
ment.—Se\ected. 


187 —— 
THE SKY TELEGRAM. 


A gentleman while buying a paper 
from a newsboy one day said to him, 
“Well, my boy, do you ever find it hard 
to be good?” “Yes, sir,” responded 
the little fellow. “Well, so do I. But I 
have found out how to get help; do you 
want to know how?” “Yes, sir.” “Then 
just send a telegram.” The boy looked 
up in amazement. The gentleman 
touched the boy’s forehead with his fin- 
ger and said, “What do you do in 
there?” “Think,” said the boy. “Well, 
can God see what you think?” “I sup- 
pose He can.” “Yes, He can and does. 
Now, when you want help to sell papers 
or to be a good boy, you just send a sky 
telegram this way; just think this 
thought quickly, ‘Jesus, help me,’ and 
God will see it and send the help.” 

A few weeks later he met the same 
little newsboy on the street, who rushed 
up to him and said: “Say, mister, I’ve 
been trying the sky telegram the last 
few weeks and I’ve sold more papers 
since I’ve been doin’ that than I ever 
did before.”-—Evangelist. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


aa § Yea 
IMPRESSED TO GIVE $5. 


The following, taken from the ‘Pioneer 
Preacher,’ by Rev. Sherlock Bristol, re- 
counts an experience of his student days 
at Oberlin. He was formerly a home 
missionary in the Northwest, and resid- 
ed the last we knew at Saticoy, Cal. We 
most emphatically believe that God of- 
ten thus influences the minds of men 
to provide for those who trust in Him. 
But for this faith we should be burdened 
with anxiety from which we are now 
happily free: ! 

“Nothing special occured during my 
Junior year, save that I was wonderfully 
provided for financially. Strange it was, 
but true, that when I came to need 
money or books, or clothing, somehow 
they came, And I noticed, too, that God 
held them back just long enough to en- 
able me to appreciate their value, and 
thus properly estimate the love of the 
giver. And I used often to wonder if 
the commandment to pray and to pray 
oiten, did not arise in part from the 
yearnings of the great paternal heart for 
converse with his children. 

“I ought not here to omit the men- 
tion of a special providence, supplying 
special need of so marked a character 
that 1 was compelled to say, “This is the 
finger of God.’ 

“I had borrowed five dollars of a Mr. 
Penfield, a student. One day he came 
to me in haste and said, ‘My people are 
sick and I must start for home this 
noon, and shall need that five dollars 
to pay my fare.’ I went at once to get 
it, but I could neither get it where it 
was due me nor borrow it. Just then 
money had become very scarce in Ober- 
lin. The bell rang for twelve o’clock, the 
stage threw off its mails at the post- 
office and was rushing to the hotel to 
change horses, then rush back, take its 
mails and go on. I was returning to 
Tappan Hall and saw Mr. Penfield 
standing in the south door waiting for 
his money. What should I say to him? 
That the Lord had failed me this time? 
What a disappointment to him, and what 


ANECDOTES 97 
influence would that failure have on my 
faith and his? But I saw a man running 
toward the hall, who reached it simul- 
taneously with myself. Before I had 
time to speak to Penfield the stranger 
cried out, ‘Is there a man by the name 
of Bristol here?’ ‘That is my name,’ I 
said, “and I am the only one of that 
name in college,’ ‘Well,’ said he, hand- 
ing me five dollars, ‘I suppose this be- 
longs to you,’ ‘Who gave it to you?’ 
‘Don’t know. Just as I left Cleveland 
a gentleman handed me this and said 
to give it to a man in Oberlin by name 
of Bristol. That is all I know about it,’ 
and he turned and ran back to the post- 
office. I handed it over to Penfield, and 
went to my room to thank God for the 
gift, and also for this helper of my faith. 


“Years after, in passing through 
Cleveland, I met a lawyer by the name 
of Sterling, and he asked, ‘Did you, 
some two years ago, receive five dollars 
from me?’ I said I had no recollection 
of it, but told him of receiving five dol- 
lars of a stranger as narrated above. 
‘Do tell!’ said he, ‘I sent that five dol- 
lars and it has troubled me more than 
any five I ever lost or thought I lost. 
Thus it was: I was standing by the 
Weddle House as the stage was start- 
ing off one morning, gazing upon the 
passengers filling up the coach. As the 
driver was gathering up his lines a pas- 
senger thrust his head out of the win- 
dow and asked, ‘Does this coach pass 
through Oberlin?’ ‘Yes,’ said the driver. 
At once I drew out my purse, and hand- 
ing the stranger five dollars said, ‘Give 
this to a student by the name of Bristol 
there; they all know him.’ The driver 
cracked his whip and the stage was off. 
I was confounded at what I had done, 
and said to myself, ‘What a fool I was 
to give that five dollars to a total stran- 
ger? He will forget the name, and if 
he don’t he will have no time to look 
up Mr. Bristol; the stage only stops 
to change horses. Ten to one he will 
keep it. Surely I am a fool” A hun- 
dred times I said this of my action, and 
wondered at its precipitancy, It seemed 


98 


as if for an instant another will had con- 
trol of my hand and my purse. So you 
received it after all, and just when you 
needed it, too,’ and he went away in 
deep meditation. Of course such sing- 
ular interpositions are rare, but do not 
some such occur in every life, enough 
to startle us out of our materialism, 
with the conviction, ‘Thou God seest 
me’ ?” 
commame 189 commen 


THE SLAVE-MOTHER’S PRAYER. 


Years ago, when slavery existed in this 
country, a mother in Virginia was in 
great distress, for she had just learned 
that her son was to be torn from her and 
be sold. Many times before she had been 
obliged to give up her dear children to 
satisfy the greed of the slave-dealer, and 
her grief and disappointment were now 
greatest because her master had prom- 
ised her that this, her last child, should 
remain with her to comfort her old age. 
But because of financial reverses his 
promise was to be broken, and, along 
with other slaves, her boy was advertised 
to be sold. 


The day for the sale had at last come, 
and after several slaves had been struck 
off to the highest bidder, her boy was put 
upon the block. He was a manly-look- 
ing fellow of about twenty years, and 
was rightfully the pride of his mother’s 
heart. As the auctioneer, in a business- 
like way, called attention to his sinewy 
limbs and athletic frame, the heart of the 
mother was well nigh bursting with an 
agonizing desire that God would in some 
way spare her boy. The buyers realized 
that a prize was to be had, and the bid- 
ding, which began at a thousand dollars, 
was active. Soon $1,200 was reached, 
$50 being offered at a time, then the ad- 
vance was slower. 


When the bids dropped to $5 the 
mother knew that the critical moment 
was approaching. She withdrew from 
the crowd, and going into the court- 
house she dropped upon her knees, and 
lifting her hands and streaming eyes 
toward heaven, she exclaimed, “Oh Lord 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Jesus, if I were on the throne in your 
place, and you were down here having 
your only son sold as a slave, I would 
help you if I could. You can help me, 
and Oh, I pray that you will!” 

Jesus heard that prayer, and one of 
whose presence she knew nothing heard 
it also. A rough hand was laid gently 
upon her shoulder, and the slave-buyer 
said, “Cheer up, aunty, the boy shall be 
yours.” 

We should ever remember that Jesus 
can sympathize with us whatever our 
trouble. For he was tempted in all 
points like as we are. And if we go to 
him for help with the confidence of this 
slave-mother, we may rest assured that 
we shall not go in vain.—Selected. 


—— 190 ——= 


SAVED BY A CHILD. 


“God’s work in the world has not been 
given alone into the hands of those who 
have years and wisdom. Even the lit- 
tle children have a share in it, and by 
their very innocence and trustfulness 
sometimes touch hearts that are closed 
to all other influences. A beautiful in- 
stance is recorded in the columns of an 
Eastern paper. 

During a recent panic, a merchant, 
becoming discouraged, imagining that 
his credit was gone and that business 
men distrusted him, and loosing faith 
in himself, decided to end his troubles 
by taking his own. life. Going to his 
home, he took a pistol from a desk 
drawer and made his way toward a piece 
of woods, intending to shoot himself. 
Suddenly he felt a soft hand slip into 
his own, and a childish voice asked 
sweetly. 

“Can I go with you to the woods, 
Mr. ? There are such pretty 
flowers there, and my mamma won’t let 
me go alone.” 

She was the daughter of one of his 
neighbors. Her trust in him, her faith 
that he would bring her safely back, 
changed the whole aspect of life for 
him, and saved him from the sin that 
he had been about to commit.—Selected. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


——— 19] —— 
PRAYER AND REVIVALS. 


One hundred thousand persons were 
reported as having connected them- 
selves with churches as the result of the 
revival which broke out at Rochester, 
N. Y., in 1830, under the labors of 
Charles G. Finney, and spread through- 
out that region of the state. Mr. Fin- 
ney attributed his success to the spirit 
of prayer which prevailed, as the fol- 
lowing from his autobiography will 
show. Is this not now the great need 
of the church? 

“When I was on my way to Roch- 
ester, as we passed through a village, 
some thirty miles east of Rochester, a 
brother minister whom I knew, seeing 
me on the ca.ial-boat, jumped aboard tao 
have a little conversation with me, in- 
tending to ride but a little way and 
return. He, however, became interested 
in conversation, and upon finding where 
I was going, he made up his mind to 
keep on and go with me to Rochester. 
We had been there but a few days 
when this minister became so convicted 
that he could not help weeping aloud, 
at one time, as he passed along the 
street. The Lord gave him a powerful 
spirit of prayer, and his heart was 
_ broken. As he and I prayed together, 
I was struck with his faith in regard 
to what the Lord was going to do there. 
I recollect he would say, ‘Lord, I do 
not know how it is; but I seem to know 
that Thou art going to do a great work 
in this city.’ The spirit of prayer was 
poured out powerfully, so much so, that 
some persons stayed away from the pub- 
lic services to pray, being unable to 
restrain their feelings under preaching. 

And here I must introduce the name 
of a man, whom I shall have occasion 
to mention frequently, Mr. Abel Clary. 
He was the son of a very excellent man 
and an elder of the church where I was 
converted. He was converted in the 
same revival in which I was. He had 
been licensed to preach; but his spirit 
of prayer was such, he was so burdened 


1 


ANECDOTES 99 


with the souls of men, that he was not 
able to preach much, his whole time 
and strength being given to prayer. 
The burden of his soul would frequent- 
ly be so great that he was unable to 
stand, and he would writhe and groan 
in agony. I was well acquainted with 
him, and knew something of the won- 
derful spirit of prayer that was upon 
him. He was a very silent man, as al- 
most all are who have that powerful 
spirit of prayer. 


The first I knew of his being in Roch- 
ester, a gentleman who lived about a 
mile west of the city, called on me one 
day, and asked me if I knew a Mr. 
Abel Clary, a minister. I told him that 
I knew him well. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘he 
is at my house, and has been there for 
some time, and I don’t know what to 
think of him.’ I said, ‘I have not seen 
him at any of our meetings.’ ‘No,’ he 
replied, ‘he cannot go to meeting, he 
says. He prays nearly all the time, 
day and night, and in such an agony of 
mind that I do not know what to make 
of it. Sometimes he cannot even stand 
on his knees, but will lie prostrate on 
thd floor, and groan and pray in a 
manner that quite astonishes me.’ I 
said to the brother, ‘I understand it: 
please keep still. It will all come out 
right; he will surely prevail.’ 

I knew at the time a considerable 
number of men who were exercised in 
the same way. A Deacon P , of 
Camden, Oneida County; Deacon T ' 
of Rodman, Jefferson County; a Deacon 
B , of Adams, in the same County; 
this Mr. Clary, and many others among 
the men, and a large number of women 
partook of the same spirit, and spent 
a great part of their time in prayer. 
Father Nash, as we called him, who in 
several of my fields of labor came to 
me and aided me, was another of those 
men that had such a powerful spirit of 
prevailing prayer. This Mr. Clary con- 
tinued in Rochester as long as I did, 
and did not leave it until after I had 
left. He never, that I could learn, ap- 











100 


peared in public, but gave himself 
wholly to prayer. 

I think it was the second Sabbath 
that, I was at Auburn at this time, I 
observed in the congregation the solemn 
face of Mr. Clary. He looked as if he 
was borne down with an agony of 
prayer. Being well acquainted with 
him, and knowing the great gift of God 
that was upon him, the spirit of prayer, 
I was very glad to see him there. He 
sat in the pew with his brother, the 
Doctor, who was also a professor of 
religion, but who knew nothing by ex- 
perience, I should think, of his brother 
Abel’s great power with God. 

At intermission, as soon as I came 
down from the pulpit, Mr. Clary, with 
his brother, met me at the pulpit stairs, 
and the Doctor invited me to go home 
with him and spend the intermission 
and get some refreshments. I did so. 

After arriving at his house we were 
soon summoned to the dinner table. We 
gathered about the table and Dr. Clary 
turned to his brother and said, ‘Brother 
Abel, will you ask the blessing?’ Broth- 
er Abel bowed his head and began, audi- 
bly, to ask a blessing. He had uttered 
but a sentence or two when he broke 
instantly down, moved suddenly back 
from the table, and fled to his chamber. 
The Doctor supposed he had been taken 
suddenly ill, and rose up and followed 
him. In a few moments he came 
down and said, ‘Mr. Finney, brother 
Abel wants to see you.’ Said I, ‘What 
ails him.’ Said he, ‘I do not know; but 
he says you know. He appears in great 
distress, but I think it is the state of his 
mind.’ I understood it in a moment, 
and went to his room, He lay groaning 
upon the bed, the Spirit making inter- 
cession for him, and in him, with 
groanings that could not be utter- 
ed. I had barely entered the room, 
when he made out to say, ‘Pray, brother 
Finney.’ I knelt down and helped him 
in prayer, by leading his soul out for 
the conversion of sinners. I continued 
to pray until his distress passed away 
and then I returned to the dinner table. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


I understood that this was the voice 
of God. I saw the Spirit of prayer was 
upon him, and I felt his influence upon 
myself, and took it for granted that the 
work would move on powerfully. It 
did so. The pastor told me afterward, 
that he found that in the six weeks 
that I was there, five hundred souls had 
been converted.” 


—— 192 —— 
FARRAGUT’S TURNING POINT. 


Admiral Farragut tells this story of 
his boyhood: “When I was a boy I 
was with my father on board a man-of- 
war. I had some qualities that I 
thought would make a man cf me. I 
could swear like an old salt, could drink 
as stiff a glass of grog as if I had dou- 
bled Cape Horn, and could smoke like a 
locomotive. I was great at cards and 
fond of gaming in any shape. At the 
close of dinner one day, father turned 
everybody out of the cabin, locked the 
door, and said, ‘David what do you 
mean to be?? 

““*T mean to follow the sea.’ 


““Follow the sea! Yes, to be a poor, 
-niserable drunken sailor before the 
mast. Be kicked and cuffed about the 
world, and die in some fever hospital 
in a foreign land. No, David, no boy 
ever trod the quarter deck with such 
principles as you have and such habits 
as you exhibit. You'll have to change 
your whole course ‘of life, if you ever 
become a man.’ 


“My father left me and went on deck. 
I was stunned by the rebuke and over- 
whelmed with mortification. A poor, 
miserable, drunken sailor before the 
mast. Be kicked and cuffed about the 
world and die in some fever hospital. 
This is to be my fate, thought I. I'll 
change my life at once. I’ll never utter 
another oath, never drink another drop 
of liquor, and never gamble! I have 
kept these three vows ever since. Short- 
ly after I had made them I became a 
Christian. Thiat act was the turning 
point in my destiny.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


=——— 193 —— 
SUBMISSION. 


“For me, I feel that nothing can be 
easier than to fulfill the duty which lies 
before me in life,” said P——, a young 
Christian, in a college prayer meeting. 
“I have given up my plans for entering 
into business, I shall devote my life to 
preaching the gospel. I have divided the 
day into periods. So many hours for 
prayer, so many for biblical study, so 
many for work and necessary recreation. 
I shall make it an absolute rule to speak 
with kind entreaties to evil-coers, never 
to allow my temper to be disturbed, and 
to occupy myself wholly in works of 
kindness and charity. I have begun this 
carefully-ordered life, and find it easy 
and full of sweetness.” 

The next day P received a tele- 
gram that his father was dying. He 
hastened home,.to find him dead and in- 
solvent. He left the care of his help- 
less brothers and sisters on P . He 
was forced to go to work as a bookkeep- 
er, and to postpone his preparation for 
the ministry. His life for two years 
was a hard one; seventeen hours of lab- 
or, and an unhappy, quarrelsome family 
at home. At the end of that time an 
accident disabled him for months. He 
was confined to bed, suffering great pain 
at intervals, and surrounded by the di- 
rest poverty, which he could do nothing 
to relieve. He grew bitter and skeptical. 

“Can there be a just God?” he said to 
a friend, “My purposes were good. He 
has thwarted them all. I might have 
been a pillar in God’s house. He has 
left me a useless lump of clay by the 
wayside.” 

“He gave you the opportunity to 
preach submission and patience as you 
could have done in no pulpit,” was the 
answer. “You are a lump of clay and 
he the potter. It does not matter 
whether you are made into a rare por- 
celain vessel or an earthen one, pro- 
vided you hold his purity and love and 
give it to the world.” 

The rebuke had its effect. 








Years af- 


101 





terwards P gained his wish and 
became a Christan minister. He de- 
clared that at no time of his life was 
he brought so near to God in humility 
and love as during the years when he 
was debarred from openly proclaiming 
his name, 

There are few of us who do not at 
some time in our lives complain that 
God has restrained and thrust us into 
the background when we would have 
rendered him service. The roots of the 
tree, could they reason, would doubtless 
rebel when they are buried in the dark, 
damp earth, but out of it they gather 
the life and sweetness for the flower 
and fruit. Obedience is true religious 
service, and experience is often the best 
scholarship of life. 

—Youths Companion. 


ESS 7 eee 
THE FIRST OFFER. 


A clergyman was visiting a man of 
business and the following conversation 
substantially occurred: 

“It is true,’ said the merchant, “I 
am not satisfied with my present condi- 
tion. I am not ‘of a settled mind in re- 
ligion,’ as you express it. Still I am not 
utterly hopeless. I may yet enter the 
vineyard, even at the eleventh hour.” 

“Ah! your allusion is to the Saviour’s 
parable of the loitering laborers who 
wrought one hour at the end of the day. 
But you have overlooked: the fact that 
these men accepted the first offer. 

“Is that so?” 

“Certainly; they said to the lord of 
the vineyard, ‘No man hath hired us.’ 
They welcomed the first offer immedi- 
ately.” 

“True; I had not thought of that be- 
fore. But then the thief on the cross, 
even while dying, was saved.” 

“Yes, but it is likely that even he had 
never rejected the offer of salvation as 
preached by Christ and His apostles. 
Like Barabbas, he had been a robber by 
profession. In the resorts to which he 
had been accustomed the Gospel had 
never been preached. Is there not some 


102 


reason to believe that he, too, accepted 
the first offer?” 

“Why, you seem desirous to quench 
my last spark of hope.” 

“Why should I not? Such hope is 
illusion. You had really no promise of 
acceptance at some future time. Now is 
the accepted time! Begin now.” 

“How shall I begin?” 

“Just as the poor leper did when he 
met Jesus by the way and committed 
his body to the great Physician in order 
to be healed. So commit your soul to 
Him as a present Saviour. Then serve 
Him from love. The next—even the 
most common—duty of life that you 
have to perform, do it as a service to 
Him. Will you accept the first offer? 
Your eyes are open to see you peril. 
Beware of delay!” 

“You are right; may God help me. I 
fear I have been living in a kind of 
dreamy delusion on this subject.” Ex. 


—— 195 —— 
DELIVERED FROM PIRATES. 


Thrilling experiences with river pi- 
rates are narrated by the Rev. W. H. 
Dobson of Yeungkong, South China. Af- 
ter a day spent at Macao, en route from 
Hongkong to Yeungkong, with his help- 
ers, they and their boat were in the 
hands of a robber band for two nights 
and a day and were then cast adrift 
with only the foresail and no oars. They 
finally dropped anchor near a place 
called Wongchung, a noted pirate nest. 
Two miles from there was a chapel. Mr. 
Dobson sent a messenger with his card 
to the preacher or elder asking him to 
come and see him. The elder did so, 
accompanied by a bodyguard, armed, as 
the country was infested by robbers. 
The only way for Mr. Dobson to get his 
boat into Kongmoon, twenty miles 
away, was to leave the crew and start 
from the chapel, two miles distant to 
get help. “I went into my bunk room,” 
writes Mr. Dobson, “and asked God if 
there was anything I could do for these 
“ people before I left, and immediately 
the answer came—‘In all thy ways ac- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


knowledge Him, and he will direct thy 
paths.’ So, calling the crew together, 
I called their attention to the fact that 
the light had been burning before their 
ship’s idol all during the robber raid, 
and that the idol had in no wise helped 
them; but now, if they would consent to 
blow out the light and not light it again 
all night, I would ask the true God to 
guard them all during the night, and 
give them an easy means of getting into 
Kongmoon on the morrow. They im- 
mediately went and blew out the light. 
Then I asked God to protect them and 
take them to Kongmoon, and further 
said that I asked this in order that those 
who were standing around might know 
that our God is a true God, who hears 
and answers prayer.” 


Mr. Dobson left the crew and went 
on to the village and the gates were 
locked behind him. On leaving next 
morning, to his surprise the boat on 
which he was traveling stopped where 
the junk he had left the night before 
lay at anchor. He asked whether they 
lad been molested. They replied, “No, 
indeed, we had a fine rest, doctor.” “I 
asked them,” said Mr. Dobson, “to 
whom we prayed last night, and then 
they said, ‘Heavenly Father.’ The first 
thing they saw in the morning was 
two launches, towing boats full of sol- 
diers, who promised to take them into 
Kongmoon that afternoon.” Kongmoon 
was reached in safety. 


106 
HIS VERY OWN. 


I was told once of an old man in a 
Yorkshire village, whose son had been 
a sore grief to him. One day a neigh- 
bor inquired how he was doing. “Oh, 
very bad!” was the answer. “He has 
been drinking again, and behaving very 
rough.” “Dear, dear!” said the neigh- 
bor, “if he was my son I would turn 
him out. “Yes,” returned the father, 
“and so would I if he was yours. But, 
you see, he is not yours, he is mine.” 

—Selected. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 197 -——- 


THE STORY OF “PASS IT ON.” 


Once when I was a schoolboy, go- 
ing home from a far away little town 
in which I dwelt, I arrived at Bristol 
and got on board the steamer with just 
enough money to pay my fare; that be- 
ing settled I thought, in my innocence, 
that I had paid for everything in the 
way of meals. I had what I wanted 
as long as we were in smooth water; 
then came the rough Atlantic and need 
of more. I had been lying in my berth 
for hours wretchedly ill and past caring 
for anything, when in came the steward 
and stood beside me. 

“Your bill, sir,” said he, holding out 
a piece of paper. 

“JT have no money,” said I, in my 
wretchedness. 

“Then I shall keep your luggage. 
What is your name and address?” I 
told him. Instantly he took off the 
cap he wore with the gilt band about it, 
and held out his hand. I should like to 
shake hands with you,” he said. Then 
came the explanation—how that some 
years before a little kindness had been 
shown by my father to his mother in 
the sorrow of her widowhood. “TI never 
thought the chance would come for me 
to repay it,” said he pleasantly, “but 
I’m glad it has.” 

As soon as I got ashore I told my 
father what had happened. 

“Oh,” said he, “see how a bit of kind- 
ness lives! Now he has passed it on 
to you. You remember if you meet 
anybody who needs a friendly hand, 
you must pass it on to them.” 

Years had gone by. I had grown up 
and quite forgotten it all, when one day 
I had gone to the station of one of our 
main lines. I was just going to take 
my ticket when I saw a lad, a gentle- 
man he was, trying to keep back the 
troublesome tears as he pleaded with 
the booking clerk. 

“What’s the matter, my lad?” I 
asked. 

“If you please, sir, I haven’t money 


10. 


enough to pay my fare. I have all but 
a few pence, and I told the clerk if he 
will trust me I will be sure to pay him.” 
Instantly it flashed upon me the for- 
gotten story of long ago. Here, then, 
was my chance to pass it on. I gave 
him the sum needed, and then got into 
the carriage with him. TI told the little 
fellow of long ago and of the kindness 
to me. “Now, today,” I said “I pass 
it on to you; and remember, if you 
meet with anybody who needs a kindly 
hand, you must pass it on to them.” 
—Purity Advocate. 


—— 198 —— 
/ “ALMOST UP! ALMOST UP!” 


Mr, E. P. Smith relates that, during 
the terrible charge up Missionary Ridge, 
four soldiers were seen bearing back a 
comrade on a blanket. When they laid 
their burden down, he knelt by him, and 
said: 

“Sergeant, where did they hit you?” 

“’Most up the Ridge, sir.” 

“I mean, Sergeant, where did the ball 
strike you?” 

“Within twenty yards of the top, al- 
most up.” 

“No, no! Sergeant, think of yourself 
for a moment; tell me where you are 
wounded ;” and turning back the blanket 
I found his upper arm and shoulder 
mashed and mangled by the shell. Turn- 
ing his eye to look for the first time up- 
on his wound, the Sergeant said: 

“That is what did it! I was holding 
the standard to my blouse, and making 
for the top. I was almost up when that 
ugly shell knocked me over. If they 
had let me alone a little longer, two 
minutes longer, I should have planted 
the colors on the top. Almost up! Al- 
most up!” 

His own regiment, rallying around the 
colors that had dropped from his shat- 
tered arm, were even then shouting the 
victory for which he had given his life; 
and he was dying without the sight. 

The Lord calls for men who shall be 
good soldiers of the cross of Christ, and 
they are to endure hardness, and count 


104 


not their lives dear unto themselves. 
And when assailed by foes on every 
hand, they are still to keep pressing on- 


ward and upward; and if stricken, and 


pierced, and wounded, and sore, they 
are still to press forward, until the vic- 
tory is gained. And when such a one 
finds himself borne down by his adver- 
saries, assailed in reputation, wounded 
in feelings, crippled and hindered and 
crushed, if the question comes, “Where 
did they hit you?” his answer is, “Al- 
most up! Almost up!”—Selected. 


—— 199 —— 
THE LINE FENCE. 


A good lawyer learns many lessons 
in the school of human nature; and thus 
it was that Lawyer Hackett did not fear 
to purchase the tract of land which, 
says the Lewiston Journal, had been 
“lawed over” for years. 

Some of the people wondered why 
he wanted to get hold of property with 
such an incubus of uncertainty upon it. 
Others thought that perhaps he wanted 
some legal knitting work, and would 
pitch in red-hot to fight that line fence 
question on his own hook. 

That’s what the owner of the adjoin- 
ing land thought. So he braced himself 
for trouble when he saw Hackett com- 
ing across the fields one day. 

Said Hackett, “What’s your claim 
here, anyway, as to this fence?” 

“T insist,” replied the neighbor, “that 
your fence is over on my land two feet 
at one end and one foot at least at the 
other end.” 

“Well,” replied Hackett, “you go 
ahead just as quick as you can and set 
your fence over. At the end where 
you say that I encroach on you two 
feet, set the fence on my land four 
feet. At the other end push it on my 
land two feet.” 

“But,” persisted the neighbor, “that’s 
twice what I claim.” 

“T don’t care about that,” said Hack- 
ett. “There’s been fight enough over 
this land. I want you to take enough 
so you are perfectly satisfied, and then 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


we can get along pleasantly. Go ahead 
and help yourself.” 

The man paused abashed. He had 
been ready to commence the old strug- 
gle, tooth and nail, but this move of the 
new neighbor stunned him. Yet he 
wasn’t to be outdone in generosity. He 
looked at Hackett. 

“Squire,” said he, “that fence ain’t 
going to be moved an inch. I don’t 
want the land. There wasn’t nothin’ in 
the fight, anyway, but the principle of 
the thing.” 


—— 200 —— 
RETURNING THANKS. 


A sweet little girl was invited to take 
lunch with a friend. She had always 
been used to hearing a blessing asked 
before commencing to eat, but~as she 
waited quietly the gay talking did not 
cease, and the waitress commenced to 
pass the cold chicken. She watched 
each one help themselves, and saw no 
heads bowed in thankfulness. Finally 
it came to her, and she fooked at the 
dish and saw a wing, the part of which 
she was partial. She looked at her 
hostess, then, before taking any, bowed 
her little head and said in a low voice, 
“Thank you, Jesus, for my wing, any- 
way.”’—Christian Advocate. 


201 —— 


A LIE IS FOREVER. 


A little girl, whom, we know, came in 
her night clothes very early to her 
mother one morning, saying: 

“Which is worst, mamma, to tell a 
lie or steal?” 

The mother, taken by surprise, replied 
that both were so bad she couldn't 
tell which was the worst. 

“Well,” said the little one, “I’ve been 
thinking a good deal about it, and I’ve 
concluded its worse to lie than to steal. 
If you steal a thing you can take it back, 
‘less you’ve eaten it; and if you’ve eaten 
it you can pay for it. But’”—and there 
was a look of awe in the little face—‘a 
lie is forever.”—Selected. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


——— 202 -—— 
GOD’S CARE IN LITTLE THINGS. 


Some writer has truly said: ‘The 
things we call little and commonplace, 
like the little jeweled axles in the wheels 
of our watches, are the very pivots on 
which the greatest spiritual experiences 
turn; and trusting God for a headache 
or a dollar, may teach us to trust him 
for all the fulness of his grace and 
power.” In like manner the following 
experience in my early Christian life 


did much to teach me how to trust God 


for greater things. 

I had been a Christian less than three 
years, when one summer, with a journey 
before me, I was resting in a village in 
Ohio. The seven dollars necessary for 
my railway fare I put to one side in my 
purse, and in one-way and another I 
spent all the money I had remaining. 
As I was retiring for the night, with 
my trunk packed, and expecting the 
omnibus to call for me in the forenoon, 
the thought occurred to me that it would 
be better to count that money and see if 
it were all right. I did so, and to my 
dismay found it some cents short. I 
racked my memory in vain to remember 
where I had spent it, or what had become 
of it. I felt I could not tell any one 
my difficulty, and how was I to leave 
in the morning with not enough money 
to pay my fare? Then, like many Chris- 
tians, I began to worry. After a long 
time I fell asleep, and on awaking in 
the morning, my difficulty like a cloud 
came upon me. It occurred to me to 
tell God all about it, and in so doing 
I had peace and quietness. In about 
half an hour I heard a rap at my door, 
and on opening it, found a gentleman 
there who handed me the exact sum, 
twenty-three cents. I asked him why 
he did it. He replied one day in an 
emergency he had borrowed it of me, 
and had forgotten all about it until a 
little ago. I had forgotten all about it, 
too, but God had not, and when I cried 
unto him he delivered me by reminding 
this brother of that sum. But my 
story is not finished. In departing a 


105 


friend, who was in poor circumstances, 
gave mea dollar. I refused to take it, 
feeling hers was the greater need, as- 
suring her that I had enough. But she 
urged me to, saying, “You may need 
it to get lunch on the way.” I took it 
reluctantly to please her, secretly resolv- 
ing in some way to return it. When I 
reached the city I found, to my astonish- 
ment, the fare was eight dollars instead 
of seven. Had not this dear woman 
given me the dollar I would have been 
alone in the great city without enough 
money for the rest of my journey. How 
God’s care humbled me. He not only 
gave me the few cents I thought I 
needed, but supplied a need which he 
alone foresaw, and of which I was ig- 
norant. It madea great impression on 
my mind. How true it is that he “is 
able to do exceeding abundantly above 
all that we ask or think.” 
—Mrs. M. B. Fuller. 


we COD 
AT YOUR OWN DOOR. 


Sopha had been praying for twelve 
years to become a foreign missionary. 
One day she had so prayed, and the 
Heavenly Father seemed to say: “Sopha, 
stop; where were you born?” 

“In Germany, Father.” 

“Where are you now?” 

“In America, Father.” 

“Well, are you not a foreign mission- 
ary already?” 

Then the Father said: 
the floor above you?” 

“A family of Swedes.” 

“And who above them?” 

“Why, some Switzers.” 

“Who in the rear?” 

“Italians.” 

“And a block away?” 

“Some Chinese.” 

“And you have never said a word to 
these people about my Son! Do you 
think I will send you thousands of miles 
to the foreigner and heathen when you 
never care enough about them at your 
own door to speak with them about their 
souls?”— Selected. 


“Who lives on 


106 


—— 204 — 
QUENCH NOT THE CPIRIT. 


“My children,” said the old man, “the 
words of your dying father will be few. 
I wish them to sink deep into your 
hearts.” Then raising himself a little in 
his bed, with a degree of strength which 
he had not been able to command for 
several of the last weeks of his sickness, 
he proceeded: 

“When young, I enjoyed religious 
privileges, and was the subject of occa- 
sional serious reflection. When just en- 
tering my sixteenth year, religious im- 
pressions were made on my mind with 
unusual force. I seemed to hear a voice 
continually saying to me, ‘Seek religion 
now.’ I was unhappy; my former amuse- 
ments lost their relish. Still I was not 
willing wholly to relinquish them and 
obey the voice which urged me to seek 
religion immediately. One day, after 
much reflection, I deliberately promised 
to God, that as soon as the season of 
youthful amusement was past, I would 
give myself to religious pursuits. My 
anxieties immediately left me; I returned 
to my amusement, and the whole sub- 
ject was soon forgotten. 

“When at twenty-five the monitory 
voice returned, reminded me of my 
promise, and again pressed upon me the 
importance of eternal things. Though 
I had not thought of my promise for 
years, I acknowledged its obligations, 
but an immediate fulfillment seemed 
more impracticable than it did nine years 
before. I vowed with increased solem- 
nity, that, when the cares of a rising 
family should subside, I would certainly 
attend to the concerns of religion. 

“Again I applied myself to worldly 
avocations, and soon buried all thoughts 
of the admonition I had received. At 
fifty when you my children, were di- 
minishing instead of increasing my cares, 
this heavenly monitor returned. ‘Fulfill 
your promise, seek religion now,’ was 
continually pressing upon my mind. I 
knew that I had made such a promise, 
but I felt dissatisfied that its fulfillment 
should be claimed so soon. I regretted 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


that I had not attended to the subject be- 
fore, when I could have done it with 
less difficulty; but such was the extent 
and pressure of my business, that to do 
it then seemed impossible. The gubject 
made me unhappy, and, after much de- 
liberation, I sought relief to my troubled 
feelings by most solemnly renewing my 
promise to God. I said, When the pres- 
sure of my business is past, I will devote 
my whole attention to a preparation for 
eternity. 

“No sooner had I fixed my mind on 
this course than my anxieties left me; 
the strivings of the Spirit ceased in my 
bosom, and ceased forever. When sick- 
ness warned me of approaching death, 
I sought to fix my feelings on this sub- 
ject, but it was in vain. There was a 
gloom and terror drawn around religion, 
at which my soul shuddered. I felt that 
I was forsaken of God, but it did not 
move me. I had no love to God, no repen- 
tance for sin, nor wish to forsake it. I felt 
nothing but the sullen gloom of despair. 
I knew I was in the hands of a justly 
offended God, from whom I expected no 
mercy, and could ask none. With these 
feelings I am now about to enter the 
eternal world. To you, my children, I 
can only say, Profit by my example: 
quench not the Spirit; seek religion now, 
if you would avoid a miserable eternity; 
ae not off the concerns of your soul 
till”’— 

The sentence died upon his lips; his 
strength, which had been all summoned 
to make this last effort, suddenly failed; 
he fell back upon his bed, and, with a 
groan that seemed to speak the pains of 
another world, the immortal spirit took 
its flight from that body which it had 
inhabited nearly fourscore years, to re- 
ceive according to that it had done. 


This little narrative I had from a 
grandson of the old man, who stood by 
his dying-bed. He was a minister of the 
gospel, and dated his first permanent 
conviction of his sin, and exposure to 
eternal ruin, from the solemnities of that 
awful scene. The descendants of the 
old man were numerous, many of whom 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


became hopefully pious; several were 
first awakened by this dying charge. 
—Selected. 


—— 205 —— 
FIRST SIGHT OF MOTHER. 


A minister living in an Indiana vil- 
lage received a call one night from a 
parishoner. “Will you go to Indian- 
apolis for me?” he asked. “We have 
decided to send Johnnie there for an 
operation. We have received encourage- 
ment that he may yet be made to see.” 

Johnnie had been born without sight 
and now, a little lad of six, bright and 
sunny, and hardly realizing that he 
lacked anything to make life happy, he 
was facing a future of darkness, little 
hope till now having been given to the 
parents that anything could be done for 
his eyes. 

“Go with my wife and Johnnie,” said 
the father. “I cannot go; I dare not go. 
But stay with her till it is over, and 
either rejoice with us or comfort us and 
send me word as fast as the lightning 
can bring it.” 

The minister went and stayed with 
the lad while the oculist, not over-confi- 
dent, began his work, and, till at last, 
with a thrill of triumph in his tone, he 
said: “The boy will see.” 

The glad wire tingled with the mes- 
sage to the father; and the minister, with 
the overjoyed mother, retired to wait for 
the time when the bandaged eyes could 
bear light enough for a first look at the 
beautiful world. 

At last came the notification of the ex- 
pected test. In the dimly lighted room 
the mother and the minister stood 
breathless while the doctor carefully 
raised the shade. The little lad, over- 
whelmed by the sudden possession of a 
new sense, cast a bewildered look from 
one to the other of the three. 

“Johnnie,” said the minister, “this 
is your mother.” 

The little arms went up and clasped 
her neck, the happy boy verifying his 
new sense by those already tested; and 


107 


caressing the loving face that he saw 
leaning above him, he cried: “Oh, 
mother! Is this really you, or is it 
heaven?” 

It was, indeed, like a glimpse into 
heaven. “TI felt,” said the minister, “as 
if I had witnessed something of the glad 
bewilderment of a newly-translated soul 
into its first sight of our Heavenly 
Father.”-——-Youth’s Companion. 


—— 206 —— 


SAVED BY SONG. 


On board the ill-fated steamer Seawan- 
haka was one of the Fisk University 
singers. Before leaving the burning 
steamer and committing himself to the 
merciless waves, he carefully fastened 
upon himself and wife life-preservers. 
Some one cruelly dragged away that of 
the wife, leaving her without hope, ex- 
cept as she could cling to her husband. 
This she did, placing her hands firmly 
on his shoulders and resting there until 
her strength becoming exhausted, she 
said, “I can hold no longer!” “Try a 
little longer,” was the response of the 
weary and agonized husband; “let us 
sing ‘Rock of Ages.’” And as those 
sweet strains floated over those troubled 
waters, reaching the ears of the sinking 
and dying, little did they know, those 
sweet singers of Israel, whom they com- 
forted. 

But lo! as they sung, one after an- 
other of those exhausted ones were seen 
raising their heads above the overwhelm- 
ing waves, joining with a last effort in 
this sweet, dying, pleading prayer: 

“Rock of Ages cleft for me. 
Let me hide myself in thee.” 


With the song seemed to come strength; 
another and yet another was encouraged 
to renewed effort. Soon in the distance 
a boat was seen approaching! Singing 
still, they tried, and soon with super- 
human strength laid hold of the life boat. 
This is no fiction; it was related by the 
singer himself, who said he “believed 
Toplady’s sweet ‘Rock of Ages’ saved 
many amfiother besides himself and 
wife.”— Western. 


108 


—— 207 —— 
GUIDED ARIGHT. 


“I will guide thee with mine eye.” 
If one will yield himself to the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit and seek only to 
glorify God in all, he will often be able 
to look back over the way passed and 
see clearly that God was leading him 
although at the time he was entirely 
unconscious of it. 

This afternoon there were two fam- 
ilies on whom I intended to call as I 
started forth. But I had prayed for 
guidance at morning worship, and had 
now an unusual desire to be led aright. 
Passing down a certain street to call at 
one of the homes thought of, it occurred 
to me to stop and see a lady living 
across the street. I had known her for 
some time, but had never called upon 
her. Yielding to the impulse I went, 
and in response to my inquiry was told 
by her sister, who had come to care 
for her, that Mrs. D was very 
ill, but would see me. She was thank- 
ful indeed for the call, and said, “The 
Lord sent you.” After speaking some 
words of comfort and encouragment, 
prayer was offered, and when I left she 
was more cheerful in mind, and I was 
grateful for being led to make the visit. 

No one was at home at either of the 
two places where I intended to call, but 
calls were made upon three families 
where I had no thought of going, and at 
all the places there were marked indica- 
tions that my coming was well-timed. 

—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 
—— 208 —— 

THE LITTLE GIRL’S PRAYER. 

The late Doctor Krummacher, chap- 
lain to the king of Prussia, in referring 
to faith and prayer, writes as follows: 

“A little incident occurs to me which 
I can hardly withhold, on account of its 
simplicity and beauty. The mother of 
a little girl, only four years of age, had 
been, for some time, most dangerously 
ill. 

“The physician had given her up, 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


When the little girl heard this, she went 
into an adjoining room knelt down and 
said: 

“‘Dear Lord Jesus, O 
mother well again.’ 

“After she had thus prayed, she said, 
as though in God’s name, with as deep 
a voice as she could: ‘Yes my little 
child, I will do it gladly!’ This was 
the little girls amen. She rose up 
joyfully ran to her mother’s bed, and 
said: ‘Mother you will get well!” 

“And she recovered, and is in health 
to this day. It is, then, always per- 
mitted for me to pray thus uncondition- 
ally respecting temporal concerns? No; 
thou must not venture to do so, if whilst 
you doubt. 

“But shouldst thou ever be inclined by 
God’s Spirit to pray thus, without doubt 
or scruple, in a filial temper, and with 
simplicity of heart, resting on the true 
foundation, and in genuine faith, then 
pray thus by all means! None dare 
censure thee; God will accept thee.” 


—— 209 
SAVE SOMEBODY’S BOY 


An excited crowd was collecting on 
Mill Street, Rochester, N. Y. A gentle- 
man having just arrived by the train was 
attracted to the spot. He inquired the 
cause of the excitement, and was inform- 
ed that a boy was drowning in the whirl- 
pool. Quickly divesting himself of his 
coat, and throwing down his traveling 
bag, he plunged into the raging waters. 

For a time he was lost to view, and 
anxious hearts were throbbing with fear 
lest he had sacrificed himself. Soon, 
however, he appeared with the lad in his 
strong grasp. Ready hands were ex- 
tended to him, and both were safely land- 
ed. Clearing the water from his eyes 
so that he could see, the man exclaimed, 
“Merciful God, this is my boy!” 


Thousands are going to destruction 
about you. Be willing to sacrifice your- 
self if need be to save them, and you 
will save those that are dear to Christ, 
and also perhaps especially dear to 
yourself.__Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


make my 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


=—— 210 —— 
THE CONGREGATION OF FOUR. 


Religion was at a very low ebb in a 
town in Vermont. The discouraged 
pastor gave notice that the usual weekly 
prayer meeting in the red school-house 
would be discontinued, as so few at- 
tended. It was winter, and a deep 
snow lay on the ground. There was a 
praying old lady in the church, who un- 
dismayed by the pastor’s notice, and in 
fact inspired by it with a new earnest- 
ness, took her lantern on the usual 
evening, plodded her way to the school- 
house, and there spent an hour in 
wrestling prayer for a revival. On her 
way home, being exhausted, she stopped 
at a good deacon’s to rest. Astonished 
to find her out alone, in such weather 
and at such an hour, he asked, “Where 
have you been mother?” “Why, to the 
prayer meeting,” she replied. “I thought 
that was given up,” said the deacon. 
“Not at all.” “Indeed! Who was there?” 
“Why God, the Father, was there; God, 
the Son, was there; God, the Holy Spirit 
was there; and unworthy I was permit- 
ted to be there! We had a most blessed 
time, and next week we are to have 
another meeting.” Next week came, the 
word had been passed around, and the 
red school-house was crowded with 
penitent professors of religion who, con- 
fessed their past coldness, and renewed 
their consecration. A revival of great 
interest followed.—Selected. 


211 —— 
A BANK SAVED BY FAITH. 


In an English town a report got out 
that the bank was about to fail. Five 
hundred people ran for their deposits 
on the same day. The pastor of the dis- 
senting church in the town was invited 
by the bank directors to meet them. 
They said to him, “Sir, if these people 
press us to the wall, they will lose their 
money. If they don’t press us, we will 
pay every dollar.” The pastor said, “I 
will help you; I have some money, and 
I trust you.” He went home, got his 





109 


money, came to the bank door, and 
standing on the step said: “Friends, you 
all know me; I have been living here 
twenty-five years, and I believe in this 
bank. Here are three hundred pounds 
that I am going to deposit. I believe 
the bank is good.” In less than thirty 
minutes every one of those people had 
dispersed, and the bank was save by 
faith, Unbelief as to that bank was 
about to ruin it. The moment faith was 
implanted, the bank was saved. Rail- 
roads are saved by faith. Steamboats 
are saved by faith. Your business, 
friend, is saved by faith. Every good 
thing on earth is saved by faith.—Sel. 


—— 212 ——_ 


“I DID STEAL THAT SHEEP.” 


A writer in the Baptist Weekly tells 
a story of a circumstance which occurred 
at Oswego, and which illustrated the 
practical shrewdness of an old minister 
named Amasa Brown. 


“A member of the church charged an- 
other with stealing a sheep. The culprit 
denied the charge. Both were men of 
influence. The church was divided. A 
council was called, and Mr. Brown was 
there. There were no witnesses except 
as to character. It was the word of one 
man against another. One was a slan- 
derer, or the other a thief. Elder Brown 
suggested a most extraordinary measure 
to elicit the facts in the case. He called 
the two men to the rostrum before the 
pulpit, and directed the man who made 
the charge to engage in prayer—and re- 
quested the council and audience t? look 
him in the face while praying. He made 
an earnest prayer. He appealed to the 
Lord as one who knew the charge was 
true. Then the other was called on to 
follow. He made a regular prayer for 
the church, the pastor, etc., and then 
said: ‘As touching this matter of the 
sheep, O Lord-a-hum, as to touching— 
touching this-ah’—when he sprang to 
his feet, and exclaimed, ‘Brethren, I can- 
mot pray. I did steal that sheep!’ So 
the matter was settled.” 


110 


—— 213 —— 


THE GINGER-BREAD STRUGGLE, 


Dr. Cyrus Hamlin has told in a five- 
minute speech how it was he came to 
be a missionary. He said: “In the vast 
majority of cases missionaries are made 
by the influence of the family. My wid- 
owed mother made me a missionary. She 
had me read every Sunday out of the 
‘Panoplist’ and then later out of the 
‘Missionary Herald.’ We had in those 
days in our town a missionary contribu- 
tion box, a cent box, and we were en- 
couraged to earn some special cents for 
that box. I remember well one occasion 
which was, I think, a turning point in 
my experience. When the fall muster 
came every boy had a pocket full of cents 
to spend. My mother gave me seven cents 
to spend, saying, as she gave them: “Per- 
haps you will put a cent or two into the 
contribution box in Mrs, Farrar’s porch 
on the common.’ 

“So I began to think as I went along, 
shall I put in one, or shall it be two? 
Then I thought two cents was pretty 
small, and I came up to three—three 
cents for the heathen and four cents for 
ginger-bread; but that did not sound 
right, did not satisfy me, so I turned it 
the other way, and said four cents shal 
go for the heathen. Then I thought, the 
boys will ask me how much I have to 
spend, and three cents is rather too small 
a sum to talk about. I said, ‘T’ll put the 
whole in.’ So in it all went. When I 
told my mother some years aiterward 
that I was going to be a missionary, 
she broke down, and said. ‘I have al- 
ways expected it.’ ” 


—— 214 —— 
SHUT UP WITH A BIBLE. 


When Nicholas I. became Emperor of 
Russia his first task was to put down a 
formidable sedition among the aristoc- 
racy of hisrealm. Many nobles detected 
in guilt, and many who were simply sus- 
pected, were thrown into prison. One, 
who was innocent, was by nature a man 
of fiery temper; his wrongful arrest in- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


furiated him, and he raved like a wild 
animal, Day after day, brooding over 
his treatment, he would stamp, shriek- 
ing through his cell, and curse the Em- 
peror and curse God. Why did he not 
prevent this injustice? 

No quiet came to him save in the in- 
tervals of exhaustion that followed his 
fits of rage. A visit from the venerable 
clergyman on the ninth day of his con- 
finement produced no softening effect. 
The good man’s prayer was heard with 
sullen contempt. The divine words, 
“Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest,” sounded like mockery to the em- 
bittered prisoner. The aged minister 
went away, leaving a Bible in the cell, 
which he begged the prisoner to read. 

As soon as the minister was gone the 
angry nobleman kicked the Bible into a 
corner. What to him was the word of 
God, who let tyrants abuse him? But 
when the terrible loneliness of succeed- 
ing days had nearly crazed him he 
caught up the Bible and opened it, and 
his first glance fell on the middle of the 
fiftieth Psalm: “Call upon me in the day 
of trouble; I will deliver thee.” The 
text surprised and touched him, but his 
pride resented the feeling, and he 
dropped the book. 

The next day desperation drove him 
again to the only companion of his soli- 
tude, and from that time he read the 
Bible constantly. Then he began to 
study it, and commit whole chapters to 
memory. The story of the Savior’s life 
changed him. He saw himself a fellow 
sufferer with the Christ who was un- 
justly accused and slain. 

Revengeful rage gave way and the 
spirit of a martyr took its place. Like 
the persecuted Christians shut up in the 
Roman catacombs, he forgave his ene- 
mies. An unworldly joy took up the 
time he had once spent in harsh thoughts 
and words. The shadows of wrong and 
death vanished in the new light that 
shone upon him from beyond. 

The company of a book—the Book in 
all the world that could have done it— 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


had given the proud noble another heart. 

Madame Dubois, once a beloved prison 
missionary in New York, from whose 
writings this story is taken, was in Rus- 
sia when the condemned man’s aunt and 
sister, with whom she was visiting, re- 
ceived a letter which was believed to be 
his last. It was the outpouring of an 
exalted soul superior to fate. 

He had undergone his trial, and un- 
able to prove his innocence, had been 
sentenced to death. On the day set for 
his execution, while the ladies of the 
mansion walked in tears through the 
crape-hung parlors, suddenly the sight 
of their doomed kinsman himself aston 
ished them at the door! 

It was an unhoped for deliverance at 
the last moment. When the jailer’s keys 
unlocked the prisoner’s cell, instead of 
the messenger of death, the Czar of Rus- 
sia stood before him. A conspirator’s 
intercepted letter had placed the inno- 
cence of the suspected nobleman beyond 
question, and the Czar made what 
amends he could by bestowing upon him 
a splendid castle and a general’s com- 
mission. 

Seventy-five years have passed since 
then, and with them the life of the al- 
most martyred Russian; but the fruits 
of his devout fidelity and kindness 
among his fellowmen, the hospital he 
built for the sick and friendless—and 
the very Bible he was shut up with in 
his own distress—still bear witness to a 
consecration that was worth all its per- 
sonal cost.-—The Youth’s Companion. 


—— 215 —— 
WHAT HE HAD LEFT 


After Jeremy Taylor had been turned 
out of his plundered home, yet in his 
sore persecution for Christ’s sake he by 
the grace of God was able to say: “I 
am fallen into the hands of publicans and 
sequestrators, and they have taken all 
from me. What now? Let me look 
about me. They have left me the sun 
and moon, a loving wife, and many 
friends to pity me, and some to relieve 
me; and I can still discourse, and, un- 


lil 


less I list, they have not taken away 
my merry countenance, and my cheerful 
spirit, and a good conscience; they have 
still left me the providence of God and 
all the promises of the gospel, and my 
religion, and my hopes of heaven, and 
my charity to them, too; and still I sleep 
and digest, I eat and drink, I read and 
meditate. And he that hath so many 
causes of joy, and so great, is very much 
in love with sorrow and peevishness, 
who leaves all these pleasures, and 
chooses to sit down upon his little hand- 
ful of thorns. 


—— 216 —— 
“HEREIN IS LOVE.” 


A gentleman who was a professed 
Christian was taken seriously ill. He 
became much troubled about the little 
love he felt in his heart for God, and 
spoke of his experience toa friend. This 
is how the friend answered him: “When 
I go home from here, I expect to take 
my baby on my knee, look into her sweet 
eyes, listen to her charming prattle, and, 
tired as I am, her presence will rest me; 
for I love that child with unutterable 
tenderness. But she loves me little. If 
my heart were breaking it would not 
disturb her sleep. If my body were 
racked with pain, it would not interrupt 
her play. If I were dead, she would 
forget me in a few days. Besides this, 
she has never brought me a penny, but 
was a constant expense to me. I am 
not rich, but there is not money enough 
in the world to buy my baby. How is 
it? Does she love me? or do I love her? 
Do I withhold my love until I know 
she loves me? Am I waiting for her to 
do something worthy my love before 
extending it?” 

This practical illustration of the love 
ot God for His children caused the tears 
to roll down the sick man’s face. O, I 
see,” he exclaimed, “it is not my love to 
God, but God’s love for me, that I should 
be thinking of. And I do love Him now 
as I never loved Him before.” “Herein 
is love, not that we loved God, but that 
He loved us.” I John 4:10.—Selected. 


112 


aa 217 ——— 


A SECOND CHANCE. 


In Florence, Italy, one of the treasures 
of art admired by thousands of visitors 
is Michael Angelo’s representation in 
marble of the young David. The shep- 
herd boy stands with firm foothold, the 
stone grasped tightly in his right hand, 
ready to be sped on its holy errand. 
When the statue was unveiled, three 
hundred and fifty years ago, it caused 
an unparalleled sensation among ail lov- 
ers of art. The work is, indeed, a mar- 
velous piece of sculpture. 

But the strangely winning thing in the 
story of that statue is that it was the 
stone’s second chance. A sculptor be- 
gan work on a noble piece of marble, but, 
lacking skill, he only hacked and marred 
the block, It was then abandoned as 
spoiled and worthless, and thrown away. 

For years the block lay in the back 
yard, soiled and blackened, half hidden 
among the rubbish. At last Michael 
féngelo saw it and at once perceived its 
possibilities. Under his skillful hands 
the stone was cut into the fair and mar- 
velous beauty which appears in the 
statue of David. 

In like manner,*when a life has been 
spoiled by unskilled and unscrupulous 
hands, so that it seems as if all were lost, 
there is one, the Great Sculptor, who can 
take the marred, disfigured block, now 
lying soiled amid the world’s rubbish, 
and from it carve yet a marvel of beauty. 
—Selected. 


—— 218 —— 
ARE YOU WATCHING. 


A young lady whose parents had died 
while she was an infant had been kindly 
cared for by a dear friend of the family. 
Before she was old enough to know him, 
his business took him to Europe. Regu- 
larly he wrote to her through all the 
years of his absence, and never failed 
to send her money for all her wants. 
Finally a word came that during a cer- 
tain week he would return and visit her. 
He did not fix the day nor hour. She re- 
ceived several invitations to take pleas- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


ure trips with her friends during that 
week. One of those was of so pleasant 
a nature that she could not resist accept- 
ing it. During her trip he came, in- 
quired as to her absence, and left. Re- 
turning, she found this note: 

“My life has been a struggle for you, 
might you not have waited one week 
for me?” More she never heard, and her 
life of plenty became a life of want. 

Jesus has not fixed the day or hour of 
His return, but He has said, ‘“‘Watch!” 
and should He come today would He 
find us absorbed in thoughtless dissipa- 
tion?—British Evangelist. 

219 —— 


BELIEVING IN THE BIBLE. 


During Mr, Moody’s meetings in New 
York City, a man brought a difficult 
passage to him with this question: 

“How do you explain that 
Moody?” 

“T don’t explain it.” 

“Well, how do you interpret it?” 

“I don’t interpret it.” 

“How do you understand it?” 

“I don’t understand it.” 

“Well, what do you do with it?” 

“I don’t do anything with it.” 

“You don’t believe it, do you?” 

“Certainly I believe it. There are lots 
of things I believe that I don’t under- 
stand. There are a good many things 
in astronomy, a good many things about 
my own system that I don’t understand, 
yet I believe them. I am glad there are 
heights in that book which I have’nt 
been able to climb, I am glad there are 
depths I haven’t been able to fathom. It 
is the best proof that the book came from 
God.” 

“But you don’t believe in the Old 
Testament just as you do in the New 
Testament?” 

“Yes, I do. We have one Bible, not 
two. The very things in the Old Testa- 





Mr. 


ment that men cavil at the most today © 


are the things the Son of Man set His 
seal to when He was down here, and it 
isn’t good policy for the servant to be 
above his Master. The Master believed 
these things.”—Selected. 


—! 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 220 —— 
THE BIRD ONLY HURT ITSELF. 


“Having returned from a visit to a 
poor widow in trying circumstances, I 
felt that I had utterly failed in my at- 
tempts to comfort or uplift her heart; 
and sat down dispirited, to think how 
I could best reach her case. A robin 
just then happened to fly into the room, 
and in its efforts to escape again, dashed 
itself madly against the walls and ceil- 
ing, until its poor little head and wings 
were sore and bleeding. On my at- 
tempt to catch and set it free, it only 
redoubled its frantic efforts, and when 
in my hand, struggled so violently, as 
only to hurt its bruised sides more. Ah! 
I thought thus it is with that poor widow 
—with us all, when the Lord ‘straitens’ 
us with trouble. 

“We dash and wound our poor hearts 
against the firm wall of -his will; we 
think of nothing but escape, and struggle 
madly against the kind and most gentle 
hand that only holds us with its whole- 
some strength, whose ‘end’ and aim is 
but to restore us to the bright pure air 
of his mercies, that we may sun our 
hearts with his presence and wing our 
way more freely toward Himself. 

“T returned, read the text again, and 
- applied my illustration as simply as pos- 
sible to the poor woman. Presently the 
dull eye began to brighten, the hard 
countenance to grow tender, and tears 
dropped on the poor worn cheek, as she 
murmured a promise that she would 
hope for the future, and try and trust 
the wise hand which held her.”—Se- 


—— 221 —— 
THROW THE REINS TO JESUS. 


Professor Drummond was staying 
with a lady whose coachman had signed 
the pledge, but afterward had given 
away to drink again. This lady said to 
the professor: “Now this man will drive 
to the station; say a word to him if you 
can. He is a good sort of fellow, and 
really wants to reform, but he is weak.” 
While they were driving down, the pro- 


118 


fessor tried to think how he could intro- 
duce the subject. Presently the horses 
bolted. The driver held on to the reins 
and manipulated them well. The car- 
riage swayed about, and the professor 
expected every moment to be upset, but 
presently the man drew the horses up, 
and streaming with perspiration, said: 
“I say, that was a close shave. Our trap 
might have been smashed into match- 
wood, and you wouldn’t have given any 
more addresses.” “Well,” said Profes- 
sor Drummond, “how was it that it did 
not happen?” “Why,” was the reply, 
“because I knew how to manage the 
horses.” “Now,” said the professor, 
“look here, my friend; I will give you a 
little bit of advice. Here’s my train 
coming. I hear you have been signing 
the pledge, and breaking out again, Now 
I want to give you a bit of advice. Throw 
the reins of your life to Jesus Christ’; 
and then he jumped down and got into 
the train. The driver said afterward 
that it came upon him like a flash of 
lightning. He saw where he had made 
a mistake, from that day he has ceased 
to try to manipulate his own life, but 
gave the reins to Jesus Christ. The 
story bears its own moral. One need 
not add a word; only let us learn its 
lesson, and carry out the professor’s ad- 
vice.—Selected. 


— 222 —— 


TEMPTATION RESISTED. 


We have read a story, vouched for by 
a southern banker as true, that, during 
the time of the Civil War, a steamer 
stopped at a landing on the Mississippi 
River, when a planter came to the cap- 
tain and said, “I will give you ten thous- 
and dollars to take a boat-load of cotton 
to New Orleans.” “I cannot do it,” re- 
plied the captain. “For I have strict 
orders not to allow a single bale of cot- 
ton on board.” The cotton was worth 
nothing to the planter without a market 
and he increased his offer. I will give 


you twenty thousand dollars.” “Can’t 
do it,” was the prompt reply. “Thirty 
thousand dollars.” “Can’t do it.” The 


114 


planter followed the captain on board 
offering him successively larger sums 
until he had reached one hundred thous- 
and dollars. “My orders are strict,” said 
the captain, “and I cannot disobey 
them.” “Then I will give you a hundred 
and ten thousand dollars,” said the plant- 
er. The captain rose to his feet and his 
face hardened, as, reaching his hand into 
a drawer, he took out a revolver, and 
leveling it at the planter said, “Get off 


this boat, or I will kill you, You are 
getting too close to me.” 
That captain was wise. He began to 


feel the fascination of the temptation. 
He began to feel down in his heart that 
he wanted that money, that there was 
danger, he might yield, and that the only 
safety lay in removing the temptation 
absolutely, ridding himself of it or get- 
ting entirely away from it. What a glori- 
ous thing it would be if all Christians 
would set themselves to defend their 
innocence with the determination of that 
captain —Rev. G. B. F. Hallock, D.D. 


—— 223 —— 
THE SAVED HAND. 


Some years ago a minister of the gos- 
pel was preaching about the benefits of 
blessings that may be obtained through 
prayer. “I once knew a little boy,” said 
he, who had a very bad sore on his right 
hand. It got worse in spite of all that 
was done for it. At last it began to 
mortify, and the doctor said it would 
have to be taken off, in order to save 
his life. 

“The day was fixed for the operation. 
The little boy was a Christian. He had 
a little, retired, shady spot, in a corner 
of his father’s garden, where he used 
often to go and take his book when he 
wanted a quiet time for reading. 

When he heard the doctor say that 
his hand must be cut off, he felt very 
sad; he did not like to lose his right 
hand. So he went to that quiet, shady 
spot in the garden, and there he kneeled 
down and prayed that God would make 
his hand better, and let it get well again 
without having to be cut off, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“The next day, when the doctor came 
to look at his hand, he was very much 
surprised to find it looking a great deal 
better. The next day it was better still; 
and the third day, he said he thought it 
was going to get well, and that it would 
not be necessary to have it taken off. 

“This little boy grew to be a man. 
He became a minister; and this,” said 
the speaker, holding up his hand, “‘is 
the right hand that was saved, through 
prayer from being cut off. And I hold 
up this hand before you as a proof of the 
blessings that may be obtained in an- 
Swer to prayer.” 

“In everything, by prayer and suplica- 
tion, with thanksgiving, let your re- 
quests be made known to God.” [Phil. 
iv., 6.]—Selected. 


—— 224 —— 


RELY ON YOURSELF. 


Nothing better could happen to the 
young man who has the right kind of 
grit than to be thrown on the world and 
his own resources. A well-to-do judge 
once gave his son $1,000 and told him 
to go to college and graduate. The son 
returned at the end of the first year, his 
money all gone and several extravagant 
habits. At the close of the vacation the 
judge said to his son: 

“Well, William, are you going to col- 
lege this year?” 

“I have no money, Father.” 

“But I gave you $1,000 to graduate 
on.” 

“It is all gone, Father.” 

“Very well, my son, it is all I could 
give you; you can’t stay here; you must 
now pay your own way in the world.” 

A new light broke in upon the vision 
of the young man. He accommodated 
himself to the situation; and again left 
home, made his way through college, 
graduated at the head of his class, stu- 
died law, became governor of the State 
of New York, entered the Cabinet of the 
President of the United States, and has 
made a record that will not soon die, 
for he was none other than William 
Seward.—Self Help. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


og tad 5 ce 
THE POWER OF CONSCIENCE. 


A remarkable testimony to the power 
of conscience is found in the so-called 
Conscience Fund of the United States. 
This fund was started in 1811, when a 
letter was received containing five dol- 
lars, which the writer confessed having 
taken from the Government. This was 
given to the Treasury, and records of 
such contributions have been kept ever 
since, although the money itself is not 
kept separate. Nothing further was re- 
ceived until 1827. From that date until 
the present year only one year has passed 
without additions to the conscience fund. 
During the last fiscal year, $54,923.15 
was received, including one contribution 
of $30,000 and another of $10,000. It was 
the largest income during any one year. 
The total fund now is $498,763.54. 

It has been truly said that the con- 
science fund preaches a sermon. It shows 
that there are men and women who are 
not satisfied with ill-gotten gains, but 
who feel the constraining influence of a 
desire to be honest. Square dealing is 
essential to a mind of peace, and the 
trequent contributions to the conscience 
fund demonstrate that not until a wrong 
is rectified can the human mind find 
rest.—American Messenger. 


—— 226 


SAVED BY PRAYER. 


I was taught as a child to read the 
Bible, and I have never been able to 
shake off those early influences. I have 
always believed in God’s providential 
care, I have always felt that God was 
about my path. For instance, when the 
expedition in search of Emin Pasha was 
nearly annihilated for want of food, I 
left Bonny with the invalids and about 
a biscuit a day for their allowance. About 
a dozen men accompanied me on a des- 
perate and final quest for food, and day 
after day we met with no success. 

We had been nine days away from 
camp, and I felt that perish we all must 
unless help came from God. I began to 





115 


pray, “O Lord help us! Do not let these 
poor innocent people perish. I have had 
light and knowledge, and have sinned 
much against thee, but these men know 
very little, and I have brought them here 
into the desert, for which they are not re- 
sponsible. Do not let the innocent suf- 
fer with the guilty.” 

All night I prayed, and when the 
morning light glinted through the trees 
I called to the men to begin to march. 
I felt sure we should find food that day. 
Before we had gone half a mile we saw 
stretching out before us a small grove 
of ripe bananas. We were not follow- 
ing any track. I was steering by the 
compass, and if we had gone 500 yards 
to the right or left we should likely have 
missed this beautiful sight. At once we 
began to pull them and roast them, and, 
having eaten a good meal, we got 150 
loads of ripe bananas, with about sixty 
pounds to the load, and the expedition 
was saved.—Henry M. Stanley. 


——- 227 —— 
SAVED BY A BEAR. 


Ignaus, an Arctic mail carrier, whose 
six dogs died in one night from some 
poison in a frozen fish which was a part 
of his supplies, was a hundred miles 
from a trading post, and the cold forty 
degrees below zero. 

Broken-hearted after his dogs, the 
poor fellow would have given up and 
died had he not had a wife and a little 
babe awaiting him at the end of his 
route, but even the thought of those 
who were dear to him failed sometimes 
to keep his mind from wandering. 

Before his loss he had the variation 
of talking to his dogs, who seemed al- 
most human. Now, no sound, except 
the cracking of the ice; no sight but 
snow, snow, snow, in great stretches of 
dazzling whiteness; its crisp crust, many 
feet thick, was as solid as a glacier. 

At last the poor man felt that he could 
not bear it any longer. He had light- 
ened the load on his sledge, and drew it 
after him day by day, and slept in his 
fur bag on it at night. He cried to the 


116 


Great Father in agony of pleading, “Oh, 
leave me not alone so long; send some 
one, oh, send me some one, or I die!” 

Once more at night he lay down in 
his fur bag and slept. But what was 
this pushing him over? I=gnaus opened 
his eyes, and there stood before him a 
great bear. Evidently the brute was 
curious; he had never seen anything 
like it before. 

Strangely enough, Ignaus was not 
afraid. He rose and fed the bear with 
frozen fish from the sledge; the creature 
acted like a great wild dog, and when 
satisfied lay down on his side while Ig- 
naus satisfied his own hunger; then 
when he started on his walking again, 
the bear trotted beside him. 

The Great Father sent him, thought 
Ignaus. At night again he fed the bear, 
and the warmth of the shaggy brute put 
new life into Ignaus. 

When within five miles of the trading 
post suddenly the bear turned toward a 
great forest in the distance, and Ignaus 
saw him no more. 

Reaching the post, the president, when 
he heard how Ignaus had come across 
vast solitudes of ice and snow without 
his dogs, said, “He is the bravest man 
of the north; surely the good God sent 
the bear to save his reason.” 

—Home Guard. 


—— 228 —— 


HOLD UP THE LIGHT. 


The famous Eddystone light-house of 
the coast of Cornwall, England, was first 
built in a fanciful way, by the learned 
and eccentric Winstanley. On its sides 
he put various boastful inscriptions. He 
was very proud of his structure, and 
from his lofty balcony used boldly to 
defy the storm, crying, “Blow, O winds! 
Rise, O ocean! Break forth, ye ele- 
ments, and try my work!’ But one fear- 
ful night the sea swallowed up the tower 
and its builder, 

The light-house was built a second 
time of wood and stone by Rudyard. 
The form was good, but the wood gave 
hold for the elements, and the builder 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


and his structure perished in the flames. 

Next the great Smeaton was called. 
He raised a cone from the solid rock 
upon which it was built, and riveted it 
to the rock; as the oak is fastened to 
the earth by its roots. From the rock 
of the foundation he took the rock of 
the superstructure. He carved upon it 
no boastful inscription like those of Win- 
stanley, but on its lower course he put, 
“Except the Lord build the house, they 
labor in vain that build it;” and its key- 
stone, above the lantern, the simple 
tribute, “Laus Deo!” and the structure 
still stands, holding its beacon light to 
storm-tossed mariners, 

Fellow-workers for the salvation of 
men, Christ, the Light, must be held up 
before men or they will perish. Let us, 
then, place Him on no superstructure of 
our own device. Let us rear no tower 
of wood, or wood and stone. But taking 
the word of God for our foundation, let 
us build our structure upon its massive, 
solid truth, and on every course but 
Smeaton’s humble inscription, and then 
we may be sure that the light-house will 
stand.—Selected. 


229 ——— 


UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD. 


While traveling in a coal mine dis- 
trict I noticed how very dingy the town 
appeared. The coal dust seemed to 
blacken the buildings, trees, shrubs, 
everything. But as a foreman and I 
were walking near'the mines I noticed 
a beautiful white flower. Its petals were 
as pure as if it were blooming in a daisy 
field. 

“What care the owner of this plant 
must take of it,” said I, “to keep it so 
free from dust and dirt!” 

“See here,” said the foreman, and tak- 
ing up a handful of coal dust, he threw 
it over the flower. It immediately left 
the flower as stainless as before, 

“It has an enamel,” the foreman ex- 
plained, “which prevents any dust from 
clinging to it. I think it must have been 
created for such a place."—Dr. T. L. 
Cuyler. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


250 
KATE SHELLY’S BRAVERY. 


In 1898 Miss Shelly won a gold medal 
from the Iowa Legislature, “and a wealth 
of admiration from all who read of her 
heroic act.” The facts are these: In a 
fearful thunder-storm and a torrent of 
falling rain, she looked out of her win- 
cow in the darkness of the night, and 
by the vivid flashes of lightning shining 
on the scene, she saw that a railroad 
bridge near her home had been swept 
away by the storm. Just then she saw 
the headlight of a locomotive swifty ap- 
proaching the spot where the bridge had 
just been swept away, and plunge into 
the abyss below. She lighted her lan- 
tern, and, alone, amidst the thunder and 
lightning, and storm, she crept up a 
rocky steep and with her clothes torn 
to rags, and lacerated flesh, she reached 
the rails, and on her hands and knees 
crept out to the last tie of the fallen 
bridge, swung the lantern back and 
forth over the abyss, until she heard the 
faint voice of the engineer, who, though 
in the greatest peril himself, cried to 
her to go quickly and give the alarm to 
save the express train, which was thea 
coming toward that perilous spot, and 
summon help also, to rescue him. 

- She started for the nearest station, a 
mile away. To reach that station she 
had to cross a high trestle bridge of five 
hundred feet in length. She had gone 
but a few steps when a gust of wind put 
out her lantern, which she then threw 
away, knowing that she could not relight 
it in the storm. She then dropped upon 
her hands and knees, and crept along 
from tie to tie over the trestle. Her way 
was lighted only by frequent flashes of 
lightning. After crossing the bridge she 
hastened along the rails by the flashes 
of lightning to the station, and with what 
strength she had left told her story, and 
then fell in a dead faint at the station- 
agent’s feet. 

Help went quickly to the poor en- 
gineer’s rescue, and telegrams flew up 
and down the line, notifying all that the 








ANECDOTES 117 


bridge was gone. While Miss Shelly lay 
yet unconsicous, the express train came 
rushing into the depot. When the pass- 
engers learned what perils the brave girl 
had passed through to save them, and 
saw her lying still in an unconscious 
state, they took her up tenderly, and 
bathed her torn and bleeding limbs, and 
soon brought her back to consciousness. 
Oh, how the scene beggars description, 
as the men and women gathered about 
the brave girl of sixteen, looking upon 
her pale face, her torn and bleeding 
form. As they think how she went 
through all this to save their lives, words 
are too weak to express the deep grati- 
tude of their hearts, They laid a sub- 
stantial expression of their appreciation 
at her feet. Then as the best they could 
do, they embalmed her memory in their 
warmest affections, while the world 
placed a wreath of lasting honor on her 
brow. And Kate Shelley, living or dy- 
ing, with her approving conscience, can 
say: “I did what I could.” 

What an example to all Christians, 
who see so clearly the dark abyss just 
a step before unconverted men, and they 
rushing with great speed toward it. Let 
us swing the lamp of truth before them, 
and cry with great earnestness: “Danger 
ahead! Bridge gone! No crossing but 
through the bleeding victim of Cavalry!” 
May we all learn a lesson of sacrifice 
and effort to save others, from this inci- 
dent, that, in the coming day Christ, may 
say of us: “They have done what they 
could.”—Selected. 


—— 231 —— 


SPOILING OUR FASCINATION. 

Sir James Thornhill was the person 
who painted the inside of the cupola of 
St. Paul’s, London. After having finished 
one of the compartments he stepped 
back gradually, to see how it would look 
at a distance. He receded so far (still 
keeping his eye intently fixed on the 
painting) that he was almost to the very 
edge of the scaffolding without perceiv- 
ing it. Had he continued to retreat, 
half a minute more would have com- 


118 


pleted his destruction, and he would 
have fallen to the pavement underneath, 
A person present, who saw the danger 
the great artist was in, had the happy 
presence of mind to suddenly snatch up 
one of the brushes and spoil the painting 
by rubbing it over. Sir James, trans- 
ported with rage, sprang forward to 
save the remainder of the piece. But 
his rage was soon turned to thanks when 
the person told him: 

“Sir, by spoiling the painting I have 
saved the life of the painter. You were 
advanced to the extremity of the scai- 
fold without knowing it. Had I called 
to you to apprise you of your danger 
you would naturally have turned to look 
behind you, and the surprise of finding 
yourself in such a dreadful situation 
would have made you fall indeed. I 
had, therefore, no other way of retriev- 
ing you but by acting as I did.” 

Similar, if I may so speak, is the meth- 
od of God’s dealing with His people. We 
are all naturally fond of our own legal 
performances. We admire them to our 
ruin, unless the Holy Spirit retrieve us 
from our folly. This He does by mar- 
ring our best works—that is, by show- 
ing us their insufficiency to justify us 
before God. When we are truly taught 
of Him we thank Him for His grace, 
instead of being angry at having our 
idols defaced. The only way by which 
we are saved from everlasting destruc- 
tion is by being made to see that “by 
the deeds of the law there shall no flesh 
be justified.”—Toplady. 


— 232 —— 
THE BODY ONLY A TENEMENT. 


When his age was eighty years, John 
Quincy Adams was met on the streets 
of Boston by an old friend, who, taking 
his hand, said, “Good morning! And 
how is John Quincy Adams, today?” 

“Thank you,” the ex-president replied. 
“John Quincy Adams, himself, is quite 
well, sir. But the house in which he 
lives at present is becoming dilapidated. 
It is tottering upon its foundation. Time 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


and season have nearly destroyed it. Its 
roof is pretty well worn out. Its walls 
are much shattered and it trembles with 
every wind. The old tenement is be- 
coming almost uninhabitable, and I think 


- John Quincy Adams will have to move 


out of it soon.” 

A short time after this interview, the 
venerable ex-president was seized with 
a paralytic stroke in the house of repre- 
sentatives, and his last words were: 
“This is the last of earth; I am content.” 
—selected. 


name 253 —— 
MOTHER TOLD ME. 


Mr. William Taylor, the evangelist, 
often called “California Taylor,” had at 
one time been separated for three years 
from his wife and family. When at last 
he met them in Sydney, the father would 
not have known his boys had he met 
them in the street, apart from their 
mother, nor would the children have 
recognized their father, With tears of 
tender joy the parent embraced his sons, 
saying to one of them, “Ross, do you 
know me?” “Yes, papa.” “How do you 
know me?” “Mother told me it was 
you.” The boy received his father by 
faith, and his faith was based on his 
mother’s testimony. She could not be 
mistaken, and she would not mislead or 
deceive her sons on such a point, and the 
boy knew he might trust her word; so 
he loved the stranger at once, and re- 
ceived him as his father. “Mother told 
me so.” Faith or trust in God enters the 
heart just in this way—‘faith cometh 
by hearing.” How do I know God is my 
father, and loves me? Jesus, the son of 
God, “told me so.” He said, “the father 
himself loveth you.” He could not be 
mistaken, because he must know his 
father’s heart.—Selected. 


—— 234 —— 


Unbelief, in distinction from disbelief, 
is but a confession of ignorance where 
honest inquiry might have found the 
truth. “Agnostic” is but the Greek for 
“Ignoramus.”—Tryon Edwards. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


—— 235 —— 
LOUISA OSBORNE’S GIFT. 


“In the beautiful Island of Ceylon, 
many years ago, the native Christians, 
who had long worshiped in bungalows 
and old Dutch chapels, decided that 
they must have a church built for them- 
selves. Enthusiastic givers were each 
eager to forward the new enterprise. 
But, to the amazement of all, Maria 
Peabody, a lone orphan girl, who had 
been a beneficiary in the girl’s school 
at Oodooville, came forward and offered 
to give the land upon which to build, 
which was the best site in her native 
village. 

Not only was it all she owned in this 
world, but far more, it was her marri- 
age portion, and in making this gift in 
the eyes of every native she renounced 
all hopes of being married. As this al- 
ternative in the East was regarded as 
an awful step, many thought her beside 
herself, and tried to dissuade her from 
such an act of renunciation. “No,” said 
Maria, “I have given it to Jesus, and as 
he has accepted it, you must.” 

And so today the first Christian 
church in Ceylon stands upon land giv- 
en by a poor orphan girl. 

The deed was noised abroad, and 
came to the knowledge of a young theo- 
logical student, who was also a benefi- 
ciary of the mission, and it touched his 
heart. -Neither could he rest until he 
had sought and won the rare and noble 
maiden, who was willing to give up so 
much in her Master’s cause. 

Some one in the United States had 
been for years contributing twenty dol- 
lars annually for the support of this 
young Hindoo girl, but the donor was 
unknown. Rev. Dr. Poor, a missionary 
in Ceylon visited America about that 
time, longed to ascertain who was the 
faithful sower and report the wonderful 
harvest. 

Finding himself in Hanover, N. H., 
preaching to the students of Dartmouth 
College, he happened in conversation to 
hear some one speak of Mrs. Peabody, 
and repeated “Peabody”; what Pea- 


119 


body?” “Mrs. Maria Peabody, who re- 
sides here, the widow of a former Pro- 
fessor,” was the answer. “Oh! I must 
see her before I leave,” said the earnest 
man, about to continue his journey. | 

The first words, after an introduction 
at her house, were: “I have come to 
bring you a glad report, for I cannot 
but think that it is to you we in Ceylon 
owe the opportnuity of educating one 
who has proved as lovely and consistent 
a native convert as we have ever had. 
She is exceptionally interesting, devot- 
edly pious, and bears your name.” 

“Alas!” said the lady, “although the 
girl bears my name, I wish I could claim 
the honor of educating her; it belongs 
not to me, but to Louisa Osborne, my 
poor colored cook. Some years ago in 
Salem, Mass., she came to me, after an 
evening meeting saying; “I have just 
heard that, by giving twenty dollars a 
year one can support and educate a child 
in Ceylon, and I have decided to do it. 
They say that along with the money, I 
can send a name, and I have come, mis- 
tress, to ask you if you would object to 
my sending yours.” “At that time,” con- 
tinued the lady, “a servant’s wages 
ranged from a dollar to a dollar and a 
half a week, yet my cook had for a 
long time been contributing half a dol- 
lar each month at a monthly concert for 
foreign missions. There were those who 
expostulated with her for giving away 
so much for one in her circumstances, 
as a time might come when she could 
not earn. ‘I have thought it all over,’ 
she would reply, and concluded I would 
rather give what I can while I am earn- 
ing, and then if I lose my health and 
cannot work, why, there is the poor- 
house, and I can go there. You see 
they have no poor-house in heathen 
lands, for it is only Christians who care 
for the poor.” 

In telling this story, Dr. Poor used 
to pause at this point and exclaim: “To 
the poor-house! Do you believe God 
would ever let that good woman die in 
the poor-house? Never!” 

The missionary learned that the last 


120 


known of Louisa Osborne, she was re- 
siding in Lowell, Mass. In due time 
his duties called him to that city. At 
the close of an evening service before a 
crowded house he related among mis- 
sionary incidents, as a crowning tri- 
umph, the story of Louisa Osborne and 
Maria Peabody. The disinterested de- 
votion, self-sacrifice and implicit faith 
and zeal of the Christian giver in favor- 
ed America had been developed, matur- 
ed and well-nigh eclipsed, by her faith- 
ful protege in far-off benighted India. 
His heart glowing with zeal and deeply 
stirred by the fresh retrospect of the 
triumph of the Gospel over heathenism, 
he exclaimed: “If there is any one 
present who knows anything of that 
good woman, Louisa Osborne, and will 
lead me to her, I shall be obliged.” 

The benediction pronounced and the 
crowd dispersing, Dr. Poor passed down 
one of the aisles, chatting with the pas- 
tor, when he espied a quiet little figure 
apparently waiting for him. Could it 
be? Yes, it was a colored woman, and 
it must be Louisa Osborne. With quick- 
ened step he reached her, exclaming in 
tones of suppressed emotion: “I be- 
lieve this is my sister in Christ, Louisa 
Osborne?” “That is my name,” was 
the calm reply. “Well, God bless you, 
Louisa, you have heard my report, and 
know all; but before we part, probably 
never to meet again in this world, I 
want you to answer one question. “What 
made you do it?” With downcast eyes, 
and in low trembling voice she replied: 
“Well, I do not know, but I guess it was 
my Lord jesus.” 

They parted only to meet in the 
streets of the New Jerusalem, for the 
missionary returned to his adopted 
home, where ere long the loving hands 
of his faithful native brethern bore him 
to his honored grave. The humble 
handmaiden of the Lord labored meekly 
on awhile, and ended her failing days 
not in a poor-house verily, but, through 
the efforts of those who knew her best, 
in a pleasant, comfortable Old Ladies’ 
home. “Him that honoreth me I will 
honor.”—The Christian Giver. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


—— 236 —— 
AN HONEST MAN. 


An incident, which exhibits the sterl- 
ing integrity of a man who could with- 
stand the temptations of weaith rather 
than do the smallest act of injustice, 
is told in Mr. H. M. Chittenden’s “His- 
tory of Steamboat Navigation on the 
Missouri River.” The principal actor 
was one of the early settlers of St. Louis, 
a Mr. LeBarge, who had purchased a 
small tract of land for which he paid 
twenty-five dollars. 

Land was then of very little value, 
and transfers were often made without 
deed and with no more formality than 
in exchanging cattle or horses. In this 
way Mr. LaBarge traded his land on 
what is now Cedar Street, St. Louis, to 
Chaurin Lebeau for a horse. 

Long afterward, when these transac- 
tions were almost forgotten, and the 
property had become very valauble, a 
lawyer presented himself to the old 
gentleman and asked him if he had ever 
owned any land on Cedar Street. Mr. 
LeBarge replied in the affirmative, and 
discribed its locality. The lawyer then 
asked him when and how he disposed of 
it. He could not at first recall, but 
Mrs. LeBarge remembered the circum- 
stances and related them to the lawyer, 
at the same time remarking to her hus- 
band that that was the way they got 
their horse to set themselves up on the 
farm with. . 

The lawyer then assured Mr, Le- 
Barge that the title to this property was 
still vested in him, and that he could 
hold it against all comers, for there was 
absolutely no record of the conveyance 
in existence. 

The old gentleman, with a look of 
indignation, asked the lawyer if he took 
him for a thief. 

“I traded that land,” said he, “to 
Chaurin Lebeau for a horse, which was 
worth more to me than the land was. 
I shall stand by the bargain now. If 
Chaurin Lebeau’s children have no title, 
tell them to come to me and I will make 
them a deed before I die.”—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


a £37 —— 
LESSONS OF TRUST IN GOD. 


My boyhood’s home was on the New 
England seacoast, at a point where Long 
Island Sound opens into the Atlantic 
Ocean. Seventy-five or a hundred years 
ago there was, ina New England village, 
no such wide distance between the rich 
and the poor as nowadays there is in 
many a prosperous community. Few 
families had household servants. Serv- 
ants, indeed, were not then known there 
as a class. Families who were “better 
off” than their neighbors were accus- 
tomed to call on the women and girls of 
those neighbors to act as “help” in 
household work, such as washing and 
baking and house-cleaning and sewing 
and nursing. Men and boys who were 
not in any particular trade, or who 
were not on the water as sailors or 
coasters, were accustomed to do service 
for their well-to-do neighbors as “help” 
in planting and harvesting and wood- 
chopping, and other odd jobs. Thus, 
while most were enabled to get along 
day by day moderately well, there was 
at times a family where a widow and 
her fatherless children, or others, would, 
through special circumstances, be press- 
ed for means of support beyond the 
knowledge of their neighbors. 

Such a family lived not far from my 
mother and grandmother, in a house 
often pointed out to me as I heard the 
story afterward. The mother and her 
two children served and trusted God, 
and did the best they could for them- 
selves, as they found opportunity, in do- 
ing such work as their neighbors could 
furnish them. 

But at one time the mother found her- 
self in extremity. As a stormy night 
shut in she had not a particle of food for 
the next day’s need. When they lay 
down that night, she prayed with her 
children, without telling them of her 
helplessness—for, indeed, she was not 
helpless while she trusted God as her 
helper. With the new, bright morning 
the mother prayed for their daily bread, 


121 


assured that her Father could supply 
it—as he alone knew how. 

She asked her children to go down to 
the shore before breakfast, and get some 
clean sand from the beach for their sit- 
ting room floor. Before the days of 
woolen carpets, in the humbler New 
England homes they were accustomed 
to strew sand on the floor, and to orna- 
ment the borders by arranging it in 
figures with a broom. When the chil- 
dren had gone, the mother again kneeled 
and prayed for their daily bread, After 
this she spread the breakfast-table, for 
which she had no food. 

Suddenly the children returned with- 
out the sand, but bringing gleefully a 
fine fish, which they had found in a hol- 
low of the beach, as left by the outgoing 
tide after the storm, and which they 
together had captured. As with a great- 
ful heart she thanked God for his good- 
ness, and then began to prepare the fish 
for their breakfast, when she was called 
to the door by a visitor. 

A man from the country above the vil- 
lage had called to say that on one occa- 
sion her husband, now dead, had done 
some work for this man for which he 
had not been paid. The man had now 
brought a bushel and a half of corn-meal 
to give the widow on account, promising 
to bring more by and by. As with swell- 
ing heart the mother thanked the donor, 
and brought the meal into their now 
doubly glad home, she told the children 
of how God had answered her prayer, 
and they kneeled together to give him 
thanks. 

Then she hastily made a “johnny- 
cake” of the Indian-meal, and baked it 
by the fire, while she broiled the fish for 
their breakfast. Together they asked 
God’s blessing on that God-given meal, 
and thenceforward they both served and 
trusted God more fully and joyously 
than ever. 

The village neighbors, when they 
learned of God’s care of one whom they 
had unintentionally neglected, resolved 
henceforward to minister more faith- 
fully to her whom God had privileged to 


122 


represent him .in their community. 
When I heard that story from dear 
mother, it didn’t seem any more strange, 
or any less true, than the Bible stories. 
Indeed, it didn’t seem so very strange 
anyway. It seemed just like God. And 
I think so still. I’ve never had reason 
to think differently — H Clay Trumbull. 


238 —— 
WARNED IN A DREAM. 


Both scripture and experience teacn 
us that though “a dream cometh through 
the multitude of business,” and is often 
but the broken minglings of fantastic 
fancies, yet there are times when men 
are warned of God in dreams, as in the 
case of Joseph; and to disregard such 
warnings is dangerous in the extreme. 
The eminent English evangelist, Will- 
iam Haslam, relates the following in- 
stance which occurred within his own 
circle of acquaintance. 


“A careless, worldly man in my parish 
dreamt one night that he was in the mar- 
ket-hall of a certain town. He was sur- 
prised to see in a wall a doorway which 
he had never noticed before,—so much 
so, that he went forward to examine it, 
and found that it really was a door, and 
that it opened to his touch. He went 
inside, and there he saw an oppressive 
and strange scene. There was a number 
of men and women walking about, who 
appeared to be very woeful and in great 
agony of pain. They were too dis- 
tressed to speak, but he recognized most 
of them as persons who had been dead 
some time. They looked mournfully at 
him as if sorry he had come there, but 
did not speak. He was much alarmed, 
and made his way back to the door to 
escape, but he was stopped by a stern, 
sullen-looking porter, who said, in a 
sepulchral voice: ‘You cannot pass!’ 
He said, ‘I came in this way, and I want 
to go out.” ‘You cannot,’ said the sol- 
emn voice. ‘Look, the door opens only 
one way; you may come in by it, but 
you cannot go out.’ It was so, and his 
heart sank within him as he looked at 
that mysterious portal. At last the por- 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ter relented, and as a special favor let 
him go forth for eight days. He was so 
glad at his release that he awoke. 

“When he told me the dream I warned 
him and begged him to give his heart to 
God. ‘You may die,’ I said, ‘before the 
eighth day.’ He laughed at the idea, 
and said he was ‘not going to be fright- 
ened by a dream.’ ‘When I am con- 
verted,’ he continued, ‘I hope I shall be 
able to say that I was drawn by love, 
and not driven by fear.’ ‘But what,’ I said, 
‘if you have been neglecting and slighting 
God’s love for a long time, and he is now 
moving you with fear to return to him?’ 
Nothing would do; he turned a deaf ear 
to every entreaty. When the eighth day 
arrived, being market day, he went to 
the hall as usual, and looked at the wall 
of which he had dreamt with peculiar in- 
terest; but seeing no door there he ex- 
claimed, ‘It’s all right; now I will go 
and have a good dinner over it, with a 
bottle of wine!’ 

“Whether he stopped at one bottle or 
not, I cannot tell; but late on Saturday 
night, as he was going home, he was 
thrown from his horse and killed. This 
was the end of the eighth day.”—The 
Christian. 

eae oy Xe 0 | ed ona 


SEAMEN NOT ATHEISTS. 


It is not often that you find a seafar- 
ing man who is an atheist. Addison tells 
us of a time when he was on board ship, 
and there was a passenger on deck who 
was an infidel. He was reported to the 
captain as an atheist, and neither he nor 
the sailors could make out what sort of 
a strange fish that might be, and asked 
him what he meant. They were told 
that he did not believe in God. A storm 
ceming on, the men proposed that they 
should pitch him overboard, seeing he 
did not believe in God Almighty; but he 
was soon cured of his unbelief, for, when 
things looked threatening, the first per- 
son who was down on his knees, crying 
for mercy in great terror, was the preci- 
ous atheist, who soon got rid of his athe- 
ism when he felt in danger of his life— 
Spurgeon. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 240 —— 
A STORY OF FAITH. 


Dr. F. W. Krummacher relates this 
beautiful and simple story of faith of 
Rev. Mr. Henke: 

A Christian friend came one day to 
this man of God, who unhesitatingly in- 
vited him to dine with him, although 
he knew not what to set before him. 
When the bell rang at noon, the servant 
passed several times through the room, 
with an anxious countenance, in order, 
unobservedly, to beckon her master out. 
Henke, however, was not aware of her 
meaning, and only reminded her at last, 
that it was time to lay the cloth. The 
servant was perplexed and requested 
her master to step out to her for a mo- 
ment. “Sir,” she began in a mournful 
voice, “you wish me to lay the cloth, but 
don’t you know we have scarcely a piece 
of dry bread in the house, and you sent 
your last penny to a sick person this 
day?” “Ah,” answered Henke, with a 
smile, “is that all you have to say to 
me? Do but lay the cloth as usual, it 
will be time enough for the meat when 
we sit down to the table.” 

The maid, not a little astonished, did 
as she was told. “Let us take our seats,” 
said the friendly host, with a cheerful 
countenance. They sat down to the 
empty table, and the worthy childlike 
man offers up a prayer. On his saying 
“Amen!” the door bell is rung, and 
there is a basket with abundance of food, 
which a neighbor had felt constrained to 
send to him. Calmly, as if nothing par- 
ticular had happened, Henke ordered all 
the diskes to be filled; and then looking 
smilingly at the astonished servant, he 
said: “Well, have you still anything to 
object to our kind entertainer?” 

These, says Dr. Krummacher, are 
valuable facts; but such things cannot 
be imitated. It is certainly easy to or- 
der the cloth to be laid; but nothing is 
accomplished by that. However, if you 
possess anything of Henke’s faith, then 
do not hesitate to order the cloth to be 
laid. A Royal Host will provide the 
feast.—Selected. 


123 


—— 241 —— 
THE TRACK WAS CLEARED. 


The following remarkable incident 
was related in the writer’s hearing some 
years ago, by the Rev, Dr. Bryan, of 
East Bay City, in the course of a sermon 
preached before a conference of the 
Methodist Church, in northern Mich- 
igan: 

“I was once returning home from one 
of the southern States, on a train of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad, and was con- 
gratulating myself upon the excellent 
progress I was making in the direction 
of my own home-state, when the train 
upon which I was riding suddenly re- 
duced speed, and was run off upon a 
siding at a dull, desolate way-station. 

No one seemed able to explain our 
mysterious delay. The passengers 
quickly left the coaches and stood by 
the track-side in a quandary. While 
they thus waited a fast freight came up 
and drew off upon another siding, and 
a little later an “accommodation train” 
did likewise. The mystery deepened, and 
not a little impatience was manifesting 
itself among the waiting passengers, 
when suddenly tiere came a roar and 
flash out of the south, and a “lightning 
express” dashed up the line, like a 
thunderbolt out of the sky, and disap- 
peared in a cloud of dust and smoke. 

It was then that the conductor of our 
waiting train dropped lightly from the 
steps of one of the coaches, and pointing 
in the direction of the fast receding 
train explained: “Yonder goes the Su- 
perintendent’s Special; he has heard that 
his son is dying 1,000 miles away, and 
has ordered every train off the road, that 
he may get through to his boy”! 

Fellow Christian, the same God who 
holds the worlds in his palm, and feeds 
the fishes a mile beneath the sea, is your 
Father, and in your trouble or peril He 
will order every obstacle from His path 
that He may fly to your side, on the 
swift wings of His love! “A thousand 
shall fall at thy side and ten thousand 
at thy right hand, but it shail not come 
nigh thee.”—Rev. Stanley G. Tyndall. 


124 


——~ 242 —— 
A MOTHER’S FAITH. 

In a sketch of the life of Beate Paulus, 
the wife of a German minister who lived 
on the borders of the Black Forest, are 
several incidents which illustrate the 
power of living faith, and the providence 
of a prayer-hearing God. 

Though destitute of wealth, she much 
desired to educate her children; and five 
of her boys were placed in school, while 
she struggled, and prayed, and toiled, 
not only in the house, but out of doors. 

“On one occasion,” writes one of her 
children, “shortly before harvest, the 
fields stood thick with corn, and our 
mother had already calculated that their 
produce would suffice to meet all claims 
for the year. She was standing at the 
window casting the matter over in her 
mind, with great satisfaction, when her 
attention was suddenly caught by some 
heavy, black clouds with white borders, 
drifting at a great rate across the sum- 
mer sky. ‘It is hail-storm!’ she ex- 
claimed, in dismay; and quickly throw- 
ing up the window, she leaned out. 
Her eyes rested upon the frightful mass 
of wild storm-clouds, covering the west- 
ern horizon, and approaching with rapid 
fury. 

“*O God!’ she cried, ‘there comes an 
awful tempest, and what is to become 
of my corn?’ The black masses rolled 
nearer and nearer, while the ominous 
rushing movement that precedes a 
storm, began to rock the sultry air, and 
the dreaded hailstones fell with violence. 
Half beside herself with anxiety about 
those fields, lying at the eastern end of 
the valley, she now lifted her hands 
heavenward, and wringing them in ter- 
ror, cried: ‘Dear Father in heaven, what 
art thou doing? Thou knowest I can- 
not manage to pay for my boys at 
school, without the produce of those 
fields! Oh! turn Thy hand and do not 
let the hail blast my hopes!’ Scarcely 
had these words crossed her lips, when 
she started, for it seems as if a voice had 
whispered in her ear: ‘Is my arm short- 
ened that it cannot help thee in other 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


ways?’ Abashed, she shrank into a 
quiet corner, and there entreated God to 
forgive her want of faith. In the mean- 
time the storm had passed. And now 
various neighbors hurried in, proclaiming 
that the whole valley lay thickly covered 
with hailstones, down to the very edge 
of the parsonage fields; but the latter 
had been quite spared. The storm had 
reached their border, and then suddenly 
taking another direction into the next 
valley. Moreover, that the whole vil- 
lage was in amazement, declaring that 
God had wrought a miracle for the sake 
of our mother, whom he loved. 

At another time she found herself un- 
able to pay the expenses of the child- 
ren’s schooling; and the repeated de- 
mands for money were rendered more 
grievous by the reproaches of her hus- 
band who charged her with attempting 
impossibilities, and told her that her 
self-will would involve them in disgrace. 
She, however, professed her unwavering 
confidence that the Lord would soon in- 
terpose for their relief, while his answer 
was: “We shall see; time will show.” 

In the midst of these trying circum- 
stances, as her husband was one day sit- 
ting in his study, absorbed in medita- 
tion, the postman brought three letters 
from different towns where the boys 
were at school, each declaring that un- 
less the dues were promptly settled, the 
lads would be dismissed. The father 
read the letters with growing excite- 
ment, and spreading them upon the 
table before his wife as she entered the 
room, exclaimed: “There, look at them, 
and pay our debts with your faith! I 
have no money nor can I tell where to 
go for any.” 

“Seizing the papers, she rapidly glances 
ed through them, with’a very grave face, 
but then answered firmly: Its all right; 
the business shall be settled. For He 
who says: “The gold and silver are 
mine,’ will find it an easy thing to pro- 
vide these sums.’ Saying which she 
hastily left the room. 

“Our father readily supposed she in- 
tended making her way to a certain rich 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


friend who had helped us before. He 
was mistaken, for this time her steps 
turned in a different direction. We had 
in the parsonage an upper loft, shut off 
by a trap-door from the lower one, and 
over this door it was that she now knelt 
down, and began to deal with Him in 
whose strength she had undertaken the 
work of her children’s education. She 
spread before Him those letters from the 
study-table, and told Him of her hus- 
band’s half-scoffing taunt. She also re- 
mined Him how her life had been re- 
deemed from the very gates of death, 
for the children’s sake, and then declared 
that she could not believe that He meant 
to forsake her at this juncture; she was 
willing to be the second whom He 
might forsake, but she was determined 
not to be the first. 

In the meanwhile, her husband waited 
down stairs, and night came on; but she 
did not appear. Supper was ready, and 
yet she stayed in the loft. Then the 
eldest girl, her namesake Beate, ran up 
to call her; but the answer was: ‘Take 
your supper without me; it isnot time 
for me to eat.’ Late in the evening the 
little messenger was again dispatched, 
but returned with the reply: ‘Go to bed, 
the time has not come for me to rest.’ 
A third time, at breakfast next morning, 
the girl called her mother. Leave me 
alone,’ she said; ‘I do not need break- 
fast; when I am ready I shall come.’ 
Thus hours sped on; and downstairs her 
husband and children began to feel 
frightened, not daring, however, to dis- 
turb her any more. At last the door 
opened, and she entered, her fact beam- 
ing with a wonderful light. The little 
daughter thought that something extra- 
ordinary must have happened; and run- 
ning to her mother with open arms, 
asked eagerly: ‘What is it? Did an 
angel from heaven bring the money?’ 
‘No, my child,’ was the smiling answer; 
but now I am sure that it will come.’ 
She had hardly spoken, when a maid 
in peasant costume entered, saying: “The 
master of the Linden Inn sends to ask 
whether the frau Pastorin can spare time 


125 


to see him?’ ‘Ah, I know what he wants,’ 
answered our mother. My best regards, 
and I will come at once.’ Whereupon 
she started, and mine host, looking out 
of the window, saw her from afar, and 
came forward to welcome her with the 
words: ‘O madam, how glad I am you 
have come!’ Then leading her into his 
back parlor, he said: ‘I cannot tell how 
it is, but the whole of this last night 
I could not sleep for thinking of you. 
For some time I have had several hun- 
dred gulden in that chest, and all night 
long I was haunted by the thought that 
you needed this money, and that I ought 
to give it to you. If that be the case, 
there it is—take it; and do not trouble 
about repaying me. Should you be able 
to make it up again, well and good; if 
not, never mind.’ On this my mother 
said: “Yes, I do most certainly need it, 
my kind friend; for all last night I too 
was awake, crying to God for help. 
Yesterday there came three letters, tell- 
ing us that all our boys would be dis- 
missed unless the money for their board 
is cleared at once.’ 

“Ts it really so?’ exclaimed the inn- 
keeper, who was a noble-hearted and 
Christian man. ‘How strange and won- 
derful! Now I am doubly glad I asked 
you to come!’ Then opening the chest 
he produced three weighty packets, and 
handed them to her with a prayer that 
God’s blessing may rest upon the gift. 
She accepted it with the simple words; 
‘May God make good to you this service 
of Christian sympathy; for you have ac- 
ted as the steward of One who has 
promised not even to leave the giving 
of a cup of cold water unrewarded.’ 

“ ‘Flusband and children were eagerly 
awaiting her at home; and those thres 
dismal letters still lay open on the 
table when the mother, who had quitted 
that study in such deep emotion the 
day before, stepped up to her husband, 
radiant with joy. On each letter she 
laid a roll of money, and then cried: 
‘Lock, there it is! And now believe 
that faith in God is no empty mad- 
ness!’ ”—-Wonders of Prayer. 


126 


—— 243 —— 
SAFE AND SMOOTH NOW. 


How blessed is the thought that the 
terrible mystery which once affrighted 
the souls of men has been dispelled. 
One tells of a dark pool in the neighbor- 
hood of his native place, which was 
said to be unfathomable. It was im- 
possible to see an inch into the awful 
black waters. The young people looked 
upon its frowning face with a shudder, 
and were mortally afraid of standing on 
its brink. 

One day, a boy, braver than his fel- 
lows, ventured to put his foot over the 
edge, when, to his surprise, he found 
the water quite shallow. Encouraged 
by this, he waded in very slowly and 
cautiously, feeling his way, and though 
the water deepened, it was so gradual 
that in the middle of the pool it only 
reached up to his waist. He walked 
from one end of it to the other, and dis- 
pelled forever the mystery, so that the 
smallest boy delighted to wade in the 
black water. 

So Jesus has sounded the lowest 
depths of the darkness which we call 
death, and now we know that following 
in His steps we have nothing to fear. 
The bottom is good, the waters shall 
not overflow us, and His own hand shall 
lead us through. 

In the old days in the South a gentle 
Christian lady lay on her death-bed. At 
the last her mind wandered, and she 
fancied herelf in the carriage returning, 
perhaps after night-fall, from a long 
journey. 

_ Presently she murmured with a smile, 
speaking to the coachman, as_ she 
thought: 

“The carriage goes smoothly now; 
we must be nearly home, ar’n’t we, 
Dave?” ‘The old colored coachman sat 
weeping in the room, and hearing the 
question, he sobbed out: 

“*Taint po’ Dave, Mistis; de Lord 
done tuck holt er de lines;” and hearing 
that precious word of faith, the aged 
saint fell into quiet sleep, and passed 
out into the Home beyond. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Yes, the way is safe, for Jesus has 
gone before, and the carriage goes 
smoothly there, because, when human 
hands are loosened, He holds the lines 
and guides the trusting soul into His 
own eternal rest.—Selected. 


BEI, J ick 
AN ALPINE HUNTERS’S ESCAPE. 


An Alpine hunter, ascending Mount 
Blanc, in passing over the Mer de Glace, 
lost his hold, and slipped into a fright- 
ful crevasse. Catching in his swift de- 
cent against the points of rocks and pro- 
jecting spars of ice he broke his fall, 
and reached the bottom alive, but only 
to face death in a more terrible form. 
On either hand the icy walls rose high, 
and above he saw only a strip of blue 
sky. At his feet trickled a little stream 
formed from the melting glacier. There 
was but, one possible chance of escape— 
to follow this rivulet, which might lead 
to some unknown crevice or passage. 


In silence and terror he picked his 
way down the mountain side till his 
further advance was stopped by a giant 
cliff that rose up before him, while the 
river rolled darkly below. He heard 
the roaring of the waters, which seemed 
to wait for him. What should he do? 
Death was beside him and behind him, 
and he might fear, before him. There 
was no time for reflection or delay. He 
paused but an instant, and plunged into 
the stream. One minute of breathless 
suspense a sense of darkness and cold- 
ness, and yet of swift motion, as if he 
were gliding through the shades below, 
and then a light began to glimmer faint- 
ly on the waters, and the next instant 
he was amid the green fields and the 
flowers, and the summer sunshine of 
the vale of Chamouni. 


So it is when believers die. They 
come to the bank of the river, and it is 
cold and dark. Nature shrinks from the 
fatal plunge. Yet, one chilly moment, 
and all fear is left behind, and the 
Christian is amid the fields of the para- 
dise of God.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 245 —— 
ONE NEGRO’S CONSCIENCE. 


Some years ago, when visiting a lit- 
tle town in Western Ohio, I found a 
colored man who made an impression 
upon me which I shall never forget. 
This man’s name was Matthews. When 
I saw him he was about sixty years of 
age. In early life he had been a slave 
in Virginia. 

As a slave Matthews had learned the 
trade of a carpenter, and his master, see- 
ing that his slave could earn money for 
him by taking contracts in various parts 
of the country where he lived, permitted 
him to go about to do so. Matthews, 
however, soon began to reason, and 
naturally reached the conclusion that if 
he could earn money for his master, he 
could earn it for himself. 

So, in 1858, or about that time, he 
proposed to his master that he would 
pay $1,500 for himself, a certain amount 
to be paid in cash and the remainder to 
be paid in yearly installments. Such a 
bargain as this was not uncommon in 
Virginia then. The master, having im- 
plicit confidence in the slave, permitted 
him, after this contract was made, to 
seek work wherever he could secure the 
most nay. The result was that Mat- 
thews secured a contract for the erection 
of a building in the State of Ohio. 

While the colored man was at work in 
Ohio the Union armies were declared 
victorious, the Civil War ended and free- 
dom came to him, as it did to 4,000,000 
other slaves. 

When he was declared a free man by 
Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation, Mat- 
thews still owed his master, according 
to the antebellum contract, $300. As 
Mr. Matthews told the story to me, he 
said that he was perfectly well aware 
that by Lincoln’s proclamation he was 
released from all legal obligations, and 
that in the eyes of nine-tenths of the 
world he was released from all moral 
obligations to pay his former master a 
single cent of the unpaid balance, But 
he said that he wanted to begin his life 
of freedom with a clear conscience. In 


ANECDOTES 123i 
order to do this, he walked from his 
home in Ohio, a distance of 300 miles, 
much of the way over the mountains, 
and placed in his former master’s hand 
every cent of the money that he had 
promised before to pay for his freedom. 

Who will be brave enough to say that 
such a man is not fit to use the ballot, 
is not fit for citizenship?—Booker T. 
Washington. 


Bete AR ee 


“NOW OR NEVER.” 


There are points on the bleak British 
coast where certain hardy adventurers 
gain a scant livelihood by hunting the 
eggs of the rockbirds, which build their 
nests and rear their young along the 
face of those dangerous cliffs. 

The method ts to secure a strong rope 
at the top and let it drop to the desired 
level down the wall of the precipice. 
The egg hunter then lowers himself at 
will, and searches out the nesting places 
of the sea birds, as he descends. 

One day an egg-hunter had made the 
descent, and, in his effort to swing him- 
self in on a narrow “shelf,” gained the 
rock but lost the rope. He stood like 
one fascinated and watched the slow vi- 
brations of the rope as it swung out over 
the sea, and at every vibration becoming 
more remote from his grasp. As death 
stared the man in the face, his mind con- 
centrated upon the one possible means 
of escape, and the thought flashed into 
his mind: “Yonder rope is swinging 
nearer to me this instant than it ever 
will again, soon it will be too late; it 
is now or never,” and springing from 
the rock-shelf, he flung himself out over 
the sea, seized the rope as it approached 
his eager hand, and was saved! 

Unbeliever, is it not true that the 
mercy of God and the offer of life 
through His Son are coming nearer to 
you today than they may come again? 
Opportunity is a fleeting thing. Why 
delay? Cast yourself upon His love now. 
There is no time like the present. “Now 
is the accepted time; now is the day of 
Salvation.”—Rev. Stanley G. Tyndall. 


128 


ype 
“IN PERILS BY THE HEATHEN.” 


I wish I could give you a glimpse of 
the real condition of that land with: 
out the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Go 
with me into Central Africa. You find 
the people absolutely naked in body. 
Go with me into one of their huts, cir- 
cular in form, in shape like a beehive; 
the only opening a little hole two and 
a half feet high by a foot wide, into 
which you crawl on your hands and 
knees. When you are inside, and your 
eyes have become accustomed to the 
semi-darkness, and your nostrils to the 
almost overpowering stench, if you can 
become used to it, what a scene of fil- 
thiness greets you! You will understand 
when I say I have counted at night, be- 
ing called to attend to their sick, as 
many as eleven persons and seventeen 
goats in a hut fifteen feet in diameter. 

Is it any marvel to you that, living thus 
with their beasts for generations, they 
become beastly, beastly in thought, 
beastly in conversation, beastly in every 
appearance?—for the same law works 
in Africa as America; the man becomes 
what his associates are. Is it any 
wonder that amid the putrefying atmos- 
phere of such moral conditions love is 
throttled to death? Is it any wonder that 
in some tribes when any are sick they 
take them to the bush and build a fire 
beside them and leave them? 

These people did not want me there 
any more than the world wanted its 
first great missionary, Christ. They tried 
their best to get rid of me, held councils 
of war to decide what to do with me. 
Finally, several of the natives came to 
me and said that they had decided to 
kill me if I remained in their midst 
more than three days. .I felt I was in 
the place God wanted me to be, and 
that it is the safest place in the world, 
as it is also the sweetest. I would to 
God we could get rid of the notion of 
saying, “Thy will be done” with a groan, 
as though it was necessarily a hard 
thing God asked of us. God’s will is 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


in the sunshine as well as in the shadow. 
God’s will is in the laughter, and the 
joyfulness and the gladsomness of life 
as much, as in the sorrow and afflictions 
of life. 

I sent word back to them, “I am 
here to tell you about God. I expect to 
stay.” They threatened all manner of 
things. But at the end of the time they 
came to the conclusion that it was nu 
use; so they issued an order that any- 
one found bringing food to the white man 
should be killed, and for nearly two 
months that order was rigidly enforced. 
It would have fared very ill with me if 
it had not been for a divine provision. 
An old woman used to pass my hut to 
and from her work in the field. Every 
time she passed she managed secretly to 
drop a root of cassava, the root from 
which our tapioca comes, before my 
door. I roasted that root, and it en- 
abled me to eke out my slender supply 
of provisions throughout those months. 
God’s ravens are not dead yet. When 
we get to the end of ourselves, we find 
God there every time, if we are looking 
for Him. 

The greatest difficulty of all in con- 
nection with the work of Christ in Af- 
rica is that which comes from the mul- 
tiplicity of the language there. I had no 
word of their language and no way of 
getting it except through actual contact 
with the people, as it had never been 
written before. The first word I got was 
the word ‘“Nachow,” which means; 
“What is it?’ And I flung that word 
at them, pestered them with it on every 
possible occasion, as I pointed to tang- 
ible things about me, and listening care- 
fully for their reply, would jot it down 
phonetically. In that way in the course 
of the years, I obtained a vocabulary and 
grammar of the langauge. 

I spent four years alone, burying five 
companions, and others had to return 
home; had fever myself between thirty 
and forty times; was several times am- 
bushed by the natives; three times at- 
tacked by lions, several times by rhi- 
noceri; for fourteen months I never saw 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


a piece of bread; for two months I had 
nothing to eat but native beans and sour 
milk. I had to eat anything from ants 
to rhinoceri. Do not misunderstand me 
now; I am not posing as a martyr; I en- 
joyed it. But let me say this my friend; 
I would gladly go through the whole 
thing, with my eyes wide open to it, if 
I could have the joy I had of bringing 
salvation to the people. And do you 
know there are two hundred, possibly, 
such tribes in the Dark Continent with- 
out a written language, much less a 
Messenger of the Cross. 

I do not ask you to pity the heathen. 
Pity is a weak thing that spreads itself 
in tears, and then forgets the object of 
it. .But I do ask you with all the 
strength of my heart that you simply 
treat Jesus Christ right. Is it right?— 
I submit to you that it is not right to re- 
ceive eternal life from those scarred 
hands, and then give Him the spare 
change we happen to have left after we 
have supplied our luxuries. I submit it 
is not right to receive Heaven at the 
price He paid for it and then give Him 
the odds and ends, the convenient ser- 
vice, that cost us nothing. My friends 
the crumbs that fall from your laden 
tables are not enough, and they will 
not do to meet the need of the lost world 
groping in its ignorance, in its blind- 
ness, without God. You have no right 
to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ afresh 
upon the cross of your convenience.— 
W. R. Hotchkiss, In Christian Work. 


—— 248 —— 
THE CHILD HEROINE. 


We have read a touching incident 
about three little children, who, last au- 
tumn, late in the season, wandered alone 
in a dreary region of New Brunswick. 
The sun had already sunk in the west, 
and the gloom of evening was spreading 
itself over the surrounding country. 

The night came on fast; and feeling 
sure that they could not get home before 
daybreak, the eldest (a girl of only six 
years) quietly placed the two little ones 
in a sheltered nook on the sea-beach; 


129 


and fearing the cold chilly night for the 
younger children, Mary stripped off 
most of her own clothes to keep them 
warm. 

She then started off to gather dry 
seaweed, and whatever else she could 
find to cover them with. Having ten- 
derly in this way wrought for some time 
to make them a nest, she at last fell 
down exhausted with the cold, and half 
bare to the cold inclement night. 


That evening the loving father and 
tender mother sat up wondering at their 
children’s long absence; the hours drag: 
ged slowly past with anxious watching, 
and silent listening for the well-known 
little pattering feet. In vain the fond 
parents’ eyes pierced through the dark- 
ness. At length they roused the neigh- 
bors with their anxious inquiries after 
their lost ones. All that night was pass- 
ed in searching, and in tears, till early in 
the morning, lying fast asleep, and some- 
what numbed with cold, were found lit- 
tle Johnny and Lizzie. But, ch! a 
touching spectacle lay near them; their 
little savior was stiff, cold and dead on 
the seaweed which the poor little child- 
heroine had not strength to drag into 
the nook, where those she so deeply 
loved, and died to save, were sleeping. 
Thus this little New Brunswick girl died 
in her successful and self-sacrificing en- 
deavor to save her brother and sister. 

Does not this recall the love of the 
Lord Jesus Christ to you who read? 
Mary went to the full extent of human 
love in dying for her little brother and 
sister. ‘Greater love hath no man than 
this, that a man lay down his life for 
his friends.” Yet the Lord Jesus laid 
down his life for his enemies; for 
“scarcely for a righteous man will one 
die; yet peradventure for a good man 
some would even dare to die; but God 
commendeth His love toward us,” etc. 
He makes no mistakes, Yet how many 
listen to this story with more emotion 
and interest than they do to the story of 
the cross, where the love of Jesus, the 
Son of God, is told in letters of blood. — 
Dawn of the Morning. 


130 


| canleieg) io ulate! 
THE SPIRIT’S GUIDANCE. 


The last Sabbath of August, 1911, it 
was the writer’s privilege to attend a 
camp meeting at Alton, N. Y. In the au- 
dience, which gathered at the morning 
service, it was good to see the faces of 
many whom he had known for thirty 
or forty years. At the close of the ser- 
vice he accepted the cordial invitation 
of Mrs. Gardner Barrett, to go home with 
herself and husband and take dinner. In 
the course of the meal mention was 
made of an experience connected with 
Mrs. Barrett’s conversion, which oc- 
curred more than thirty years ago, and 
which illustrates how the free Spirit of 
God may sometimes be pleased to work. 

In the winter of 1879 religious meet- 
ings were being held at York Settle- 
ment. The services continued night af- 
ter night. Much prayer had been of- 
fered for the salvation of sinners, and 
a feeling of seriousness pervaded the 
meetings, and the impenitent were in- 
terested, but none of them had yet yield- 
ed to Christ. Mrs. Barrett, then a young 
woman and not long married, had not 
attended the services. But one after- 
noon she felt strangely drawn to go to 
the meeting that evening, and after a 
little persuasion her husband accom- 
panied her. 

At the beginning of the service that 
evening several prayers were offered, 
and the writer prayed that God would 
in that meeting bring some soul to re- 
pentance. After he arose from his 
knees he felt a persuasion, amounting 
to certainty, that some one would come 
to Christ before the meeting closed. 
And furthermore he felt impelled to 
stand up and declare it. A natural dis- 
inclination to do a thing so strange 
caused him to hesitate. And then the 
thought came, “If you, a Christian, 
hesitate to stand up and make yourself 
conspicuous by declaring that some one 
will come to Christ before this meeting 
closes, how can you expect that person 
to have the courage to publicly take 
such a stand for Christ?” With that 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


thought, up he got and declared that 
some one would come to Christ before 
the meeting closed. 

Having done this he had not the least 
anxiety regarding the outcome, that he 
would be found a false prophet, although 
he had no idea who the repentant person 
would be. In.fact what he had done 
seemed to have passed out of his mind, 
so interested was he in the services of 
the evening which followed. 

When the opportunity was given for 
any who would come to Christ to mani- 
fest it by coming forward, Mrs. Barrett 
arose and went across the room to where 
her husband sat, and urged him to come 
with her. When he declined, she ex- 
claimed aloud, “I must die alone, and J 
will seek the Lord alone!” She went 
forward, kneeled down, yielded herself 
to Christ, and was soon rejoicing in Him 
as her Saviour. And during ali these 
years since she has lived a consistent 
Christian life—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 

—— 250 
THE REFINER. 


A lady in Dublin became interested 
in the meaning of the following text. 
“For he is like a refiner’s fire. And He 
shall sit as a refiner and purifier oi 
silver.” She called upon a silversmith 
and asked him to explain the process ot 
refining, which he did. “But do you sit, 
sir, while you are refining?” she asked. 
“O, yes madam, I must sit, with my eye 
steadily fixed on the furnace, since if the 
silver remain too long, it is sure to be 
injured.” She at once saw the beauty 
of the text. Christ sees it needful to 
put His children into the furnace, but 
he is seated by the side of it and will 
permit them to remain in it no longer 
than is best. The lady was leaving, and 
had got as far as the door of the shop, 
when the man called her back and said 
he had forgotten to tell her how he 
knew when the process of purifying was 
complete—it was when he saw his own 
image reflected in the silver. O, yes, 
when Christ sees His own image in His 
people, then his work of purifying is ac- 
complished.—_Spurgeon. * 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


—— 251 ——. 
WHY SHE WAS THANKFUL. 


In a small, dark room in a crowded 
tenement one of the missionaries of the 
People’s Tabernacle found a_ poor 
German washer-woman, whose spirit of 
thankfulness ought to rebuke many of 
us. She is a widow, and previous to 
her husband’s death was the support of 
the family during the eight years of his 
life as an invalid. She said, “It had 
been so long since I had had a new 
dress that last summer I began asking 
the Lord if He wouldn’t please give me 
one so that I might go to church. He 
did not answer right away, but after a 
while one of the families that I work for 
had to move, and gave me four days’ 
work, and then I bought the new dress. 
And only a few days ago I was given 
another extra day’s work, and I used the 
dollar and a quarter for a new hat, so 
now I can go anywhere. 

For two years this woman because of 
a strange hoarseness has been obliged 
to speak only in a whisper, and so has 
been unable to get work excepting from 
those who know her, and yet all through 
the call that dark morning, she was con- 
stantly praising the Lord for His good- 
ness to her, and said with a reverent 
upward glance, “These things were a 
present from Him to me.” 

After a prayer of praise and thanks- 
giving had been offered, she hastily 
opened a drawer and presented her vis- 
itor two quarters saying, “I want you to 
take this and use it for your church or 
Sunday school, or wherever you think 
it will do the most good.” In reply to 
some objection she answered “Oh, I 
give money to my church too and I 
want you to use this for yours.” 

—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 
—— 252 —— 
ETERNITY. 


A young French nobleman came to 
consult a physician, bringing letters 
from the French emperor, Napoleon ITI. 
The emperor had a warm regard for 
this young man, and the doctor wanted 
to save him. He examined him and 


131 


found there was something upon his 
mind. 

“Have you lost property?” 

“No.” 

“Have you lost any relations?” 

“Not within the last three years.” 

“Have you lost any reputation in your 
own country?” 

“No.” 

The doctor studied for a few moments 
and then said: 

“IT must know what is on your mind: 
I must know what is troubling you.” 

Then the young man said: 

“My father was an infidel; my grand- 
father was an infidel, and for the last 
three years these words have haunted 
me: ‘Eternity, and where shall it find 
me?’ I walk about in the daytime, I lie 
down at night, and it comes upon me 
continually: ‘Eternity, and where shall 
I spend it?’ Doctor, is there hope for 
me?” 

The doctor said: 

“Sit down and be quiet. A few years 
ago I was an infidel. I did not believe 
in God and was in the same condition 
in which you now are.” The doctor 
took down his Bible and, turning to the 
fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, read: “He 
was wounded for our transgressions; He 
was bruised for our iniquities; the chas- 
tisement of our peace was upon Him, 
and with His stripes we are healed.” 
When he had finished the young man 
said: 

“Do you believe that He voluntarily 
left heaven, came down to the earth, 
and suffered and died that we might 
be saved?” 

“Certainly I believe it. That brought 
me out of infidelity, out of darkness into 
light.” And the doctor preached to his 
patient salvation and Christ his only 
Saviour, after which doctor and patient 
both knelt in prayer. 

When Mr. Moody was in London in 
1867, he learned that a letter had been 
received by Dr, Whinston from that 
young nobleman telling him that the 
question of “eternity and where he 
should spend it” was settled and troube 
led him no more.—Selected. 


182 


worm 253 ae 
THE LOST CHILDREN PRAYED. 


Dr. Robert Turnbull the distinguished 
author and preacher, of Philadelphia, 
Boston, and Hartford, did not remove 
to America until he was nearly twenty- 
five years old, It was while he was still 
a little boy in his Scottish home that 
the incident occurred of which he told 
us that memorable Monday morning. 

On a wintry day Robert and his little 
sister strayed out from their home for a 
walk on the moor. As it drew toward 
dark, on the short winter’s day, a driving 
snowstorm came on. Soon the children 
were blinded and dazed by the chilly 
storm. With no well-defined road over 
the moor, and with all land marks shut 
out from sight by the falling snow, the 
children were soon bewildered. As they 
looked about them, and turned from side 
to side in search of the way, they quick- 
ly lost all knowledge of the points of 
compass, and were helpless as to the 
direction they should take. They 
realized that they had lost their way, 
and they dared not move in any direc- 
tion. Yet these were children who had 
been taught that their Father in heaven 
could help them. 

“Robbie let us pray,” said the sister; 
and they dropped together on their 
knees on the snowy moor, as if in their 
home bedroom. 

“We only knew “the Lord’s Prayer,’ ” 
said Dr. Turnbull, as he told the story; 
“and we said that prayer together. But 
God knew what we really meant. ‘Please 
show us the way home’: and He 
answered us accordingly. 

“As we rose from our knees and 
peered about through the driving snow, 
my sister, keener-eyed in her faith, 
called out gleefully: ‘There’s .Old 
Maggie, Robbie. She’ll show us the 
way.’ And we sprang toward her, call- 
ing out as we pressed on, “Maggie, 
Maggie.’ ” 

“Old Maggie,” said the narrator, “was 
a humble neighbor, and in a sense a de- 
pendent of ours, who was often at our 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


house to perform service or to receive 
supplies. There she was just before us 
now in the driving snow, breasting the 
storm, with her plaid about her. As we 
called to her she did not look back, but 
pressed on, while we with our tired 
little feet followed after as best we 
could, glad of her safe lead. But sud- 
denly Old Maggie disappeared. Be- 
wildered again we stopped and looked 
about us in the snow. To our wonder 
and delight, there just before us was our 
dear home which we were seeking. 
Maggie was gone. Her mission for now 
was performed. God had used her lead 
to answer our prayer that he would 
show us the way home.” 

As we looked into the Christ-lighted 
face of good Dr. Turnbull when he bore 
this testimony, we all felt that it was no 
mere fancy of the brain that had misled 
him. It was but an added evidence of 
God’s goodness to his trustful children in 
their need, and we were glad that we 
also had such a loving Father. The im- 
pression of that recital has been with us 
ever since in all these years. And now 
as the close of life’s wintry day comes on, 
and the snows of age dim my eyes. Iam 
glad of my confidence that my Father 
will not leave his child without a guide 
until I am finally in the place which he 
has prepared for me and for mine.— 
Rev. H. Clay Trumbull. 


—— 254 — 
WHO STOPPED THE TRAIN? 


The following record of God’s care, of 
one of his children is vouched for by 
our friend Miss Mary A. French, a mis- 
sionary to India, who since her return 
some years ago has continued her work 
for the Master through the Postal Tract 
Mission and in other channels as the 
Lord has opened the way. 

Miss Margaret C., while in Boston, 
Mass., received word that her mother 
was dying in Nova Scotia, about fifty 
miles from Halifax. She started at once 
and took a through train for Halifax— 
the first she could get. 

She asked the conductor if he would 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


stop the train for her when they reached 
her destination. He refused positively. 
He said his orders were to go through to 
Halifax and he certainly should obey 
them. 

“Well,” she replied significantly, there 
is a higher power superintending this 
train.” So she ceased pleading with 
him, and looked to the Lord to stop 
that train so as to let her come to her 
dear mother’s side before she passed 
away: About midnight the train began 
to slow up. The conductor came to her 
and said, “Here you are just where you 
wanted to stop. There is a freight train 
on the track, and we have got to wait. 
But we are not accustomed to stop here 
and there is no one at the station. You 
will be obliged to alight entirely alone, 
and it is not safe for you to stop here at 
this time of the night.” 

But as she got off the train she met 
her brother at the steps. - Although he 
knew that train did not stop, and did 
not know she was on it, he had been 
obliged by some irresistible impression 
to get up and dress to go to that train. 

While he was dressing his wife 
awaked and asked him why he was going 
to meet that train. “You know,” she 
urged, “that train does not stop here.” 

“Yes, I know it, but I cannot sleep. 
I feel as if I must go, and I am going.” 

He harnessed his horses, drove to the 
station and brought his sister home in 
time to see her mother and minister to 
her before she died. 


Now who stopped that train? We 
need not suppose, as some would scoff- 
ingly suggest, that God needed to block 
a railroad in order to answer that girl’s 
prayer. It is enough that He who knows 
the end from the beginning, and who 
foresaw the consequence of the careless 
act of some one connected with that 
road, should have moved his child to 
take the one train that could bring her 
to her mother’s bedside, and sent her 
brother to meet her at the desired time. 
While sufficient faith can remove 
mountains, the mountains are not moved 
needlessly; and sometimes it would 


ANECDOTES 138 
seem that God impels his children to ask 


for things that are already on the way.— 
The Christian. 


—— 255 —— 
THE BIBLE AND THE ROBBERS 


A native, Christian preacher in Persia 
was overtaken by night while traveling, 
and attacked by a band of ferocious 
Mohammedan robbers. When these men 
found that the captive taken in the dark 
was poor, they were inclined to kill him. 
One of the robbers exclaimed, ‘He is a 
Gheber; let’s kill him anyhow.’ Ina 
moment fifty men had drawn their 
swords to purge the earth of such a 
wretch. 

‘The frightened Christian had no 
weapons; but he had a Bible, which he 
had been taught to regard as a sword 
for spiritual warfare. Drawing his Bible 
from his bosom, he cried :— 

“Mien, you make a great mistake! 
Do you not see that I am a man of the 
Book? This is the Book that your 
prophet repeatedly declared to be true.’ 

“The flash of the light on the edges 
of the Bible caught the gaze of the men: 
light seemed to blaze from the Book. 
The swords dropped, and several of the 
robbers came closer to examine the vol- 
ume curiously, without daring to touch 
it. They dragged the preacher to their 
village, that the mullah might say 
whether to spare the man for the sake 
of the Book. 

“It is indeed the Book,’ said the 
mullah, after making sure that it con- 
tained the law, the Psalms, and New 
Testament, as the Koran says it does; it 
is the Book, and whoever unjustly kills 
one of the people of the Book, him will 
God smite.’ 

“So it came to pass that the poor 
preacher, so nearly murdered in the rob- 
bers’ pass, finished his evening an 
honored guest in the village, reading to 
his wild hosts psalm after psalm by the 
flickering light of the oil wick. And as 
each of the beautiful psalms came to an 
end, the robbers, with one accord, said 
‘Amen!’ ”—Bible Society Record. 


134 


—— 256 —— 
THE MOUNTAIN DRIVER. 


“My Adirondack driver, old Harvey, 
had driven me for hundreds of miles 
over those mountain roads; we had been 
about everywhere together; and I had 
broached the subject of religion in an 
indirect way; I had gone away around 
a barn to talk about these things to 

im, 

But I had never until a week before 
his death come right to the point of try- 
ing to grip his soul with my own per- 
sonal touch, and I talked to him in a 
low voice as I sat on the front seat next 
to him all that drive through about be- 
coming a Christian. I did not make 
much progress, but I said: “I am going 
to preach down in the mountain church 
next Sunday night. Won’t you come 
and hear me?” “Well” he said, “if you 
put it that way, I will come.” 

The next morning one of my neigh- 
bors in the mountains said, “Did you 
hear that Harvey was very sick?” I said, 
“No; I will go and see him.” I went 
straight to his house, and the son said: 
“You cannot see him this morning. He 
is critically ill, and the doctor said no 
one must go in but the nurse.” I went 
the next day, and he was worse, and still 
they wouldn’t let me in. 

The third day I went, and the little 
granddaughter came with tears rolling 
down her face and said, “Grandpa has 
just died.” The next day was Sunday, 
and I went down to the mountain 
church, and preached the sermon I had 
prepared with Harvey in mind. 

I had imagined him sitting in the pew, 
and my preaching the word, trying to 
get seed into the soul, but old Harvey 
was not there. I couldn’t see those 
people; that was what might be called 
an absent minded sermon; my mind ran 
down the road to the little mountain 
house where old Harvey, my Adiron- 
dack driver, lay cold in death. The next 
morning, when we held his funeral ser- 
vice and they asked me to take part, 
I said, “I cannot speak, and I cannot 
pray even; I do not feel that I am wor- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


thy to go before the throne; I will just 
read a few passages of Scripture.” 
When I fell in line with the country 
folk trying to do what they do, though 
I dislike it, and walked around his cas- 
ket, as I drew near, I did not see the 
plate. I only saw instead the inscrip- 
tion on that casket put there by Divine 
hands, and it read, “A lost opportunity.” 


Friends, there are men dying down 
in your town, and in your little coun- 
try village, and in family, and in church; 
and in every case it is a lost opportunity. 
God help us to enter into this work of 
soul winning with all the passion of our 
hearts!—Rev. John Balcom Shaw, D. D. 


— 257 — 
ANOTHER CALL. 


Some are called to preach, some to 
business, some to keep house. Our calls 
are various as our talents. Only let us 
be sure that we attend prayerfully to the 
divine voice. 

More than half a century ago, a young 
student of Phillips Academy was called 
upon to endure a bitter trial. It was the 
desire of his heart to go through college 
and become a minister of the Gospel. 
But his health failed, and he was forced 
to give it up. 

One evening, alone in his room, in 
sore distress, he threw himself flat upon 
the floor, his soul crying out in voiceless 
agony, “O God, I cannot be thy mini- 
ster! {£ cannot be thy minister!” 

Suddenly there came to him a new 
hope—a vision of serving God in busi- 
ness with the same devotion as if 
preaching, a perception that making 
money for God might be to him a sacred 
calling. Springing to his feet, he joy- 
fully exclaimed: “O God, I can be thy 
minister. I will go back to Boston. I 
will make money for God, and that 
shall be my ministry.” 

This earnest young student was none 
other than Alpheus Hardy, the merchant 
prince of Boston, one of the noblest phil- 
anthropists of the century—B. M. 
Brain. 


- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


mI, df: Gee 
PARENTAL LOVE. 


For a little while imagine yourself to 
be seated around the table oi an Ameri- 
can boarding-house, where the inmates 
are spending an hour or two in the eve- 
ning relating the more remarkable events 
that have occurred to them; imagine that 
you are listening to one of the guests 
there: 

My name is Anthony Hunt. Ii am a 
drover, and I live many miles away up- 
on the western prairie. There wasn’t a 
house in sight when we moved there, 
my wife and I; and we haven’t many 
neighbors, though those we have are 
good men. 

One day about ten years ago, I went 
away from home to sell some fifty head 
of cattle—fine creatures as ever I saw. 
I was to buy some groceries and dry 
goods before I came back and, above 
all, a doll for my youngest child, Dolly 
(she never had a shop-doll of her own, 
only the rag-babies her mother made 
her). Dolly could talk of nothing else 
and went down to the very gate to call 
after me to “buy a big one.” 

Nobody but a parent can understand 
how my mind was on that toy, and how, 
when the cattle were sold, the first thing 
I started off to buy was Dolly’s doll. I 
found a large one, with eyes that would 
open and shut when you pulled a wire, 
and had it wrapped up in paper, and 
tucked it under my arm while I had the 
parcels of calico, and delaine, and tea, 
and sugar put up. It might have been 
more prudent to have stayed until morn- 
ing, but I felt anxious to get back, and 
eager to hear Dolly’s prattle about the 
doll she was so eagerly expecting. 

I mounted a steady-going old horse of 
mine and, pretty well loaded, started for 
home. Night set in before I was a mile 
from town, and settled down dark as 
pitch while I was in the midst of the 
wildest bit of road I know of. I could 
have felt my way through, I remembered 
it so well, and it was almost like doing 
that when the storm that had been brew- 
ing broke, and the rain fell in torrents, I 


135 


was five, or maybe six miles from home, 
too. I rode on as fast as I could; but 
suddenly I heard a little cry, like a 
child’s voice. I stopped short and lis- 
tened. [ called and it answered me. I 
couldn’t see a thing; all was dark as 
pitch. I got down and felt around in 
the grass; called again, and again was 
answered. 

Then I began to wonder. I’m not 
timid; but I was known to be a drover, 
and to have money about me. I thought 
it might be a trap to catch me, and there 
to rob and murder me. I am not super- 
stitious—not very—but how could a real 
child be out on the prairie in such a 
night at such an hour? It might be 
more than human. The bit of coward 
that hides itself in most men showed 
itself to me then, and I was half inclined 
to run away. But once more I heard 
the piteous cry, and, said I: “If any 
man’s child is here-abouts, Anthony 
Hunt is not the man to let it lie here 
and die.” 

I searched again. At last I bethought 
me of a hollow under a hill, and groped 
that way. Sure enough, I found a little 
dripping thing, that moaned and sobbed 
as I took it in my arms. I called my 
horse, and he came to me, and I mounted, 
and tucked the little soaked thing under 
my coat as best I could, promising to 
take it home to mamma. 

It seemed tired to death, and soon 
cried itself to sleep against my bosom. 
It had slept there over an hour when I 
saw my own windows. There were 
lights in them, and I supposed my wife 
had lit them for my sake; but when I 
got into the door-yard, I saw something 
was the meatter, and stood still with 
dead fear of heart five minutes befere 
I could lift the latck. At last I did it, 
and saw the room full of neighbors, and 
my wife amid them weeping. When 
she saw me she hid her face. 7 

“Oh, don’t tell him,” she said; “it will 
kill him.” 

“What is it, neighbors?” I cried. 

And one said: “Nothing now, I hope. 
What’s that in your arms?” 


136 


“A poor lost child,” said I. “I found 
iton the road. Take it, will you? I’ve 
turned faint.” And I lifted the sleeping 
thing, and saw the face of my own child, 
my little Dolly. It was my darling, and 
no other, that I had picked up in the 
drenched road. 

My little child had wandered out to 
meet papa and the doll, while her moth- 
er was at work, and for her they were 
lamenting as for one dead. 

I thanked God on my knees before 
them all. 

It is not much of a story, neighbors; 
but I think of it often in the nights, and 
wonder how I could bear to live now, 
if I had not stopped when I heard the 
cry for help upon the road—‘the little 
baby-cry, hardly louder than a squirrel’s 
chirp.” 

Is God less pitiful than man? “Like 
as a father piticth his children, so the 
Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Did 
you notice the last sentence in that 
man’s story? “It is not much ofa story, 
neighbors; but I think of it often in the 
nights, and wonder how I could bear to 
live now if I had not stopped when I 
heard that cry for help upon the road.” 

To me that sentence explains the 
whole story of redemption. That man’s 
love for his child was such that life 
would have been intolerable to him had 
he failed to save her. 

Sinner? God the Father listened to 
the cry for help, the piteous wail of 
misery that ascended to Him from His 
lost children; and he sent His Son to 
seek and to save that which was lost.— 
Selected, 

——: 259 ——— 
FETTERED FOR ANOTHER. 

More than eighty years ago, a fierce 
war raged in India between the Eng- 
lish and Tippoo Sahib. On one occa- 
sion, several English officers were taken 
prisoners; among them was one named 
Baird. One day a native officer brought 
in fetters to be put upon each of the 
prisoners, the wounded not excepted. 
Baird had been severely wounded, and 
was suffering from pain and weakness. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. I 


A gray-haired officer said to the na- 
tive official, “You do not think of put- 
ting chains upon that wounded man?” 

“There are just as many pairs of fet- 
ters as there are captives,” he replied; 
“and every pair must be worn.” 

“Then, said the noble officer, “put 
two pairs on me; I will wear his as well 
as Imy own.” This was done. Strange 
to say, Baird lived to regain his free- 
dom — lived to take that city; but his 
noble friend died in prison. 

Upon his death he wore two pairs of 
fetters! But what if he had worn the 
fetters of all in the prison? What if in- 
stead of being a captive himself, he had 
quitted a glorious palace to live in their 
loathsome dungeon, to wear their chains 
to bear their stripes to suffer and die 
for them, that they might go free, and 
free forever! ) 

Such a thing has been done, “There 
is one God, and one Mediator between 
God and man, the man Christ Jesus”; 
“who gave Himself a ransom for all.” 


—— 260 —— 
SO NEAR HOME, YET LOST. 


Dr. Wm. M. Taylor, afterwards a 
pastor in New York, says, “When 
after safely circumnavigating the globe, 
the Royal Charter went to pieces in 
Moelfra Bay, on the coast of Wales, it 
was my melancholy duty to visit and 
seek to comfort the wife of the first 
officer, made by that calamity a widow. 
The ship had been telegraphed from 
Queenstown, and the lady was sitting 
in the parlor expecting her husband, 
with the table spread for the evening 
meal, when the messenger came to tell 
her he was drowned. Never can I for- 
get the grief, so stricken and tearless, 
with which she wrung my hand as she 
said, ‘So near home, and yet lost.’ That 
seemed to me the most terrible of human 
sorrow. But ah! that is nothing to the 
anguish which must wring the soul 
which is compelled to say at last, ‘Once 
I was at the very gate of heaven, and 
had almost entered in, but now I am 


in hell.’ 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 261 —— 
TAKING ANOTHER’S WHIPPING. 


It is the self sacrificing people that 
are happy, for God pays so largely, so 
gloriously, so magnificently, in the deep 
and eternal satisfactions of the soul. 
Self sacrifice! We all admire it in 
others. How little we exercise of it! 
How much would we endure? How 
much would we risk for others? 

A very rough schoolmaster had a poor 
lad that had offended the laws of the 
school, and he ordered him to come up. 
“Now,” he said, “you take off your coat 
instantly and receive this whip.” The 
boy declined and more vehemently the 
teacher said, “I tell you, now take off 
your coat, Take it off instantly!” The 
boy again declined. It was not because 
he was afraid of the lash; he was used 
to that in his cruel home. But it was 
for shame. He had no undergarments, 
and when at last he removed his coat 
there went up a sob of emotion all 
through the school as they saw why he 
did not wish to remove his coat, and 
as they saw the shoulder blades almost 
cutting through the skin. 

As the schoolmaster lifted his whip to 
strike, a roseate, healthy boy leaped up 
- and said; “Stop, schoolmaster; whip me. 
He is only a poor chap: he can’t stand 
it. Whip me.” “Oh,” said the teacher, 
“it’s going to be a very severe scourging! 
But if you want to take the position of 
a substitute you can do it.” The boy 
said: ‘I don’t care; whip me. [Ill take 
it; he’s only a poor chap. Don’t you 
see the bones almost come through the 
flesh? Whip me.” And when the 
blows came down on the boy’s shoulders, 
this healthy, robust lad made no outcry; 
he endured it all uncomplainingly. We 
all say ‘Bravo!’ for that lad, Bravo! 
That is the spirit of Christ! Splendid! 
How much scourging, how much chas- 
tisement, how much anguish will you 
and I take for others? 

Oh, that we might have something of 
that boy’s spirit! Aye, that we might 
have something of the spirit of Jesus 
Christ; for in all our occupations and 


137 


trades and business, and all our life— 
home life, foreign life—we are to re- 
member that the sacrifice for others wiil 
soon be over.—Selected. 


—— 262 —— 
CHRISTIANS IN STRANGE 
COMPANY. 


A story is told of a gentleman who 
had a beautiful singing canary. A 
friend wanted to try if he could teach 
his sparrows to sing by keeping the 
canary with them. He borrowed it, and 
placed it in the cage with his sparrows. 
Instead, however, of teaching them to 
sing, the poor bird got so timid among 
the strange birds that it stopped singing 
altogether, and did nothing but chirp 
like the sparrows. The owner then took 
it back; but still it would not sing. It 
then occured to him to put it beside 
another canary, which sang well. This 
had the desired effect, and regaining the 
old note, it sang as beautifully as ever. 


Many Christians go, like the canary, 
into the strange company and atmos- 
phere cf worldlings, and consequently 
they do not only not teach the world 
to sing their happy, glorious notes of 
praise, but they cannot sing the old 
songs of praise in a strange land them- 
selves, and soon they learn the sorrow- 
ful note of the world. The best thing 
for such is to go back again into the 
more genial society of happy rejoicing 
Christians, among whom they will soon 
learn to sing the glorious notes of praise 
again.—Selected. 


263 ——e 


“A man looked up the record of 7,125 
church members as shown in Church 
statistics and found that in a year they 
added to the Church 344 persons who 
confessed their faith in Christ. He 
looked up the records of 137 life insur- 
ance agents and found that they in the 
same year induced 2,462 persons to con- 
fess their faith in life insurance — per- 
suaded that number to insure their 
lives.”—-The Continent. 





138 


—— 264 —— 
THE NOBLEMAN’S OFFER. 


Lord C was an earnest Chris- 
tian, heartily engaged in seeking to do 
good, both to the poor of London and 
among the tenants on his other large 
estates. And like many other Christian 
workers, he was often deeply grieved to 
find that so few seemed impressed with 
the message of God’s love and the offers 
of His grace. Thinking over the mat- 
ter in his own mind, he fixed upon a 
plan that he hoped might teach a lesson 
of faith which would not be lightly 
forgotten, and at the same time im- 
press the importance of now accepting 
the gracious offers of salvation. 

The session of Parliament being over, 
he started for his country seat. The 
morning after his arrival he had the 
following notice posted up in various 
places through the village that lay upon 
his estate, and also on the large gate oi 
his private grounds, so that every one 
could see it. It fixed on a date some 
ten or twelve days in advance, and read 
as follows: 





NOTICE, 

Lord C will be present with his 
steward at his office in the village, be- 
tween the hours of 9 and 12 on Tues- 
day, the 14th inst., and will then and 
there pay freely all accounts and debts, 
to whomsoever due, of any of his ten- 
ants who cannot discharge their obliga- 
tions. To avail themselves of this offer 
the applicants must present their ac- 
counts in the form of separate bills, con. 
taining the exact statement .of the 
amount and nature of the debts owing 
to each creditor; and they must also 
give a statement of their own means 
and whatsoever property they have—C. 

Very soon crowds began to gather 
around the various placards through the 
village and at the office, and curiosity 
and astonishment possessed them all. 
Every one was asking: “What does this 
mean?” But to one and all the steward 
had but one and the same answer to 
give: “That is Lord C ’s signature, 
and the notice speaks for itself. That is 








ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


all I know about it.” Any further ex- 
planation he reiused to give, nor would 
he answer any questions on the subject. 
He merely said he was ordered to put 
up the notice, and that was all he could 
say. 

Lhe day appointed by the notice rap- 
idly drew on, and the excitement of the 
tenants increased. Some, as they read 
the last clause of the notice, seemed to 
think it meant that they must give up 
all that they had if they would claim 
the offered benefit. And as they were 
not insolvent, they concluded they would 
not reply. Some gathered up their ac- 
counts and made out the required state- 
ments, but concluded to wait and see 
how others might fare, intending, if 
they succeeded, to present their list of 
hopeless debts. Some again planned to 
keep back part of their assets; wh'le 
others, deterred by argument or ridicule, 
gave up all thought of the matter; and 
still others thought the idea so stranze 
that they said it was only some unac- 
countable whim of Lord C , and 
not worth a moment’s thought or notice. 
“But there’s his own signature; he’ll 
never dishonor that,” said a neighbor; 
and so the discussion went on to th 
end. 

At last the day came, and the crowd 
of tenants and lookers-on gathered about 
the office. All their efforts to gain fur- 
ther information had been in vain, and 
now they had all come together to see 
the result. A little before the appointed 
hour Lord C "Ss carriage drove up, 
and from it he stepped into the office, 
and the door was closed and locked 
after him. Precisely at nine a step came 
from the inner room, and they heard 
the bolt thrown back, so that any one 
could enter. Men looked at each other 
and waited, none being willing to go in 
first, fearing either to confess their pov- 
erty and indebtedness, or to meet the 
ridicule that might follow an unsuccess- 
ful application. “Do you go and try, 
Jones,” said one to his neighbor. “I’m 
not so poor as you think for,” was the 
answer. “Do you go,” was said to an- 








ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


other, “I guess I’ll wait and see what 
others do,” was the reply. “Why don’t 
you try it?” said a fourth. “Well,” said 
the one spoken to, “there’s plenty of 
time yet.” And so the time passed on 
while each looked to see what others 
would do, and so waited and did not 
go in. 

It was nearly eleven o’clock, when an 
old couple from the poorhouse came up 
to the office. “Is it true,” they asked, 
“that Lord C—__— has offered to pay 
all our debts?” “Well, yes; but he 
hasn’t paid any yet.” “Has any one 
been in to see if he would do it?” “No, 
not yet.” Just then the notice on the 
office door caught the old man’s eyes. 
It was faded by exposure to the 
sun and rain, but still perfectly plain. 
“Why, wife, that’s his lordship’s signa- 
ture,” said the old man. “Thank God. 
we can die free from debt.” And they 
both started for the door of the office. 
“That’s right, old man, you go in first 
and let us know how you fare. Don’t 
think yourself out of the poorhouse yet.” 
“Guess he’ll find himself fooled after 
all.” These were some of the comments 
that fell on their ears as they entered, 
but, disregarding them all, in they went. 

Within the office they found only 
Lord C and his steward. The old 
man laid his statements on the table, 
saying, “There, my lord, are my debts. 
I have no property, but live in the poor- 
house, But it matters little, if I can 
but die free from debt.” “Why shouid 
I pay your debts?” asked Lord C 
“I do not know, except that you say 
you will; and I know your signature 
and believe your promise.” “That is 
enough,” said Lord C And by 
his direction the steward then made up 
the account of the old man’s debts and 
then drew a check for the amount, which 
he handed to Lord C , and he 
signed it and passed it to the old man, 
who warmly thanked his benefactor, 
and then started for the door, saying, 
“I must go now and tell my neighbors.” 
“No,” said the nobleman, “you must not 
tell them; they must trust my word for 














139 


themselves, as you have done.” And 
so the old couple were shown into an- 
other room, to wait till twelve, while 
Lord C » being satisfied that pov- 
erty was their misfortune and not their 
own fault, ordered the lease of a nice lit- 
tle place to be made out to them for 
life, and added this to the check he had 
given them. 

Outside the office time wore away, 
and as the old couple did not come 
forth, all the people concluded they had 
failed and there was nothing in the mat- 
ter. The hour of twelve drew near, men 
looked at each other, but did not go in. 
At last the hour rang out from the 
church clock; and with the last stroke 
from the bell the door opened, and the 
old man and his wife came out. “How 
is it, how is it?” cried the people. “Have 
you got the money?” The old man 
showed them his check. “Good,” he 
said, “as solid gold.” At the same mo- 
ment the nobleman came out, and as 
he entered his carriage there was a rush 
of the crowd to it, each one pressing for- 
ward with his statement, and crying, 
“My lord, will you not pay my debts?” 
“Here is my account; will you examine 
my statement?” 

“Friends,” was the reply, “it is after 
twelve o’clock. The hour is past. It is 
too late!” And he drove away. 

“Now is the accepted time; now is the 
day of salvation!” “Strive to enter in 
at the strait gate; for many, I say unt> 
you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not 
be able, when once the master of the 
house is risen up and hath shut the 
door !”—~Selected. 


—— 265 —— 


“Tohn Knox was famous for his earn- 
est prayer. Queen Mary said that she 
feared his prayer more than she did all 
the armies in Europe. One night in the 
days of his bitterest persecution, while 
he and his friends were praying to- 
gether, Knox spoke out and declared 
deliverance had come. He could not 
tell how. Immediately the news came 
that Queen Mary was dead.” 





140 


——— 266 ——— 
A WAGON-LOAD OF FOOD. 


“A young minister and his wife were 
sent on to their first charge in Vermont 
about the year 1846. On the circuit 
were few members, and most of these 
were in poor circumstances. After a 
few months the minister and his wife 
found themselves getting short of pro- 
visions. Finally their last food had been 
cooked, and where to look for new sup- 
ply was a question which demanded im- 
mediate attention. 

“The morning meal was eaten, not 
without anxious feelings; but this young 
servant of the Most High had laid his 
all upon the altar, and his wife also 
possessed much of the spirit of self-sac- 
rifice; and they could not think the 
Savior who had said to those he had 
called and sent out to preach in his 
name: ‘Lo! I am with you alway,’ would 
desert them among strangers. After 
uniting in family prayer he sought a 
Sanctuary in an old barn, and there com- 
mitted their case to God:—his wife met 
her Savior in her closet and poured out 
her heart before him there. 

“That morning a young married 
farmer, a mile or two away, was going 
with a number of hands to his mowing 
field, but as he afterward told the minis- 
ter, he was obliged to stop short. He 
told his hired help to go on, but he must 
go back—he must go and carry provis- 
ions to the minister’s house. He re- 
turned to the house, and telling his wife 
how he felt, asked her help in putting up 
the things he must carry. He harnessed 
his horse to his wagon; put up a bushel 
of potatoes, meat, flour, sugar, butter, 
etc. He was not a professor of religion. 
The minister’s wife told me there was 
a good wagon-load. He drove it to the 
house, and found that his gifts were 
most thankfully received. This account 
was received from the minister himself, 
—David Y.—, who died in Chelsea, 
Mass., in Dec. 1875,—and subsequently 
from his wife,—and communicated to 
a correspondent of ‘The Christian.’ ” 

—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


wm 26] meee 
COMING TO THE FATHER. 
(A Lincola Story.) 


Hon. John G. Cooper, an Ohio Con- 
gressman, in his address at the Gospel 
Mission of Washington, D. C., on the 
evening of January 14, 1917, used this 
incident to illustrate the verse, “No man 
cometh unto the Father but by me.” 
He said: “Once during the Civil War, 
the Army of the Potomac was about 20 
miles south of Washington. A private 
soldier from Penngylvania received a 
letter from his home, saying, ‘Your wife 
is dying, do come and see her.’ An or- 
der had just been issued that no more 
furloughs should be granted to either 
privates or officers of the Army of the 
Potomac. The night after getting the 
letter the soldier slipped through the 
lines and walked all the way to Wash- 
ington. He went at once to the White 
House. The guard refused him admit- 
tance. He showed the guard the letter 
and the guard said, ‘I am very sorsy, 
but my orders are positive and I cannot 
let you pass.’ 

“The soldier turned away weeping 
and sobbing. A little boy ran up to 
him, saying, ‘Soldier, what is the mat- 
ter; oh, why do you cry so?’ ‘I need 
to see the President. My wife is dying; 
oh, what shall I do?? The boy took the 
soldier’s hand and said to him, ‘I can 
take you to the President; he is my 
papa.” But the guard refused to let 
them pass. Just then Mr. Lincoln came 
to the door and little Tad called, ‘Papa, 
papa, this soldier is a friend of mine. 
The guard will not let him pass. He 
needs to see you, papa; do see my sol- 
dier.’ 

“Mr. Lincoln said: ‘Guard, let the boy 
and the soldier come to me,’ and the 
matter was easily arranged and the sol- 
dier sent on to his home in Pennsyl- 
vania. So,” said the Congressman, “jus- 
tice and law guard the portals of heaven 
against us, but the grace, love and tend- 
erness of the Son of God gain us admit- 
tance to the favor of God and eternal 
life.”’—-The Presbyterian. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 208 —— 
A PRINTER’S SELF-DENIAL. 


The following incident was related by 
John B. Gough, and is found in his 
book, “Platform Echoes”: 


About fifty men were employed in a 
printing establishment in New York. One 
of them had permission to sleep on the 
papers, under a bench, to save the ex- 
penses of lodging—he spent no money 
except for the commonest necessaries 
of life. His fellow-workers set him 


down as a mean man, a cowardly sneak, | 


because, while they insulted him, he did 
not resent it. He bore all their persecu- 
tion patiently, and they left no stone 
unturned to annoy him in his business. 
This went on for months. It was the 
custom of the men in this office to have 
an annual picnic, or excursion party. 
One pay-day in the month of June, 
the men were standing around the im- 
posing-stone, when some one proposed 
that the excursion should take place the 
following month. “Very good.” “Then 
we shall make up our committee—com- 
mittee on invitation and finance.” “What 
will you give?” was asked, “and you? 
and you?” This man stood, “sent to 
Coventry,” isolated, alone. Some one 
asked him how much he would sub- 
scribe for the picnic. He quietly refused 
to give anything for any pleasure ex- 
cursion. The man who had asked him 
said something so grossly insulting that 
his patience was exhausted, and he 
struck him and sent him to the floor. 


Then he said: “Now, gentlemen, I 
am no fighter; I did not seek this quar- 
rel, but matters have come to a crisis. 
You have treated me shamefully for 
months, and I have borne it patiently. 
Now I suppose the place will be too hot 
to hold me, and I must find some other 
position. I have never told you why I 
have been obliged to appear to you 
mean and avaricious, but I will do so 
now. I have a sister, whom I love, and 
I have been supporting her at a board- 
ing-school; this I found comparatively 
easy, but my sister has become blind. 


141 


My poor little, blind, orphan sister is 
without a friend on earth, except my- 
self to care for her. i have ascertained 
that in Paris there resides a physician 
who has been very successful in curing 
the form of blindness with which my 
sister is afflicted; and, gentlemen, I have 
been starving myself for months to raise 
the money necessary to take her to 
Paris; and by the help of God I will do 
it yet, in spite of your opposition.” 

The man whom he had knocked down 
then said: “Look here, will you shake 
hands with me? From my heart and 
soul I beg your pardon. Now, men, we 
will have no excursion this year, but I 
ask every man in this shop to put down 
ten dollars on that imposing-stone.” 

“Gentlemen, I do not ask for your 
money.” 

“Down with the money, every man of 
you.” 

In a fortnight, every man in that shop 
waited upon him on board the ship with 
his sister. Two years afterwards they 
gladly welcomed him as he brought her 
back with sight restored, like one com- 
ing from the pool of Siloam. 


come 209 ome 
A CHEERFUL GIVER. 


In a certain church a man regularly 
gave every Sabbath five dollars for the 
support of the church. A poor widow, 
who supported herself and six children 
by washing, was as regular as the rich 
man with her offering of five cents, 
which was all she could spare from her 
scant earnings. One day the rich man 
came to the minister and said the poor 
woman ought not to pay anything, and 
that he would pay the five cents for her 
every week. The pastor called to tell 
her of the offer, which he did in a con- 
siderate manner. Tears came to the 
widow’s eyes as she replied: “Do they 
want to take from me the comfort I 
experience in giving to the Lord? My 
health is good, my children keep well, 
and I receive so many blessings that I 
feel I could not live if I did not make 
my little offering to Jesus.” 


142 


—— 270 —— 
VISIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL. 


In the “Life of William Tennent,” 
that zealous, devoted minister, and the 
friend and fellow-laborer of Whitefield, 
the author of his memoirs, gives an ac- 
count of Tennent being three days ina 
trance. 

He became prostrated with fever, and 
by degrees sank under it, until, to ap- 
pearances, he died. In laying him out, 
one felt a slight tremor under the left 
arm, though the body was cold and stiff. 
The time for the funeral arrived, and 
the people were assembled. But a phy- 
sician, Tennent’s friend, pleaded that the 
funeral might be delayed. 

Tennent’s brother remarked: “What! 
a man not dead who is cold and stiff as 
a stake?” The doctor, however, pre- 
vailed; another day was appointed for 
the funeral. 

During the interval, various efforts 
were made to discover signs of life, but 
none appeared save the slight tremor. 
For three days and nights his friend, 
the physician, never left him. Again 
the people met to bury him, but could 
not even then obtain the doctor’s con- 
sent. For one hour more he pleaded; 
when that was gone he craved half an 
hour more. That being expired, he im- 
plored a stay of fifteen minutes, at the 
expiration of which Tennent opened his 
eyes. 

The following brief account is given 
in Mr. Tennent’s own language, and 
was related to a brother minister: As 
to dying, I found my fever increase, and 
i became weaker and weaker, until all 
at once I found myself in heaven, as I 
thought. I saw no shape as to the 
Diety, but glory all unutterable. I can 
say as Paul did, I heard and saw things 
unutterable. I saw a great multitude 
before His glory, apparently in the 
height of bliss, singing most melodious- 
ly. I was transported with my own 
situation, viewing all my troubles ended, 
and my rest and glory begun, and was 
about to join the great and happy multi- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


tude, when one came to me, looked me 
full in the face, laid his hand upon my 
shoulder, and said: “You must go back.” 

These words went through me; noth- 
ing could have shocked me more. 

I cried out: “Lord, must I go back?” 
With this shock, I opened my eyes in 
this world. When I saw I was in this 
world, I fainted, then came to, and faint- 
ed again several times, as one probably 
would have done in so weak a situation. 

For three years the sense of Divine 
things continued so great, and every- 
thing else appeared so completely vain, 
when compared to heaven, that could 
I have had the world for stooping down 
for it, I believe I should not have 
thought of doing it. 

To the friend who wrote his memoirs 
Mr. Tennent, concerning) this experi- 
ence, once said: “I found myself, in an 
instant, in another state of existence, 
under the direction of a superior being, 
who ordered me to follow him. I was 
accordingly wafted along, I know not 
how, till I beheld, at a distance, an in- 
effable glory, the impression of which 
on my mind, it is impossible to com- 
municate to mortal man. 

“Such was the effect on my mind of 
what I had seen and heard, that if it be 
possible for a human being to live en- 
tirely above the world, and the things of 
it, for some time afterward I was that 
person. 

“The ravishing sounds of the songs 
and hallelujahs that I heard, and the 
very words that were uttered were not 
out of my ears, when awake, for at 
least three years. All the kingdoms of 
the earth were in my sight as nothing 
and vanity. So great were my ideas of 
heavenly glory, that nothing which did 
not in some measure relate to it, could 
command my serious attention.” 

Mr. Tennent lived a number of years 
after this event, and died in the triumphs 
of a living faith, March 8, 1777, aged 71 
years; his mortal remains being interred 
at his chapel, in Freehold, N. J. He 
was an able, faithful preacher; and the 
Divine presence with him was frequent- 


. ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ly manifested in his public and private 
ministrations. In personal appearance, 
he was tall, erect, and of spare visage, 
with bright, piercing eyes, and grave, 
solemn countenance.—Selected. 


— 271— 
A BASKET OF WATER. 


An eastern king was once in need of 
a faithful servant anda friend. He gave 
notice that he wanted a man to do a 
day’s work, and two men came and 
asked to be employed. He engaged 
thein both for certain fixed wages, and 
set them to work to fill a basket with 
water from a neighboring well, saying 
he would come in the evening and see 
their work. He then left them to them- 
selves and went away. 

After putting in one or two bucketfuls 
one of the men said: 

“What is the use of doing this use- 
less work? As soon as we put the water 
in on one side it runs out on the other.” 

The other man answered: 

“But we have our day’s wages, haven’t 
we? The use of the work is the mas- 
ter’s business, not ours.” 

“I am not going to do such fool’s 
work,” replied the other man, and 
throwing down his bucket, he went 
away. 

The other man continued his work 
till, about sunset, he exhausted the well. 
Looking down into it, he saw some- 
thing shining at the bottom. He let 
down his bucket once more and drew 
up a precious diamond ring. 

“Now I see the use of pouring water 
into a basket!” he exclaimed to him- 
self. “If the water had brought up the 
ring before the well was dry, it would 
have been found in the basket. The 
labor was not useless after all.” 

But he had yet to learn why the king 


had ordered this apparently useless task. 


It was to test their capacity for per- 
fect obedience, without which no ser- 
vant is reliable. 

At this moment the king came up to 
him, and, as he bade him keep the ring, 
he said: 


1438 


“Thou hast been faithful in a little 
thing; now I see I can trust thee in 
great things. 

“Henceiorward thou shalt stand at 
my right hand.” 

Is not this a good lesson to teach us 
to be faithiul in small duties of each 
day, as weil as the large ones; to do 
everything, no matter) how small, as 
unto our heavenly Master? Little acts 
of duty or kindness go a great way 
when done for Jesus’ sake.—Selected. 


—— 272 —— 
AN INVITATION PROMPTLY AC- 
CEPTED. 


Bishop C. C. McCabe related this ex- 
perience, which will be appreciated by 
all those who are engaged in Christian 
work: 

“I am sometimes startled at the ease 
with which a soul can be won. Not 
very long ago, in a strange city, as the 
hackman got down off his box and 
opened the door to let me out, I dropped 
a quarter in his hand, and, as I did so, 
I grasped his hand and said to him, 
“Good-night; I hope to meet you again 
in glory.” I had often done that, and 
I thought nothing of it in this case. I 
went into the house, met my host, and 
retired to my room for the night. About 
midnight, my host knocked at my cham- 
ber door and said: “Chaplain, that hack- 
man has come back, and he says that 
he has got to see you tonight. I told 
him that he had better wait until morn- 
ing, but he said, “No, sir; I must see 
him tonight, and I know that he will be 
willing to see me.” When the hackman 
came up, a_ broad-shouldered, rough- 
looking man with a whip in his hand, 
he stood there in my presence with the 
tears rolling down his cheeks like rain. 
Said he: “If I meet you in glory, I have 
got to turn around. I have come to ask 
you to pray with me.” What a privilege 
it was to pray with that man; what a 
privilege to point him to Jesus; and yet 
I never saw him before in all my life. 
There are ten thousand men in this 
country who were never invited to come 
to Christ.” 


144 


— 2/3 — 


THE WEALTH OF OLD MAN 
JONES. 


“There is one thing that I can’t un- 
derstand,” said my friend with a ques- 
tioning mind. 

“What is that, Hanson?” I asked. 

“About old man Jones, down there at 
the foot of the hill. If there are any 
Christians in this country, he is one. 
He has prayed twice a day for forty 
years, and proved his faith by his works. 
He has worked hard, and has been am- 
bitious to lay up something for his fam- 
ily, yet he is exceedingly poor, has al- 
ways been poor—often his family lack 
the bare necessities of life. That little 
cabin with the rocky patch of ground 
around it is all he has to show for a 
life of drudgery. Yet the Bible says 
that all things work together for the 
good of those who love the Lord, and 
to him that asketh it shail be given. 
How do you explain it?” 

“Let us go down and talk with him 
about it,’ I replied. 

The old man warmly welcomed us 
into his simple cabin, and set chairs for 
us by the open fireplace, for it was a 
frosty November day. 

“I’m glad to see you, Will.” He ail- 
ways called me Will. “I have been 
wanting to tell you about a letter I got 
two weeks ago from Dave. Dave has 
professed religion, and joined the 
church.” The old man’s eyes grew 
bright, but his voice shook a little. “I’ve 
been praying for that boy for many 
years, and I knew the Lord would save 
him.” The light on the face furrowed 
by care and toil and age was good to 
see. “I’m perfectly happy now,” he 
continued. “Mary married a good man, 
and they have a good home, Sam is 
preaching the gospel, and now Dave 
has chosen that better part. The Lord 
is wondrous good to his servants, and I 
can say with David, ‘The Lord is my 
shepherd, I shall not want.’?” And he 
repeated the whole Psalm. 

“But haven’t you often needed things 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


that you did not get?” inquired my 
friend. 

“Oh, yes! certainly, there have been 
many times in our lives when we did 
not have all the worldly goods we want. 
ed, but some way we pulled through,” 
replied the old man cheerfully. ‘Per- 
haps it was the result of bad manage- 
ment, perhaps it was best so, but that 
matters little. The Lord has made us 
so rich in everything else we do not 
mind a little poverty.” 

As we climbed the hill my friend was 
silent. When we reached the summit 
we looked back at the little cabin at the 
foot. 

“I understand now,” said my friend. 
—William H. Hamby. 


bl if Wn 
FELLOWSHIP THAT MEANS 


SOMETHING. 


The Rev. F. B. Meyer recently told 
a London audience how he managed to 
get workingmen into his church. When 
he held the first meeting in his church 
for workingmen, he said: “‘(Men, we 
won't call one another brethren, but we 
will call each other brother.” The next 
day, as Mr. Meyer was going through 
one of the slums, a scavenger shouted 
off his cart, “Good morning, Brother 
Meyer.” And then the preacher knew 
that he was the king of the situation. 
He replied, “Good morning, brother.” 
Then the scavenger got down from his 
cart, and came up to him, when Mr. 
Meyer took his hand. But he drew it 
back, and said, “Excuse me; my hand 
is not fit for the likes of you to take.” 
The preacher said: “There is lots of 
soap and water at Christ Church. Give 
me your hand.” So they shook hands 
together, and went down the yard. They 
met four other men, and the scavenger 
held up his hand before them, and said: 
“Look here, mates, the new parson that 
has come has shaken hands with that 
hand.” They said: “Well, if he has 
done that, he will do.” If we want peo- 
ple to love cur God, we must have fel- 
lowship with them.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


US are ih. 
A CHILD IN A CREVASSE. 


A Highland widow, bearing her only 
son, a babe, in her arms, went away to 
seek assistance from a relative to pay 
her rent. She was suddenly overtaken, 
in a wild glen among the mountains, by 
what was long recalled by her fellow- 
villagers as “the first May storm.” Af- 
ter attempting in vain for some time, 
with her infant in her arms, to buffet 
whirling eddies, she wrapped her child 
in her own cloak and laid him carefully 
down among the heather and ferns in 
the deep cleft of a rock, with the inten- 
tion, it is supposed, of making her own 
way home, through the drifting sleet, 
and obtaining succor for her little one. 
She was found by the anxious neighbors 
next morning, stretched cold and stiff 
on a snowy shroud. But the cries of 
the babe directed them to the crevasse 
close by where it lay all unconscious 
of its danger, and from which it was 
rescued in safety. 

Many long years afterward that child 
returned from distant lands a disabled 
soldier, covered with honorable wounds. 
The first Sabbath of his home-coming 
he entered the Gaelic Church, Glasgow, 
to get shelter from a heavy fall of snow. 
It was on a cOmmunion Sabbath. The 
subject of the discourse was the Love 
of Christ. In illustrating the self-sacri- 
ficing nature of that “love which seeketh 
not her own,” the preacher narrated the 
above story of the Highland widow 
whom he had known in his boyhood. 
And he asked: “If that child is now 
alive, what would you think of his heart 
if he did not cherish an affection for his 
mother’s memory, and if the sight of the 
poor tattered cloak which she wrapped 
around him, in order to save his life at 
the cost of her own, did not fill him 
with gratitude too deep for words? 

“Vet, what hearts have you, my hear- 
ers, if, over those memorials of your 
Saviour’s sacrifice of Himself, you do 
not feel them glow with deeper love, 
and with adoring gratitude?” 


145 


A few days after this a message was 
sent by a dying man, requesting to see 
the clergyman. The request was com- 
plied with. The sick man seized the 
minister by the hand, and gazing in- 
tently on his face, said: “You do not, 
you cannot recognize me, but I know 
you. I have been a wanderer in many 
lands. I have visited every quarter of 
the globe, and fought and bled for my 
country. I came to town a few days 
ago in ill-health, On Sunday I entered 
your church—the church of my country- 
men—where I could once more hear, in 
the language of my youth, the Gospel 
preached. 


“I heard you tell the story of the 
widow and her son.” Here the voice of 
the old soldier faltered, his emotion al- 
most choked his utterance; but recov- 
ering himself for a moment, he cried: “I 
am that son!” and burst into a flood of 
tears, 


“Ves,” he continued, “I am that son! 
Never did I forget my mother’s love. 


“Though I never saw her, dear to 
me is her memory, and my only desire 
now is to lay my bones beside hers in 
the old churchyard among the hills. 
But, sir, what breaks my heart and cov- 
ers me with shame is this, until now I 
never saw, with the eyes of the soul, 
the love of my Saviour in giving Him- 
self for me, a poor, lost sinner. I con- 
fess it, I confess it!” he cried, looking 
up to heaven, his eyes streaming with 
tears; and pressing the minister’s hand 
close to his breast, he added: “It was 
God that made you tell that story. 
Praise be to His holy name, that my 
mother has not died in vain, and that 
the prayers which I was told she used 
to offer for me have been answered; for 
the love of my mother has been blessed 
by the Holy Spirit in making me see, 
as I never saw before, the love of the 
Saviour. I see it; I believe it. I have 
found deliverance in old age where I 
found it in my childhood—in the cleft 
of the rock; but it is the Rock of Ages.” 
—Rev. W. Adamson, D.D. 


146 


mem 276 —— 
A SINGLE SOUL. 

“Ruth, I have tickets for the concert 
of the Bell-Ringers on Wednesday night. 
Can you go?” Alice said to a friend as 
she stopped at her gate. 

“It is prayer meeting night.” 

“I know; but they sail for Europe 
Friday night, and this is their last con- 
cert.” 

“But I never stay away from prayer 
rueeting for anything.” 

“But this is a sacred concert—and 
only once. We can worship just as well 
there.” 

So reluctantly, and against her con- 
victions, Ruth consented. 

That night the girl dreamed that an 
angel in shining raiment stood before 
her, and asked gently: “Where are you 
going tomorrow night?” 

And she answered, “I thought I would 
go to the concert.” 

Then the angel said sadly, “Have you 
so little appreciation of the value of a 
single soul?” 

Vividly the vision came back to Ruth 
the next morning as she lay saying soft- 
ly to herself, wondering what it could 
mean,—‘‘So little appreciation of the 
value of a single soul.” 

She decided she must take back her 
promise to attend the concert and go to 
the prayer meeting. 

Ruth sat in the house of prayer with 
a strange joy in her soul, singing: 
“Plenteous grace with Thee is found, 

Grace to cover all my sins; 

Let the healing stream abound, 

Make and keep me pure within. 
Thou of life the fountain art, 

Freely let me take of Thee, 

Spring Thou up within my heart, 

Rise to all eternity.” 

As the music ceased the young girl 
sprang impulsively to her feet. 

“I meant to hear the Bell-Ringers to- 
night,” she said, “but I decided that I 
would rather come to prayer meeting; 
and I am happier here than I should 
have been at the concert; and I am sure 
no music could be sweeter to me than 
the hymn we have just sung.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


As the hour for closing drew near, the 
pastor arose and invited any who would 
give themselves to Christ to come for- 
ward. 

As he waited in silence, a lady in 
mourning walked slowly up the aisie, 
and kneeling, was shown the way of sal- 
vation. 

When the service was ended a friend 
came to Ruth and said: 

“The lady who went forward wishes 
to be introduced to you.” 

Much astonished, the girl went to re- 
celve an introduction to Mrs. Walters. 

“I wanted to tell you,” the lady said, 
“that I owe the fact of my being a 
Christian tonight to your testimony. I 
have not been inside a church for ten 
years. I came here to please a friend, 
and when you said you would give up a 
concert for a prayer meeting, and no 
music could be sweeter to you than the 
hymn, 

‘Jesus, lover of my soul,’ 
I thought to myself, ‘There must be 
something in religion, and I am going to 
have it.’ So, I wish to thank you that 
it is because of your testimony that [ 
shall go home tonight a servant of the 
Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Ruth held out her hand and pressed 
gratefully that of her new friend. 

She knew now the meaning of the 
angel’s message. 

She could not tell Mrs. Walters how 
nearly she had proved recreant to her 
trust, nor of the'dream that had influ- 
enced her in the true direction, so she 
answered simply: 

“T thank you for telling me this. I 
shall never forget it.” 

Yet she little guessed what cause she 
would have to always remember it. 

Ruth’s home was close beside the rail- 
road track. About midnight she was 
awakened by a horrible crashing sound. 
Looking from the window, she could see 
where the midnight express and the 
11.30 freight had collided. 

The cries of the frightened and the 
piercing shrieks of the wounded made 
her shudder. But she bravely put away 
all thought of self, and calling her 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


father, was soon ready to go with him 
to the rescue. 

And the first face that looked inte 
hers as she stood beside the burning 
train was that of Mrs. Walters. Pale 
and peaceful it was, though showing 
how intensely she suffered. 

She was extracted and borne to Ruth’s 
home The power of speech was almost 
gone. She rallied a little as they laid 
her on Ruth’s couch. 

Taking her hand and pressing it to 
her lips, she whispered feebly: 

“Child, ’'m going—it was my last 
chance—what if you had not spoken— 
what if I had not taken it?” 

And kneeling there beside the dead, 
the tears raining down her face, Ruth 
promised her Father to always do her 
duty; always to give her testimony; 
always to appreciate the value of a sin- 
gle soul—Mrs. A. C. Morrow. 


SS fray na 
A MILLIONAIRE’S SAVING. 


A story is found in the memorials of 
the late William E. Dodge of a boy in 
dirt and rags who came into his Sunday 
school class one day. The other scholars 
were not disposed to give a seat, but 
their teacher arranged a place in one 
corner, and after school learned from 
the boy something of his history. It 
was the old story of a drunken father 
and wretched home. Mr. Dodge told 
the boy to come to his home the next 
Sunday morning, and here he received 


a suit of clothes that made a marked 


difference in his appearance, and also in 
his reception at the school. But the 
following Sunday he came again in the 
same miserable plight as at first, only, 
if possible, looking more woe begone. 
His father had seized the clothes and 
sold them for rum. Mr. Dodge provid- 
ed another suit, but took the precaution 
to have his scholar come regularly to 
his house before school, put on the Sun- 
day suit, and stop to exchange it again 
before returning home. 

When summer came his father took 
him out of the city for a few months; 
but, on leaving, the boy asked for a 


147 


New Testament, and he said he would 
try to learn some verses while absent. 
in the fall he was in his old seat again, 
his face beaming with joy to find him- 
self again in school. As the class was 
being dismissed he asked his teacher 
somewhat diffidently if he would be 
willing to wait a few minutes to hear 
him recite a few verses. Mr. Dodge 
gladly consented, and sat down expect- 
ing the task to be soon over. “Where 
shall we begin?’ ‘“O, anywhere, sir; 
perhaps at the first chapter of John.” 
For twenty minutes the boy continued 
to recite, needing only an occasional 
prompting of a word. The church ser- 
vices were then to begin, and they were 
compelled to go; but Mr. Dodge agreed 
to remain again the next Sunday. This 
was continued for several weeks, chap- 
ter after chapter being repeated with 
wonderful accuracy. 

In the course of time the family 
moved away, and Mr. Dodge lost sight 
of the scholar who had so greatly in- 
terested him. Many years after, as Mr. 
Dodge was sitting in his office, a tall, 
fine-looking, well-dressed young man ap- 
proached him, and said, “You do not re- 
member me?” “No, I can hardly recall 
your face.” “Do you recollect a little 
ragged boy named , who came to 
your Sunday school class one day?” 
“Certainly I do.” “I am that boy.” 

And then, with some _ pardonable 
pride, and to Mr. Dodge’s surprise and 
delight, he told how he had succeeded 
in obtaining work in a large manufac- 
turing establishment, how he gradually 
won his way up to a responsible posi- 
tion, and how finally the original part- 
ners relinquished one branch of their 
business and handed it over to himself 
and one or two others of their principal 
assistants. He had now become a mem- 
ber and officer of a church, a teacher in 
the Sunday school, and had a family of 
his own, 

Such acts make rich men honorable, 
and when earthly wealth is left behind 
such deeds live as wellsprings of per- 
petual gladness in the paradise of God. 
—Our Young Folks. 





148 


——- 278 ~— 
OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN 
WEALTH. 

Very early in my ministry I came 
into close fellowship with a cultured 
young man who had inherited a pros- 
perous business. He took me into his 
confidence and confessed that he had 
been definitely called to the ministry, 
but added: “I have refused the call be- 
cause I am unwilling to go through life 
in poverty. I have determined to be 
rich.” He thought he recognized busi- 
ness ability in me and urged me to go 
into business with him. When I re- 
fused, he remarked, “You’re a fool.” 

I moved after a couple of years to an- 
Other place, and I heard as years went 
by of a number of fires in which that 
man’s mill had been burned and of other 
reverses. I went to India and the man 
and the story were well-nigh forgotten. 
But a little while after I was elected to 
my present office in the Auditorium, 
Chicago, I was taken by a friend into 
the basement of one of Chicago’s great 
buildings to see its wonderful machin- 
ery. As I walked around I came upon 
the once wealthy friend of my early 
ministry working with a shovel in that 
basement on very small pay as a day 
laborer. I tell this sad story to say that 
both experience and observation have 
assured me that God cares for the needs 
of all who are wholly true to his call 
to the ministry, but, alas for those who 
disobey and forget that “obedience is 
better than” wealth!—Frank W. Warne. 

—— 279 —— 
A SLEEPING SENTINEL. 


A general, after gaining a great vic- 
tory, was encamping with his army for 
the night; and had ordered sentinels to 
be stationed around the camp as usual. 
One of the sentinels, as he went to his 
station, grumbled to himself, and said: 
“Why could not the general let us have 
a quiet night’s rest for once, after beat- 
ing the enemy? I’m sure there’s nothing 
to be afraid of.” The man then went 
to his station, and stood for some time 
looking about him. It was a bright 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


summer night, but he could see nothing 
anywhere; so he said: “I am terribly 
tired; I shall sleep for just five minutes.” 

Presently he started wp, dreaming 
that some one had pushed a lantern be- 
fore his eyes, and he found that the 
moon was shining upon him through the 
branches of the tree above him. The 
next minute an arrow whizzed past his 
ear, and the field was alive with soldiers, 
who sprang from the ground where they 
had been silently creeping forward, and 
rushed toward him. Fortunately the 
arrow had missed him, so he gave the 
alarm to the other sentinels and the 
army was saved. 

Our whole life is a war with evil. Just 
after we have conquered it, it sometimes 
attacks us when we least expect it. Jesus 
said to us: “Watch therefore; for ye 
know neither the day nor the hour 
wherein the Son of man cometh.”—Se- 
lected. 

—— 280 —— 


KEEP YOUR WORD. 


A story is told of a gentleman who 
visited President Lincoln, and who was 
in the habit of making promises more 
freely than he kept them. In order to 
induce one of Mr. Lincoln’s boys to sit 
on his lap, the gentleman offered to give 
him a charm which he wore on his 
watch-chain. The boy climbed into his 
lap. Finally the gentleman arose to go, 
when Mr. Lincoln said to him “Are you 
going to keep your promise to my boy?” 
“What promise?” said the visitor. 
“You said you would give him that 
charm.” ‘Oh, I could not,” said the 
visitor. “It is not only valuable, but I 
prize it as an heir-loom.” “Give it to 
him,” said Mr. Lincoln sternly. “I would 
not want him to know that I entertained 
one who had no regard for his word.” 
The gentleman colored, undid the charm 
and handed it to the boy, and went away 
with a lesson which he was not likely 
soon to forget, and which others may 
profit by learning. 

Be slow to promise, but never fail to 
perform a promise which you have made. 
—The Armory. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


——— 281 —— 


WHAT CAME OF A LITTLE BAG 
OF RICE. 


Rice is in one sense the most valu- 
able cereal in the world. A greater 
number of people subsist on it than on 
wheat or corn; more than four hundred 
millions of human beings use it as their 
chief article of food. It is not a native 
of America, but is of Asiatic origin. How 
do you suppose it came to be cultivated 
here? 

The story is an interesting one, and 
shows what great results sometimes 
grow from small causes. One little can- 
vas bag once held all the rice seed there 
was in America. I will tell you how 
it happened. 

In the time of the early settlement of 
the country, the people did almost any- 
thing to get a living. Those of South 
Carolina, besides cultivating the ground, 
made tar and pitch from the pine for- 
ests, and sometimes they hunted and 
fished. It was very hard work to earn 
a subsistence, so hard, in fact, that there 
was one man who thought there ought 
to be an easier way. 

This man’s name was Thomas Smith. 
He had once lived on the island of 
Sumatra, where a great deal of rice is 
grown. He remembered that it was 
cultivated on wet or marshy ground. 
Now a large portion of South Carolina 
is low, moist land. Smith thought there 
was no reason why rice would not grow 
in Carolina as well as in Sumatra. 

It happened just at this time that a 
ship from this very island of Sumatra 
came to Charleston, where Smith lived. 
The captain and he were old friends, 
and Smith told him how much he was 
in need of some rice seed. 

“Why,” said the captain, “the cook 
must have some and you shall have it.” 

Upon investigation it was found that 
the cook had just one little bag of rice 
seed. This the captain gave to his 
friend who sowed it in a wet plot of 
ground that lay to the rear of his garden. 

The seed sprouted and grew finely, 


ANECDOTES. 149 
and a large crop was harvested. Smith 
distributed a part of it among his neigh- 
bors, and a great deal of rice was raised 
that year. Soon everybody who had 
wet lands turned them into rice fields, 
and now rice is one of the great prod- 
ucts of the South. Nearly a hundred 
million pounds are produced annually, 
all of which came from that little bag 
of rice from the far-away island.—Se- 
lected. 

—— 282 —— 
PRESERVED FROM WOLVES. 
A remarkable case of the preservation 

of the life of a little girl of nine years 
from ferocious forest wolves occurred 
in Platteville, Colo. The parents of the 
child were named Sutherland, and the 
instance was fully narrated in the Den- 
ver News. The child went with her 
father one cold afternoon to the woods 
to find the cattle, and was told to fol- 
low the calves home while the father 
searched for the cows. She obeyed, but 
the calves misled her, and soon she was 
lost. Night came on, and with it the 
November cold and the dreaded wolves. 
With a strange calmness she continued 
on her uncertain way. The next day, 
Sunday, at ten, she reached the house 
of John Beebe, near the village of 
Evans, having traveled eighteen hours, 
and a distance of at least twenty-five 
miles. All night the wolves growled 
around her, but harmed her not; neither 
was she frightened by them, though 
Colorado wolves are far from harmless. 
In ordinary cases fierce packs of blood- 
thirsty wolves will devour a man, or 
even a horse. But this one was in- 
vincible in her trusting, simple faith. 

The narrative states: “She said the 
wolves kept close to her heels and 
snapped at her feet; but her mother had 
told her that if she was good the Lord 
would always care for her, and so she 
knew the wolves would not hurt her, 
because God wouldn’t let them!” 

The child was hunted for by a large 
party, and when found was restored to 
her parents in health and soundness.— 
Selected. 


150 


promemen 233 —mme 


WHEN HE WAS A BOY. 


Six thousand persons inside, and two 
thousand outside of Spurgeon’s Taber- 
nacle in London waiting to hear some- 
body preach, The preacher was a strong 
man, and very plain, very simple—the 
children could understand. The truths 
he taught were strong and simple, and 
very piain. 

Years ago when he was a boy, he was 
a strong boy, wilful, impetuous. His 
father was a farmer and stone mason 
and died when little Dwight was four 
years old. His mother was very poor. 
Soon after her husband’s death, his 
creditors rushed upon her and seized 
for debt everything she owned; every- 
thing but her children—seven sons and 
two daughters, the eldest a boy of fii- 
teen. The oldest boy was his mother’s 
stay and hope. But he ran away; he 
ran away from his widowed mother, his 
small brothers and sisters, because his 
mind was filled with the folly of trashy 
books he had been reading. He thought 
he had but to run away from home to 
make a fortune. 

As little Dwight crowded in among 
the others about his mother in that 
poor home and studied the sorrow in 
her voice and in her face, as children 
know how to do, and knew that his 
lost brother was breaking her heart, 
God was making him ready to seek 
wanderers the world over; he was learn- 
ing what it was to be lost away from 
home, the agony of the hearts that love 
the lost, and, by and by, he learned 
how the Father in Heaven grieves over 
the children lost away from His home. 
The little fellow often and often ran 
eagerly to the post office for tidings of 
the wandering brother, and came back 
sadly with the hard words: “No letter.” 
When the wind was high, and the house 
shook, the mother knelt among her chil- 
dren and prayed for the boy away from 
home. 

Ts it any marvel that the man with 
the thousands crowding about him to 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


listen to the story of God’s love for 
runaway sinners should pray in such 
dead earnest for every lost man among 
them? 

One day the watching mother sat at 
her door alone; a stranger came to the 
door and stopped, she looked at him, 
she thought she had never seen him 
before. He stood, tall and bearded, with 
tears rolling down his face. When she 
saw his tears, she exclaimed: “Oh, it is 
my lost son!” And then Dwight knew 
how a mother forgives, how she rejoices 
as the angels do, over the lost come 
home again. 

Dwight grew older, fond of fun, 
rather than study, but finding work 
enough to do on the small farm. He 
did not care for school, and perhaps the 
reason was the rattan that had a sharp, 
decided way of coming down on the 
back of the disobedient or idle boy. 

After a while a lady taught the school, 
and she opened the school with prayer. 
The school went quietly on and there 
was no rattan; at last the rules were 
broken, and Dwight was the first boy 
to do it; then, sure that the rattan would 
be brought out, he lifted himself into a 
defiant attitude and waited. But no 
rattan came. After school she told the 
disobedient boy that she loved him, and 
had prayed to be able to rule him and 
all the school by love, instead of the 
force of the rattan, and asked him to 
try to love her and be a good boy. He 
never disobeyed again. 

When he was seventeen he started 
for Boston to look for work. Like other 
homeless boys he had failure, discour- 
agement, and long waiting. He says: 
“I went to the post office two or three 
times a day to see if there was a letter 
for me. I had not any employment and 
was very homesick and so went con- 
stantly to the post office. At last, how- 
ever, I got a letter. It was from my 
youngest sister, the first letter she ever 
wrote me. I opened it with a light 
heart, thinking there was some good 
news from home, but the burden of the 
whole letter was that she had heard 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


there were pickpockets in Boston, and 
warned me to take care of them. [ 
thought I had better get some money 
in hand first, and then 1 might take care 
of pickpockets.” 

At last, an uncle, a shoe dealer, con- 
sented to take the country boy into his 
store; but the condition was that Dwight 
would regularly attend the Mount Ver- 
non church and Sunday school, There 
he found his devoted Sunday school 
teacher, Mr. Edward Kimball. So in- 
terested did he become in the rough 
country boy that one day he went into 
the store and behind the counter where 
Dwight stood, and with his hand on 
Dwight’s shoulder talked to him about 
Christ. Not long afterward the boy 
took a stand for Christ. God chose Mr. 
Kimball to touch his heart. 

Long afterward God chose this boy 
to touch the heart of Mr. Kimball’s son, 
a boy of seventeen; his own age, when 
Mr. Kimball found him. 

In his eagerness Dwight longed for 
work for Christ, but he was so ignorant, 
so little able to express himself in fitting 
words, that for a year after he desired 
it he was not admitted to the member- 
ship of the church. His English was 
so poor that he was not allowed to con- 
fess his faith in Christ. When, years 
afterward, thousands crushed and 
crowded to hear his words, whose Eng- 
lish did he speak? 

The church thought he would never 
have “clear and decided views of gospel 
truths,” that he would never “fill any 
extended sphere of public usefulness.” 
It is the Holy Spirit who takes the 
things of Christ and shows them to His 
disciple. It is the Holy Spirit who 
teaches in that same hour of demand 
what the disciple shall speak, and it is 
the Lord who works with and confirms 
the disciple’s word. 

In Chicago, when he was nineteen, 
he went to work in dead earnest. He 
opened a Sunday school in a vacated 
saloon, in the neighborhood of two hun- 
dred saloons and gambling dens. Some- 
one found him, holding a colored child, 


151 


and reading by the light of tallow can- 
dles, the story of the Prodigal Son to 
the few children he had gathered. 

“I have got only one talent. I have 
no education; but I love the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and I want to do something for 
Him.” 

Before fifteen years all Great Britain 
was moved by the power God had given 
to this man who began his teaching 
with the colored child upon his lap, the 
light of tallow candles, and the rather 
labored reading of the Prodigal Son. 

Has this man, Dwight L. Moody, 
ever spoken to you?—Selected. 


EMSA OR ACE EE 
AN UNKNOWN HELPER. 


When I was in Australia a few years 
ago I went to see a lady to whom I had 
a letter of introduction. I was shown 
into the parlor, and presently a young 
lady came in and took me to where her 
aunt was in bed, and she told me how 
her aunt has been an invalid for twenty- 
five years. Her aunt told me that she 
had been one of eleven brothers and 
sisters, ten of whom were all strong and 
healthy, but they all were dead except 
her. She said: “Mr. Stock, the Lord 
wants me. I am his remembrancer, and 
f am kept alive.” 

She told me that her niece would pro- 
cure all the missionary journals and 
read them aloud to her, and as they 
would come to a certain part where 
there was need she would say, “Stop a 
moment, my dear,” and then pray for 
a blessing upon the place or person she 
had just heard about. 

I felt as for a moment the vale that 
hides the invisible God was withdrawn. 
It is not in our great gatherings, it is 
not in our great organizations, it is in 
the quiet, silent prayers of God’s people 
that blessing will come, and, therefore, 
when you hear of these missions that 
we all pray for, remember that, though 
we stay home in the ordinary humble 
life of love, our prayers may be the 
means of bringing this or that soul into 
the kingdom.—Eugene Stock. 


152 


—— 285 ——-- 
HONORABLE LABOR. 

There are some people who seem to 
regard labor as dishonorable and be- 
neath their proper dignity. They are 
mistaken in this estimate, for God has 
ordered that men should labor. A Puri- 
tan minister named Carter, coming upon 
a Christian brother who was busily em- 
ployed in his work as a tanner, clad in 
the begrimed and filthy garments ap- 
propriate to his calling, gave him with 
his salutation a friendly slap upon the 
shoulder. The tanner looked back and 
Said to the minister: 

“Oh, sir, I am ashamed that you 
should find me employed in this way.” 

“My friend,” said the minister, “may 
the Saviour when He comes find me 
doing just:so.” . 

“What! doing such dirty work?” 

“Yes,” said the minister, “faithfully 
performing the duties of my calling.” 

Dirty work sometimes makes clean 
money and no man has a right to be 
ashamed of faithfully following an hon- 
est calling. 

Years ago a student from one of the 
southern States came to attend the 
Theological Seminary at Andover. 
When winter set in he purchased a cord 
of wood for his stove. But how to pre- 
pare it for his fire was the: difficulty. 
He could find no extra hand to chop 
it for him. There were no circular saws 
and wood-splitting works going then. 
In his perplexity he went to Professor 
Stuart to advise him. The learned pro- 
fessor, who knew how to use his hands 
as well as his head, made short work 
of the matter. 

“Young man,” said he, “I am in want 
of a job myself; and if you have no ob- 
jections, I will saw the wood for you, 
and split it myself.” 

The student concluded that he would 
not trouble Professor Stuart to saw the 
wood for him, but preferred to do it 
himself. 

A story is told of a young gentleman 
who purchased some provisions in a 
Boston market, and, when looking 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


around for some one to carry home his 
purchase, at last found a quiet man who 
was willing to do it, and he was so 
pleased with his conversation and ap- 
pearance, that thinking he might be 
glad to employ him again, he asked him 
his name, After some questioning he 
found out the man who had served him 
so satisfactorily was “Billy Gray,” the 
merchant prince of Boston, the sails of 
whose ships whitened every sea, and 
who perhaps could have bought out a 
hundred such men as the one whom he 
consented to serve. 

Are there other examples? Yes, “for 
the Son of Man came not to be minis- 
tered unto but to minister, and to give 
His life a ransom for many.” Let Him 
be our pattern and example.—Selected. 


—— 286 —— 
SAVED BY BLOOD. 


Here in New York, in Bellevue Hos- 
pital, a man gave his blood to save the 
life of a stranger, who was brought in 
unconscious and rapidly approaching 
death. There was but one possible 
chance, the transfusion of healthy blood 
into his veins. William Vanderbilt, a 
young German in the hospital, being 
treated for an injured foot, offered to 
give his blood, He was laid with his 
strong left arm near the limp right arm 
of the dying man, The surgeon opened a 
vein in the arm of the unconscious man 
and let out a quantity of blood. Then 
he inserted a tube, the other end of 
which connected with a vein in the arm 
of the German. For fifteen minutes the 
blood flowed from the strong man into 
the body of the dying one. The effect 
was marvelous; the feeble pulse became 
nearly normal, a flush came to the pallid 
face, and the man breathed regularly. 
The tube was removed, and he opened 
his eyes and spoke. The German was 
pale and weak, but revived after a rest 
and a meal. The other man rallied 
rapidly. He owes his life to the Ger- 
man stranger whose blood saved him 
from the grave. What should his grati- 
tude be! 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 287 —— 
SPLICING THE LADDER. 


One night the large and splendid 
sailors’ home in Liverpool was on fire, 
and a vast multitude of people gathered 
to witness the conflagration. The fury 
of the flames could not be checked. It 
was supposed that all the inmates had 
leit the burning building. Presently, 
however, two poor fellows were seen 
stretching their arms from an upper 
window, and were shouting for help. 
What could be done to save them? 


A stout marine from a man-of-war. 


lying in the river said, “Give me a long 
ladder and I will try it.” 

He mounted the ladder. It was too 
short to reach the window. “Pass me 
up a small ladder,” he shouted. 


It was done. Even that did not reach 
to the arms stretched frantically out of 
the window. The brave marine was 
not to be balked. He lifted the short 
ladder up on his own shoulders, and, 
holding on by a casement, he brought 
the upper rounds within reach of the 
two men, who were already scorched 
by the flames. 

Out of the window they clambered 
and creeping down over the short lad- 
der, and then over the sturdy marine, 
they reached the pavement, amid the 
loud hurrahs of the multitude. 

It was a noble deed, and teaches a 
noble lesson. It teaches us that when 
we want to do good service to others, 
we must add our own length to the 
length of the ladder. 

Harry Norton saw that his fellow- 
clerk, Warren Proctor, was becoming a 
hard smoker and a hard drinker, al- 
though he was only sixteen years old. 
When he urged him to stop smoking 
and drinking, Warren replied: 

“Why, you sometimes take a cigar 
and a glass of wine yourself.” 

“If you will sign a pledge never to 
smoke a cigar or touch a drop of liquor, 
I will do the same,” was the reply. 

The bargain was made, and Harry 


158 


saved his friend by adding the length of 
his own example to the length of the 
ladder. 

It is a noble thing to be unselfish and 
to give up gratifications for the sake of 
other people. : 

When the great Christian sage of old 
said, “It is not right to drink wine by 
which my weak brothers stumble,” he 
added the length of his own influence to 
the ladder for saving otlkers from 
drunkenness. 

I could tell of two Christian lads, 
well educated and refined, who go 
every Sabbath to a mission school in a 
dirty, degraded street, that they may 
encourage some poor ragged boys to 
go there, too. Those two boys have the 
spirit of Jesus Christ. They are not 
selfish, and they mean that the poor, 
ignorant lads shall climb up in the world 
over them. 

That is the way to imitate the divine 
Master, Who gave Himself that men 
might climb out of the folly and degra- 
dation of sin into heaven itself—Dr. T. 
L. Cuyler. 


—— 288 —— 
A BALL, A DOLL AND A MAN. 


One day in Chautauqua, N. Y., the 
late Henry Drummond told this true 
story about a ball, and a doll, and a 
man. A great steamer had started from 
Liverpool to New York. Among the 
passengers was a little boy and his sis- 
ter. One day the boy lost his ball over- 
board; he rushed to the captain, beg- 
ging him to stop the ship and get it. 
The captain laughed, and told him it 
would never do to stop a steamship for 
the sake of a ball. The boy argued a 
little, and grumbled a good deal, and 
told his sister that he believed the rea- 
son the captain did not stop his ship 
was because he could not; he believed it 
was wound up some way, so that it 
would have to keep going until it ran 
down, or else he would never have leit 
a great splendid rubber ball like that in 
the ocean. 


154 


Two days afterwards the little girl’s 
dollie fell overboard. She ran crying 
to the captain to beg him to stop the 
steamer. “That won’t do any good,” 
her brother shouted to her; “he can’t 
stop it; don’t you know about my ball?” 

But the little girl made her pitiful 
prayer to the captain, who ran to the 
engine room, peeped down, and saw the 
dollie within reach. “Wait a min- 
ute,” he said to the little girl, and the 
ship went steadily on its way; but in 
a few minutes the captain came back 
with the dollie in his arms, all dripping 
with salt water, but safe. 

On the next day there went a cry 
over the deck of that steamer, “Man 
overboard!’ Instantly a bell rang in 
the engine room, short, sharp orders 
were given and obeyed, and the great 
ship stood still in mid-ocean, while the 
life-boat was launched and slipped out 
after the drowning man. Then there 
was one very much astonished boy on 
board! As soon as the steamer reached 
New York, or as soon afterwards as 
possible, the boy received a handsome 
new ball from the captain with a note 

xpressing his regret that he could not 
accommodate his passenger and stop 
the ship to get the one life in the ocean. 

I wonder if you could think why Pro- 
fessor Drummond told this story? 

“To please the children,” one little 
girl said when I asked her, which was 
a good answer, but he had even a better 
reason than that; and he pleased the 
grown people too. He told it to illus- 
trate different ways in which God 
answers our prayers. The captain 
thought it not best to stop his great 
ship for the sake of a ball, yet the boy 
received from him in due time a newer 
and better one than he had lost. It 
was not necessary to stop the ship in 
order to answer the little girl’s prayer 
she begged him to do it, but that was 
because she did not understand his 
power to save the dollie without that; 
the thing she prayed for she received, 
though not in the way she asked. 

Yet the moment came when—because 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


a human life was in peril—even the 
great engine had to be silenced, and the 
course of the ship changed, because the 
captain hac power to do it.—Selected. 


—— 289 —— 
FIDELITY OF A DOG. 


The Heppner, Oregon, Gazette tells a 
story of a dog’s double devotion, which 
will tend to increase the regard of all 
lovers of dogs for those faithful 
creatures. 


Mr. James Kinney, the chief shepherd 
of the flocks of Mr. Thomas Quade, had 
occasion lately to change camp from the 
mountain range to his feeding grounds. 
The distance was three miles, One of 
the collies had at the range a litter of 
five puppies, seventeen days old, which, 
as she was needed in the drive, she had 
to leave behind. The first night, as 
soon as the sheep were folded at the 
feeding ground and her responsibilities 
over, she went straight back through a 
driving snow-storm to her young, and 
spent the night with them. 

Next morning, however, true to her 
master, she was at the corral bright and 
early for her duties. She remained all 
day, guarding and herding the sheep, 
and at nightfall started back to her 
babies. 

This continued for eleven days. On 
the morning of the twelfth day the dog 
was late at the corral, and Mr. Kinney 
felt some uneasiness about her. After 
a little time she appeared, bringing one 
of her pups, which had now grown to 
considerable size, in her mouth. She 
had struggled all the three miles with 
it, over a rough road. It was evidently 
her intention to bring the pups all up to 
the corral, one at a time, without sacri- 
ficing any of her time with the sheep. 

Somewhat conscience-stricken at his 
neglect of the litter so far, Mr. Kinney 
hitched up a wagon and went to the 
range after them. He secured them all, 
and gave them and their mother a warm 
nest close to the hearth in the farm- 
house. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


——290 —— 
THE STORY OF A BIBLE. 


Napoleon Bonaparte, in one of his 
campaigns, was engaged in taking a 
German fortress which had resisted his 
efforts for six months. When at last 
it was taken by storm the soldiers 
rushed into the towns and laid hands 
on whatever of value they could. In 
the French army was a German named 
Krause, and he, like the rest, sought 
out a house which he thought might be 
worth looting. On entering he was ac- 
costed by a boy of six years, who, hold- 
ing up a Bible, said: “Here, I will give 
you this, though I like it very much, 
only do nothing to my dear mother.” 

The soldier took the book, and on 
opening it was arrested by the words 
he read, and, much to the surprise and 
relief of the widowed mother and her 
four young children, he said, “I will 
take nothing if you will let me have this 
Bible.” He placed the book in the 
breast of his tunic, and left the house, 
keeping guard outside, and so prevent- 
ing any of his comrades from entering 
until the soldiers were called to their 
quarters. 

Meanwhile a body of Germans were 
advancing to the relief of the town, but 
arrived just too late to prevent its fall. 
They, however, attacked the French, 
and during the progress of the fight 
Krause was struck in the breast and 
fell to the ground. For a while he was 
unconscious, but on regaining con- 
sciousness he was much surprised to 
find that, instead of being wounded, the 
missile had lodged in the Bible which 
he had received from the boy. Thus the 
book had been instrumental first in 
softening his heart and saving the 
widow’s family from danger, and then 
in saving the life of the recipient. 

Krause afterwards became an officer, 
and seven years later he wrote a letter 
to the boy who handed him the Bible, 
enclosing a considerable sum of money, 
“as a reward to the noble boy, who, 
seven years ago, gave his dearest pos- 


155 


session as a ransom for his mother, and 
thereby saved the life of this grateiul 
friend, Edelrich Krause.” 

This is a very remarkable incident, 
and though such a coincidence is hardly 
likely ever to happen again, yet similar 
results are being seen every day. Many 
a hard heart has been softened by a 
passage from the Bibie, and many who 
have set out to commit a wrong have 
been stopped at the remembrance of a 
text they learned in childhood. 

Although the soldier did not go to his 
quarters that night with so much “loot” 
as his companions, he, no doubt, was 
often glad to think that he had left the 
widow’s home untouched, and thus 
saved her and her children from sorrow. 
No doubt that Bible was treasured and 
often shown by Krause to friends as the 
savior of his life, but, better still, he 
accepted the gospel message which the 
book contained, and so it became the 
way to a life better and more lasting 
than that which had been preserved to 
him by its protection from the bullet — 
The Little Christian. 


— 29i—— 


THE DANGER OF WRONG AD- 
VICE. 


Many years ago, when Dakota terri- 
tory was being settled, a young woman 
leit her home to visit her father and 
mother. She was the mother of a little 
child and was anxious for her parents to 
see her little one. Her father returned 
from the post office and reported an 
approaching blizzard from the north- 
west, The young mother, against the 
advice of her father, cut her visit short 
and decided to hasten home. When she 
had traveled on her homeward journey 
some thirty or forty minutes, the bliz- 
zard broke upon the country in all its 
fury. She became greatly agitated, for 
she feared that the train might be snow- 
bound. She asked the trainmen repeat- 
edly not to forget where she was to 
leave the train, and they assured her 
they would not forget. A traveling man 
sitting behind her calmed her fears with 


156 


the statement that he was going far be- 
yond her station, and would tell her 
when to leave the train. The engine be- 
gan to lose power. The train was run- 
ning late. After a long, tiresome jour- 
ney they came to the station preceding 
the one where she desired to leave the 
train. The traveling man said, “The 
next stop is your station. Get your wraps 
and bundles ready.” So she got ready. 
In about forty minutes the train came 
to a standstill. No station had been 
called, but the traveling man said, “This 
is your station, madam.” She hurriedly 
left the train. After a while the train 
pulled out and probably thirty or forty 
minutes later the trainman called the 
station at which the woman had intend- 
ed leaving. The traveling man sprang 
to his feet. “Haven’t you made a mis- 
take?” he cried. “No, sir. I know every 
station on this line,” said the trainman. 
“Where is the woman who is to leave 
here?” The traveling man answered, “I 
thought we stopped at that station thir- 
ty minutes ago, and I told her to get 
off.” “We didn’t stop at any station 
thirty minutes ago,” the brakeman said. 
“Something went wrong with the engine 
and we stopped to fix it. We were out 
on the open prairie, and it is miles to 
the nearest house, and in such a blizzard 
I don’t see how that woman can escape 
death.” When they reached the station 
the conductor telegraphed the division 
superintendent the situation and the lat- 
ter answered by wire, “Spare no ex- 
pense. Take an engine and a car and 
every available man and find that 
woman.” They searched many hours 
in that blinding blizzard. About day- 
light they found her and her baby fro- 
zen to death. She had followed the 
wrong advice and it had cost her life. 

To our church members everywhere 
I would say: Beware of the temptation 
to lead unclean, compromised, godless 
lives, the examples of which may ruin 
others for eternity. If there are such 
among you, clean up, for Jesus’ sake, and 
let us take America for Christ!—Rev. 
French E. Oliver. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


a 92 ee 


THE NEED OF SELF-CONTROL. 


A celebrated trainer of wild animals 
says: “In some curious, incomprehen- 
sible way, wild animals know instinc- 
tively whether men are addicted to bad 
habits. It is one of the many problems 
that are beyond human understanding. 
For those who are in the least. inclined 
to drink, or who live a loose life, a wild 
animal has neither fear nor respect. He 
despises them with all the contempt of 
his nature and recognizes neither their 
authority nor their superiority. If a 
man has begun to take just a little in- 
toxicating liquor or has deviated from 
the straight road, animals will discover 
it long before his fellow-men. The qual- 
ity in the trainer which dominates the 
animal nature within himself is precisely 
the quality which dominates the animals 
he trains. If he yields to the brute with- 
in him, no matter how little, his perfect 
poise and self-mastery are gone and the 
keen instinct of the wild beast recognizes 
this instantly. Brutes seem to under- 
stand man’s degradation to their level, 
and. his life is in danger every moment 
he is in their cage.’—The Baptist and 
Reflector. 


—— 293 —— 
A SENSIBLE CHOICE. 


John Nelson, the Yorkshire mason, 
who was a co-worker with John Wes- 
ley, possessed convictions and earnest- 
ness that should characterize every 
Christian of today. 

When threatened with dismissal be- 
cause of his refusal to work on Sunday, 
he said: “I would rather have my wife 
and children beg their way barefoot to 
Heaven than to ride in a coach to Hell. 
I will run the risk of wanting bread 
here rather than the hazard of wanting 
water hereafter.” 

It is interesting to relate that Nel- 
son’s employer admired his earnest 
steadfastness so much that he increased 
his wages and stopped all work on Sun- 
day.—Pacific Ensign. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


AEG TY aca 
JOHN V. FARWELL’S START. 


The millionaire philanthropist, John 
V. Farwell, founder of the great whole- 
sale dry goods house of Chicago bearing 
his name, a leader in religious work, and 
the founder of the Chicago Young Men’s 
Christian Association, told in the ‘“Sat- 
urday Evening Post,” some years ago, 
how he got his start in a business career. 

“Strange as it may seem, I got on the 
track to business success through being 
discharged. 

“I came to Chicago in 1845 with less 
than four hundred dollars in my pockets. 
My resources consisted of an iron con- 
stitution, a fairly good education, and a 
strong religious belief. 

“T at once set out earnestly to seek 
employment, and finally secured a posi- 
tion in the city clerk’s office. By virtue 
of the position I was soon assigned to 
make reports of the meetings of the city 
council, securing for this work extra pay 
to the amount of two dollars the meet- 
ing. Soon, however, I ran across a snag 
that caused me to meet with shipwreck. 
In my office reports of the council pro- 
ceedings I narrated things exactly as 
they occurred and this did not please 
certain aldermen. Although IJ received 
more than an inkling of this, I continued 
to make accurate reports, and the first 
thing I knew I was discharged from 
the employ of the city. 

“The blow was a severe one, as work 
was hard to find; and I was, for a time, 
deeply discouraged, but with the elasti- 
city of youth I quickly rallied and soon 
found a position as book-keeper for a 
dry goods firm. It was in this place 
that I determined to become a mer- 
chant, and although my salary was very 
small, the work gave me an insight into 
the dry goods business. After a time 
I was offered a position with another 
house at the magnificent salary of $600 
the year, which enabled me to save a 
good deal of money. Within five years 
of my arrival in Chicago I was made a 
partner in this firm. Ten years later 


157 


two young men, whose names are now 
generally familiar, were also admitted 
to the firm. These two men were Mar- 
shall Field and Levi Z. Leiter, and I do 
not go beyond the truth in claiming to 
have given them their primary educa- 
tion in business. I have sometimes 
wondered what would have been my lot 
if I had stayed in the city clerk’s office.” 


—— 295 
A TRUE STORY. 


Robert Stephens tells the story of his 
salvation thus: I was born in a poor 
man’s home on the coast of Cornwall, 
Hngland. When nine years of age I 
was sent into a shipbuilding yard to 
work for my living. My surroundings 
were of the sinful kind. Soon my young 
life drank in these influences. I drifted 
along to the age of seventeen, At that 
time I used to go out after supper with 
the young men of my age, and spend the 
evenings on the streets in some kind of 
street pleasure. I was out on this mis- 
sion one evening, and a party of us were 
standing by a store window when a 
party of Methodists came by, going 
home from their prayer-meeting. When 
they reached us they stopped, for some 
reason I do not know. One of the party, 
an old man, came up to me, and putting 
his hands on my shoulder, and calling 
me by name, said: “I don’t know why, 
but I always pray for you.” When he 
had said this he lifted his hand, and the 
prayer-meeting crowd passed down the 
street. I looked after them in the dark- 
ness, saying, “I wonder why that old 
fellow prays for me?” 

The work was done. Conviction for 
sin followed. A desire to be saved en- 
tered my life, and two weeks after that 
I found Christ. The old man is in 
heaven long ago. I am here, doing 
what I can to make the world better. 

Only a word—that was all. But as a 
result of that word thousands will be 
in heaven, for the old man started forces 
to work that evening which will never 
stop—no, never.—N. C, Christian Advo- 
cate. 





158 


comme 296 
BURKE THE BURGLAR. 

Valentine Burke was his name. He 
was an old-time burglar, with kit and 
gun always ready for use. His picture 
adorned many a rogue’s gallery, for 
burke was a real burglar and none of 
your cheap amateurs. He had a cour- 
age born of many desperate “jobs.” 
Twenty years of his life Burke had 
spent in prison, here and there. He was 
a big, strong fellow, with a hard face, 
and a terrible tongue for swearing, es- 
pecially at sheriffs and jailers, who were 
his natural born enemies. There must 
have been a streak of manhood or a 
tender spot somewhere about him, you 
will say, or this story could hardly have 
happened. 

It was twenty-five years or more ago 
that it happened. Moody was young 
then, and not long in his ministry. He 
came down to St. Louis to lead a union 
revival meeting, and the Globe-Demo- 
crat announced that it was going to 
print every word he said, sermon, pray- 
er, and exhortation. Moody said it made 
him quake inwardly when he read this, 
but he made up his mind that he “would 
weave in a lot of scripture for the Globe- 
Democrat to print, and that might count, 
if his own words should fail.” He did 
it, and his printed sermons from day to 
day were sprinkled with Bible texts. 
The reporters tried their cunning at put- 
ting big, blazing headlines: at the top 
of the columns, Everybody was either 
hearing or reading the sermons. Burke 
was in the St. Louis jail, waiting trial 
for some piece of daring. Solitary con- 
finement was wearing on him, and he 
put in his time railing at the guards or 
damning the sheriff on his daily rounds. 
It was meat and drink to Burke to curse 
a sheriff. Somebody threw a Globe- 
Democrat into his cell, and the first 
thing that caught his eye was a big 
headline like this: “How the jailer at 
Philippi got caught.” It was just what 
Burke wanted, and he sat down with a 
chuckle to read the story of the jailer’s 
discomforture. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“Philippi!” he said; “that’s up in 
Illinois. I’ve been in that town.” 

Somehow the reading had a strange 
look, out of the usual newspaper way. 
It was Moody’s sermon of the night 
before. “What rot is this?” asked 
Burke. “Paul and Silas—a great earth- 
quake—what must I do to be saved? 
Has the Globe-Democrat got to print 
such stuff?” He looked at the date. Yes, 
it was Friday morning’s paper, fresh 
from the press. Burke threw it down 
with an oath, and walked about his ceil 
like a caged lion. By and by he took 
up the paper, and read the sermon 
through. The restless fit grew on him. 
Again and again he picked up the paper 
and read its strange story. It was then 
that a something, from whence he did 
not know, came into the burglar’s heart, 
and cut its way to the quick. “What 
does it mean?” he began asking. ““Twen- 
ty years and more I’ve been burglar 
and jail bird, but I never felt like this. 
What is it to be saved anyway? I’ve 
lived a dog’s life, and I’m getting tired 
of it. If there is such a God as that 
preacher is telling about, I believe I'll 
find it out, if it kills me to do it.” He 
found it out. 


Away toward midnight, after hours 
of bitter remorse over his wasted life, 
and lonely and broken prayers the first 
time since he was a child at his mother’s 
knee, Burke learned there is a God who 
is able and willing to blot out the dark- 
est and bloodiest record at a single 
stroke. Then he waited for day, a new 
creature, crying and laughing by turns. 
Next morning when the guard came 
around Burke had a pleasant word for 
him, and the guard eyed him in wonder. 
When the sheriff came, Burke greeted 
him as a friend, and told him how he 
had found God, after reading Moody’s 
sermon, “Jim,” said the sheriff to the 
guard, “you better keep an eye on 
Burke. He’s playing the pious dodge, 
and first chance he gets he will be out 
of here.” 

In a few weeks Burke came to trial; 
but the case, through some legal entan- 
element, failed, and he was released. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


Friendless, an ex-burglar in a big city, 
known only as a daring criminal, he had 
a hard time for months of shame and 
sorrow. Men looked at his face when 
he asked for work, and upon its evidence 
turned him away. But poor Burke was 
as brave as a Christian as he had been 
as a burglar and struggled on. Moody 
told how the poor fellow, seeing that 
his sin-blurred features were making 
against him, asked the Lord in prayer if 
he wouldn’t make him a better-looking 
man so that he could get an honest job. 
You will smile at this, I know, but 
something or somebody really answered 
the prayer, for Moody said a year from 
that time when he met Burke in Chi- 
cago he was as fine a looking man as 
he knew. I cannot help thinking it was 
the Lord who did it for him, in answer 
to his childlike faith. Shifting to and 
fro, wanting much to find steady work, 
he went to New York, hoping far from 
his old haunts to find peace and honest 
labor. He did not succeed, and after six 
months came back to St. Louis, much 
discouraged, but still holding fast to the 
God he had found in his prison cell. One 
day there came a message from the 
sheriff that he was wanted at the court 
house, and Burke obeyed with a heavy 
heart. 

“Some old case they’ve got against 
me,” he said, “but if I’m guilty Ill tell 
them so. I’ve done lying.” 

The sheriff greeted him _ kindly. 
“Where have you been Burke?” 

“In New York.” 

“What have you been doing there!’ 

“Trying to find a decent job.” 

“Have you kept a good grip on the 
religion you told me about?” 

“Ves,” answered Burke, looking him 
steadily in the eye. “I’ve had a hard 
time, sheriff, but I haven’t lost my re- 
ligion.” 

It was then the tide began to turn. 

“Burke,” said the sheriff, “I have had 
you shadowed every day you were in 
New York. I suspected that your reli- 
gion was a fraud. But I want to say 
to you that I know you've lived an 
honest Christian life, and I have sent 


ANECDOTES 159 
for you to offer you a deputyship under 
me. You can begin at once.” 


He began. He set his face like a 
flint. Steadily, and with dogged faith- 
fulness the old burglar went about his 
duties until men high in business began 
to tip their hats to him, and to talk of 
him at their clubs. Moody was passing 
through the city and stopped off an hour 
to meet Burke, who loved nobody as 
he did the man who converted him. 
Moody told how he found him in a close 
room upstairs in the court house serving 
as trusted guard over a bag of dia- 
monds. Burke sat with a sack of gems 
in his lap and a gun on the table. There 
were $60,000 worth of diamonds in the 
sack, 


“Moody,” he said, “see what the grace 
of God can do for a burglar. Look at 
this! The sheriff picked me out of his 
force to guard it.” 

Then he cried like a child as he held 
up the glittering stones for Moody to 
see. Years afterwards the churches of 
St. Louis had made ready and were 
waiting for the coming of an evangelist 
who was to lead the meeting; but some- 
thing happened that he did not come. 
The pastors were in sore trouble, until 
one of them suggested that they send 
for Valentine Burke to lead the meet- 
ings for them. Burke led night after 
night and many hard men came to hear 
him, and many hearts were turned, as 
Burke’s had been, from lives of crime 
and shame to clean Christian living. 
There is no more beautiful or pathetic 
story than that of Burke’s gentle and 
faithful life and service in the city where 
he had been the chief of sinners. How 
long he lived I do not recall, but Moody 
told me of his funeral, and how the rich 
and the poor, the saints and the sinners, 
came to it; and how the big men of the 
city could not say enough over the cof- 
fin of Valentine Burke. And to this day 
there are not a few in that city whose 
hearts soften with a strange tenderness 
when the name of the burglar is recalled. 
And now Moody and Burke are met, no 
more to be separated.—Prof. H. H. 
Mamill, D.D. 


160 


— 297 ——. 
WHAT WILL THE PEOPLE SAY? 


This question can poison our existence 
and shorten our life. 

To thousands who have accustomed 
themselves to listen to the opinion of 
others more than upon their own peace 
of soul, does this question became a 
curse. 

What are the people who today live, 
and tomorrow may be dead? Shail 
my welfare lie in the hands of such who 
are as chaff? Shall I, in order to please 
them, offer up my happiness of life? Will 
those people, upon whom we bestow 
such attention, stand by us when we 
are most miserable? Our misery to them 
is as pleasing as our happiness; both 
furnish topics of conversation. 

A missionary once related the follow- 
ing: 

“A king’s son was a prisoner, who, 
after several years, was released upon 
the condition that he permit himself to 
be led at the hour of noon through the 
city. » 

““Oh,’ said the young man, ‘how will 
the people look?’ 

“*You do not yet know how you will 
be led,’ answered the king. 

“When the hour arrived, he gave him 
a vessel filled to the brim with milk in 
his hands. 

““As soon as you spill a drop you 
must die,’ said he 

“Close behind the young man walked 
the executioner with dagger in hand, to 
stab him as soon as a drop fell to the 
earth. 

“From far the people had come to- 
gether to see the king’s son upon his 
perilous journey; head by head the 
crowd stood upon the streets. All the 
windows were crowded and some even 
climbed upon the roofs. When the youth 
had passed through the terrible ordeal, 
the king stepped to him and said: 

““Well, what kind of faces did the 
people make?” 

“Oh, king,’ answered the youth, ‘I 
saw not one. I only saw my life in my 
hat.ds and death behind me.’ ” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Let us be like this youth; let us not 
look around, but take care of ourselves, 
for we carry the happiness of lives ever 
with us; and it is only by walking very 
carefully and heeding the Divine voice 
that says, “This is the way, walk ye in 
it,’ that we can safely reach the goal 
which is life eternal.—Selected. 


—— 298 —— 
FERVENT PRAYER. 


It is related that on a certain occasion 
a messenger was sent to Martin Luther 
to inform him that his beloved friend 
Melancthon was dying. Luther at once 
hastened to his sickbed, and found him 
presenting the usual premonitory symp- 
toms of death. 

He mournfully bent over him; and 
sobbing, gave utterance to a sorrowful 
exclamation. It roused Melancthon from 
his stupor, he looked into the face of 
Luther, and said, ‘““O Luther, is this you! 
Why do you not let me depart in 
peace?” 

“We cannot spare you yet, Phillip,” 
was the reply. And turning around, he 
threw himself upon his knees, and 
wrestled with God for his recovery for 
upwards of an hour. He went from his 
knees to the bed, and took his friend 
by the hand, 

Again he said, “Dear Luther, why do 
you not let me depart in peace?” 

“Oh, no, Phillip, we cannot spare you 
yet from the field of labor,” was the re- 
ply. 

Luther then ordered some soup; and 
when Melancthon declined to take it, 
saying, “Dear Luther, why will you 
not let me go home and be at rest?” 

“We cannot spare you yet, Phillip,” 
was the reply. He then added, “Phillip, 
take this soup; or I will excommunicate 
you!” Methancthon took the soup. | 

He soon commenced to grow better: 
regained his wonted health; and labored 
for years afterwards in the cause of the 
Reformation. 

When Luther returned home, he said 
to his wife with abounding joy, “God 
gave me my brother Melancthon back 
in direct answer to prayer.”—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—-~ 299 —— 
UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE. 


A large opera house in Washington 
City was filled with people. Five hun- 
dred members of a Woman’s Congress 
occupied the first floor. Flags and 
flowers beautified the stage, which was 
rendered doubly attractive by the ele- 
gant presence of a number of ladies 
officiating. Suspended above a brilliant 
scene, the insignia of the society shone 
out in electric splendor. The United 
States Marine Band delighted every 
listener with a perfect melody that filled 
the building to its remotest corner. 

A young woman was seated with 
strangers, her relative having left her 
to return later in the evening. They 
were in one of the upper circles, to 
which the general public was admitted. 
Attracted by the conversation of two 
ladies, she could scarcely do less than 
explain to them certain points in the 
program which they did not seem to 
understand. They had attended a 
“Woman’s Rights” convention the pre- 
vious week. They also discussed the 
Daughters of the American Revolution. 
As they talked on, embracing Rebecca 
in the conversation, she observed that 
they wanted every one in society, re- 
ligion, and everything else, to do just 
as he pleased. They didn’t “believe any- 
thing” themselves, but they “didn’t want 
to interfere” with anyone. 

“You surely believe the Bible, don’t 
you?” said Rebecca, much distressed. 

“Parts of it, but purely as history,” 
answered they. 

“Oh, I feel very sorry for you,” said 
Rebecca, earnestly. “I feel very sorry 
for you.” 

“You belong to some church, then?’ 
remarked one of the ladies in some 
amusement. 

“Yes, I am a Presbyterian.” “We 
know that is a strong church, of many 
influential members, but we know little 
else about it,” was the reply. 

“Katherine,” said an old gentleman to 
his wife that night, “my mind is made 
up, I am with you at last, I have decided 


ANECDOTES 161 
for Christ and the Church.” 

The invalid wife wept tears of joy. 
“Tell me, dear, what helped you to this 
decision? I know it was God’s Spirit, 
but tell me about it.” 

“Only the simple faith and earnest 
testimony of a girl talking to some 
strong-minded women from _ SBoston, 
who were down at the Congress tonight. 
I sat behind them and heard what they 
said.” 

The Boston ladies returned to their 
homes. Again and again the words 
came back to them, “I feel very sorry 
for you,” and “Yes, I believe every word 
of it is true and the word of God.” 
Finally one of them spoke of this to the 
other, who confessed the same experi- 
ence. “Suppose we read it and see if 
we can find anything in it for us?” They 
read and God opened their eyes to be- 
hold wondrous things. .They found 
something in it for them. Their souls 
were saved—their lives changed. 

Rebecca may never know how far her 
words went. She returned to her home 
unconscious of having done anything 
for the advancement of Christ’s King- 
dom, yet she had been the instrument. 
in God’s hands of helping to bring three 
souls to the Saviour. Let us weigh our 
words and be wise, that we may be 
among the blessed who turn many to 
righteousness.——Presbyterian. 


—— 300 —— 


“We are only unlighted candles until 
Christ lights us. There is no shining 
light in us in our natural, unspiritual 
state. Christ himself is the Light of the 
World—the only self-igniting, self-sus- 
taining light ‘He is the true light, 
which lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world. He is the brightness of 
the Father’s glory. In Him the perfect 
light of God’s own life and love shone © 
over the earth. For a time He was in 
the world, and the brightness streamed 
far abroad. Then, before He went 
away, He lighted a cluster of lamps and 
left them burning. ‘Now ye are the 
light of the world.’ He said to His 
disciples.”—Selected. 


162 
—— 301 —— 
THE ARTIST AND THE GIPSY 
GIRL, 


Many years ago in the old city of Dus- 
seldori, a town of Rhenish Prussia, there 
dwelt an artist by the name of Stenburg. 
A Roman Catholic, he had been taught 
their doctrines, but knew nothing of 
Christ as his own Saviour from the guilt 
and power of sin. He had been engaged 
to paint a great picture of the crucifixion, 
and this he was doing—not from any 
real love to Christ or faith in Him, but 
for money and fame, But in mercy God 
brought this man to know the wondrous 
love which led Jesus Christ to suffer that 
awful death of the cross; and how this 
was done this story will tell. 

One beautiful spring morning Sten- 
burg was seeking recreation in the forest 
near Dusseldorf when he came upon a 
gipsy girl plaiting straw baskets. She 
was gifted with more than the usual 
beauty of her race, and Stenburg was so 
impressed by it, that he determined to 
engage her as a model for a picture of a 
Spanish dancing girl. So he bargained 
with Pepita, for that was her name, to 
come thrice a week to his studio to pose 
as a model. 

At the appointed hour she arrived; 
and as her great eyes roved round the 
studio she was full of wonder, while 
looking at the pictures. The large one 
(the crucifixion) caught her eye. Gazing 
at it intently, she asked in an awed voice, 
pointing to the figure on the cross in the 
centre, “Who is that?” 

“The Christ,” answered Stenburg 
carelessly. 

“What is being done to Him?” 

“They are crucifying Him.” 

“Who are those about Him with the 
bad faces?” 

“Now, look here,” said the artist, “I 
cannot talk. You have nothing to do 
but stand as I tell you.” The girl dared 
not speak again, but she continued to 
gaze and wonder. 

Every time she came to the studio, the 
fascination of the picture grew upon her. 
Then again she ventured to ask a ques- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


tion, for she longed to learn more of its 
meaning. 

“Why did they crucify Him? Was 
He bad, very bad?” 

“No, very good.” 

That was all she learned at one inter- 
view, but it added a little to her knowl- 
edge of that wonderful scene. 

At last, seeing she was so anxious to 
know the meaning of the picture, Sten- 
burg one day said, “Listen; I will tell 
you once for all; and then ask no more 
questions ;” and he told her the story of 
the cross—new to Pepita, though so old 
to the artist that it had ceased to touch 
him. He could paint that dying agony, 
and not a nerve of his quiver; but the 
thought of it wrung her heart. Tears 
filled her eyes, and she could hardly con- 
trol her emotion. 

Pepita’s last visit to the studio had 
come, She stood before the great pic- 
ture, loth to leave it. “Come,” said the 
artist, “here is your money, and a gold 
piece over.” 

“Thanks, Master.” Then, again turn- 
ing to the picture, said: “You must love 
Him very much when He has done all 
that for you; do you not?” 

Stenburg could not answer. Pepita 
with a sad heart went back to her people. 
But her words pierced Stenburg like an 
arrow. God’s Spirit sent the gipsy giri’s 
words home to his heart. He could not 
forget them. “All that for you,” rang 
in his ears. He became restless and sad. 
He knew he did not love the crucified 
One; and Rome can give no reali rest to 
the troubled heart. Her votaries never 
know the peace of God. 

Some time after this Stenburg was led 
to follow a few poor people who gathered 
in a retired place to hear the Bible 
read and the gospel preached. There for 
the first time he met those who had a 
living faith, and heard the simple gos- 
pel. He was made to realize why Christ 
hung upon the cross for sinners; that 
he was a sinner, and therefore Christ 
was there for him, bearing his sins. Thus 
God led the artist to the knowledge of 
salvation, and he began to know the love 

of Christ and could say, “He loved me, 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


and gave Himself for me.” 

And now he longed to make that won- 
drous love known to others; but how 
could he do it? Suddenly it fashed upon 
him. He could paint. His brush could 
tell out the love of Christ. Praying for 
God’s help in the work, he painted as 
never before, and the picture was placed 
among other paintings in the famous 
gallery of Dusseldorf. Underneath he 
placed the words :— 

“All this I did for thee; what hast thou 
done for Me2” 

Eternity alone will tell how many were 
led to Christ by the words and the pic- 
ture. 

One day Stenburg saw a _ poorly- 
dressed girl weeping bitterly as she stood 
by the picture. It was Pepita. 

- “O master! if He had but loved me 
so,” she cried. 

Then the artist told-her how He did 
die for her, poor gipsy girl though she 
was, as much as for the rich and great. 
Stenburg did not weary now of answer- 
ing all her eager questions. He was as 
anxious to tell as she to hear of the love 
of Christ; and as it was presented to 
her, she received it, and went from that 
room a sinner saved, rejoicing in that 
wonderful love. Thus the Lord used 
Pepita’s words to bring the artist to 
Himself, and then used the artist’s 
words by which to reveal Himself to 
her. 

Months afterward Stenburg was sud- 
denly called one night by a dark-looking 
stranger to visit a dying person. Fol- 
lowing his guide through the streets into 
the country, and then beyond into the 
deep forest, at last they came to a few 
poor tents in a sheltered spot. In one 
of these he found Pepita dying in pover- 
ty. but happy in the precious love of 
Christ. He saw her die praising her 
saviour for His love, knowing that He 
had taken all her sins away, and that 
she was going into His blessed presence 
to be forever with Him. 

Long after this, when the artist, too, 
had gone to be with the Lord, a wealthy 
young nobleman found his way into that 


ANECDOTES 163 
picture gallery, and as he gazed upon 
the picture and the words underneath 
it, God there and then spoke to his heart. 
It was Count Zinzendorf, who from that 
day became an earnest Christian, and 
also became the father of the Moravian 
missions by means of which God led 
thousands of souls to Himself. Such 
are the wonderful ways of God!—Se- 
lected. 


——- 302 —— 


A VOICE WITHIN. 

When I was a little boy in my fourth 
year, one fine day in spring my father 
led me by the hand to a distant part of 
the farm, but soon sent me home alone. 
On the way I had to pass a little pond, 
then spreading its waters wide; a rho- 
dora in full bloom, a rare flower which 
grew only in that locality, attracted my 
attention, and drew me to the spot. I 
saw a little tortoise sunning himself in 
the shallow waters at the roots of the 
flaming shrub. I lifted the stick I had 
in my hand to strike the harmless rep- 
tile; for, though I had never killed any 
creature, yet I had seen other boys do 
so, and I felt a disposition to follow thetr 
wicked example. 

But all at once something checked 
my little arm, and a voice within me 
said clear and loud: “It is wrong!” I 
held my uplifted stick, in wonder at the 
new emotion, the consciousness of an 
involuntary but inward check upon my 
actions, till the tortoise and the rhodora 
both vanished from my sight. I has- 
tened home and told the tale to my 
mother, and asked what it was that told 
me it was wrong, She wiped a tear from 
her eye, and taking me in her arms, 
said: “Some men call it conscience, but 
I prefer to call it the voice of God in 
the soul of man. Tf you listen and obey 
it, then it will speak clearer and clearer, 
and always guide you right; but if you 
turn a deaf ear or disobey, then it will 
fade out, little by little, and leave you in 
the dark without a guide. Your life de- 
pends on heeding that little voice.”— 
Dean Farrar. 


164 
emcee 303 —— 
FAITHFULNESS TO A FELLOW- 
BOARDER. 


According to Oriental thought and cus- 
tom, one with whom you “break bread,” 
or with whom you sit at meat, is, by 
that very fact, in covenant with you, 
and you have sacred duties toward him 
that must not be shirked or evaded. Yet 
many a Christian in a Christian com- 
munity will sit at the same table with 
another, as a fellow-boarder, for weeks 
or months, without knowing anything 
of his religious or spiritual views or 
wants. Both will talk freely on ordi- 
nary subjects, but the subject of chief 
importance is not named or considered. 
Is this right? Will any Christian say 
that it is? Is it right toward either 
party? How much is lost on both sides 
by such a course? 

For a long time I and my family lived 
at a boarding-house in a New England 
city. There was, during that period, a 
season of special religious interest, or a 
general revival, in that city. There sat 
at the same table with us a gentleman 
and his wife, who, as we knew, were not 
professing Christians, or church mem- 
bers, and had never expressed to us any 
particular interest in the revival move- 
ment in the city. One noonday I sug- 
gested to my wife that we ought to 
speak to our table neighbors personally 
on the subject, and urge them to sur- 
render themselves to Chirst. As she 
agreed with me as to our duty, I pro- 
posed that while I would go up to the 
gentleman’s place of business and have 
a loving talk with him, she should 
seck out the wife in her room, and plead 
with her for Christ. This was agreed to. 
Then we knelt together and asked God’s 
blessing on our efforts, and on those in 
whose spiritual welfare we were inter- 
ested. 

The gentleman was a bank officer. I 
called there just after bank hours, know- 
ing that he would be disengaged. As I 
asked him for an interview, he invited 
me into the directors’ room, and closed 
the door. When I spoke of my loving 
interest in him, and of my purpose in 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


calling, he burst into tears, and said that 
he was so glad I had come. Then he 
told me how he had longed, day after 
day, for some one to speak to him on 
this subject. When men came in who 
were prominent and active in the prayer 
meetings, he had tried, in vain, to lead 
the conversation to the point of a per- 
sonal word, but had always failed. How 
adroit some Christians are in avoiding 
the subject of personal religion in busi- 
ness places and in business hours! I 
found this man longing to be helped 
into the kingdom, and giad to learn the 
way. That was an ever-to-be remcm- 
bered conversation for Christ. 

When I went back to the house, at 
the close of the afternoon, my wife told 
me, with a cheerful face, of her experi- 
ence, After my leaving her, as she was 
preparing to go to the room of the wife 
she had on her heart, there was a knock 
at her door. As she opened the door 
that wife came in, and, bursting into 
tears, she asked if her friend wouldn’t 
help her to Christ. She had longed to 
be spoken to by someone, and now she 
could bear this no longer. The two 
wives went on their knees together, and 
they rose with glad and grateful hearts. 

That husband and wife soon stood up - 
and confessed their faith together, as 
they connected themselves with the 
church. They were active for Christ in 
all the years until they entered into rest. 
And their children were prominent and 
useful in Christ’s service after them.— 
H. Clay Trumbull, D.D. 


304 


A fire occurred in a crowded hall ina 
southern city. The audience caught a 
glimpse of a blaze behind the platform. 
Everybody shrieked and began to rush 
for the doors. A lady in a room off the 
platform seized a sheet of music, and 
coming forward, bowed calmly, smiled, 
and began to sing. Her steady voice 
and smiling face convinced the panic- 
stricken people that there was no dan- 
ger. They stopped and settled quietly 
into their seats. The fire was put out. 
A fatal panic was averted by a brave 
heart and a cool head. 








ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 305 —— 
ACCEPTING THE LAST OFFER. 


One Sunday I passed with a near rela. 
tive. There I met a gentleman whom 
I had never seen before, but who was 
connected with my relative. I sat with 
him at the table, and we had pleasant 
conversation. In the evening this gen- 
tleman was out at a church service, and 
the lady of the house was suffering with 
a headache. I urged her to retire, while 
I would sit up and close the house after 
the visitor came in. As I did this, I sat 
by the sitting-room fire, on the cold win- 
ter night. When the visitor was in, and 
the house was closed, we still sat to- 
gether there. 


He spoke of the service that he had 
attended, and he was evidently much 
impressed by the sermon. 

“You don’t often hear a sermon like 
that, especially from such a minister,” 
he said. “The minister brought us right 
up face to face with the Judgment Seat, 
and there he left us. There were no 
soft words to ease us down, such as, 
‘But I trust this is not for you, my 
brethren.’ ” 

Then, as if soliloquizing, as he sat 
there looking into the fire, he added: 

“TI tell you, in the great day, we who 
go over to the left hand will not feel 
very kindly toward the men who have 
glossed this thing over, when they had a 
chance to tell us the plain truth.” 

The impressed man was much older 
than myself, old enough, perhaps, to be 
my father, but he had been brought to 
my side in a condition of mind to need 
help; and I was there to speak for Jesus. 
It was not a question of seniority, nor of 
long acquaintance, to be considered by 
one who represented the Eternal. Lay- 
ing my hand lovingly on his knee, as 
he sat by my side looking thoughtfully 
into the fire, I said: 

“My friend, what do you mean by 
speaking of ‘we who go over to the left 
hand’? You belong on the right hand, 
and you ought to recognize this. The 
judge is your Saviour. You ought to 


165 


trust Him fully as such.” 

“I suppose I ought to,” he responded. 

“Well, do you not?” 

“IT can’t say I do.” 

At this 1 drew my chair around so 
that I could look directly into his face, 
and I said earnestly, feeling the full 
force of my words: 

“This is God’s doing, and you must 
recognize it. God has brought us to 
this house to meet for the first time in 
our lives. He has planned it so that you 
should go out to that evening service, 
and hear that impressed appeal. And 
now, while all others in the house are 
asleep, you and I sit here facing the 
question of questions for your soul. I 
cannot leave you until you settle it. I 
speak for the Saviour when I urge you 
to commit yourself to Him for now and 
forevermore,” 

Then reaching out my hand, I said: 

“My friend, you realize what all this 
means, and its importance. Now, prom- 
ise me that this night, before you sleep, 
you will, on your knees, tell your loving, 
longing, waiting Saviour, that you’ve 
delayed this thing altogether too long 
but that you won’t do so any longer. 
Tell Him that you trust Him because He 
is the Savious, and you are one whom He 
wants to save. Give me your hand on 
this, my friend, and then go to your 
room and do what you know to be your 
duty.” 

My companion evidently felt that it 
was a crisis hour with him, and he could 
not evade the sense of this. My hand 
was outstretched to him. For some time 
he said not a word, but I saw that he 
was quivering with intense emotion. 
Meanwhile I was praying in my heart 
for a blessing on him in conflict of soul. 
Then, with a convulsive movement that 
shook his strong frame, he put out his 
right hand and clasped mine as though 
it were for life. I realized that he had 
given himself to his Saviour. Rising, I 
asked God’s blessing on him, and bade 
him good night, and we parted. I went 
to my room for the night, and to pray 
for him, and he went to his room to pray 
for himself. 


166 


Before he came downstairs in the 
morning I left for my home, I never 
saw him again. Before the day closed 
he left that house for his home. By a 
severe railroad accident, on his way 
home, he was fatally injured, and soon 
he was with the Saviour to whom he 
had intrusted himself. A younger brother 
of his was an office-bearer in one of the 
Fifth Avenue churches in New York. 
When he learned that the loved brother 
had thus committed himself to the 
Saviour while he was yet in life and 
strength, he was indeed rejoiced and 
grateful. And we thanked God to- 
gether.—H. Clay Trumbull, D.D. 


—— 306 —— 
THE INFIDEL PRAYED. 


I remember, says the bishop of Sas- 
katchewan, many years ago listening 
with great delight to a story I heard 
from a missionary in North Canada. He 
said that some years before then a hum- 
ble missionary was travelling through 
the Canadian backwoods. He lost his 
way, but presently was rejoiced at the 
sight of a glimmering light. Soon reach- 
ing it, to his surprise he found a large 
congregation of settlers gathered around 
a fire listening to an able discourse. To 
the horror of the missionary he found 
the man was trying to prove that there 
was no God, no heaven, no hell, no 
eternity. A murmur of applause went 
through the audience as the orator 
ceased. 

The missionary stood up and said: 
“My friends, I am not going to make a 
long speech to you, for I am tired and 
weary, but I will tell you a little story. 
A few weeks ago I was walking on the 
banks of the river not far from here. I 
heard a cry of distress, and to my horror 
I saw a canoe drifting down the stream 
and nearing the rapids. ‘There was a 
single man in the boat. 

“In a short time he would near the 
waterfall and be gone. He saw his dan- 
ger and I heard him scream, ‘O God, if 
I must lose my life, have mercy on my 
soul!’ I plunged into the water and 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


reached the canoe. I dragged it to land 
and saved him. The man whom I heard 
when he thought no one was near, pray- 
ing to God to have mercy on his soul, 
is the man who has just addressed you, 
and has told you he believes there is 
neither God, nor heaven, nor hell.”— 
Selected. 


—— 307 —— 


GOD HELPS WHEN NEEDED. 


What a deal of useless worrying we 
might save ourselves if we would al- 
ways carefully remember that God’s 
blessing of help comes to us on time— 
just when it is needed by us! We may 
get glimpses of some coming trial and 
then we begin to fear that we shall not 
be able to bear it. We worry lest we 
will not have sufficient grace to endure 
the ordeal. We get prematurely faint 
and feel sick beforehand. Thus we take 
on ourselves grievous burdens which 
not only illy prepare us for the trial, 
but which we cannot do without sinning 
against God, for we indulge in unbelief 
and carry a burden which God forbids 
us to shoulder. Dr. A. Maclaren says: 
“I remember that one of the martyrs, 
who was to be burned on the following 
morning, thought that he would try 
himself; and, there being a large fire in 
the cell, he put his foot into it to see 
whether he could bear to have it burnt, 
and soon shrank back. Therein he was 
foolish, for, when he went out the next 
morning to stand on the fagots and 
burn, he stood like a man and burnt 
bravely to the death for the Master. 
The fact was, his Lord did not call him 
to burn his foot in the stove, and so He 
did not help him to bear it; but when 
He called him to give his whole body 
to the flames, then grace was given.” 
This is a very impressive and vital les- 
son. If we unadvisedly bring trouble 
and suffering upon ourselves, with no 
call from God behind our step, then we 
have our pains for our folly; but when 
we, in the line of duty, get into the fire, 
we may well expect God’s sustaining 
grace.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 308 —— 
SABBATH-KEEPING BARBER. 


A barber who lived in Bath, in the last 
century, passing a church one Sunday 
peeped in just as the minister was giv- 
ing out his text from Exodus xx. 8: 
“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
Holy.” 

He listened long enough to be con- 
vinced that he was breaking the law of 
God by keeping his shop open on that 
sacred day. He became uneasy, and 
went with a heavy heart to his Sunday 
task. At length he opened his mind to 
the clergyman, who immediately ad- 
vised him to close his shop on the Sab- 
bath. He replied that beggary would 
be the consequence; he had a flourish- 
ing trade, but it would be almost lost. 

The clergyman told him that he must 
not confer with flesh and blood; but 
trust in God, who requires from us no 
more than is for our good. 

The barber could not bring his mind 
to this at once. He sounded his cus- 
tomers, and soon found they would em: 
ploy another, should he close on the 
Sunday. At length, after many a sleep- 
less night, spent in weeping and pray- 
ing, he determined to cast all his care 
upon God, as the more he reflected, the 
more his duty became apparent. He 
discontinued Sunday dressing, went con- 
stantly to church, and very soon became 
the happy possessor of that “peace of 
God” which the world can neither give 
nor take away. 

The consequences he foresaw actually 
followed; his genteel customers left him, 
as he was nick-named a “Puritan” or 
“Methodist.” He was obliged to give 
up his fashionable shop; and in the 
course of years became so much reduced 
as to take a cellar under the market- 
house, and there shave the farmers. 

One Saturday evening, at dusk, a 
stranger from one of the coaches, asking 
for a barber, was directed by the hostler 
to the cellar opposite. Coming in 
hastily, he requested to be shaved 
quickly, while they changed the horses; 
adding, “I do not like to violate the Sab- 


167 


bath.” 

This was touching the poor barber 
on a tender chord; he burst into tears, 
asked the stranger to lend him a hali- 
penny to buy a candle, as it was not 
light enough to shave him with safety. 
He did so, revolving in his mind the 
extreme poverty to which the poor man 
must be reduced before he could make 
such a request. 

When shaved, he said, “There must 
be something extraordinary in your nis- 
tory, which I have now not time to near. 
Here is half-a crown for you. When I 
return, I will call and investigate your 
case. What is your name?” 

“William Reed,” said the astonished 
barber. 

“William Reed!” echoed the strang- 
er—“William Reed! By your dialect 
you are from the west.” “Yes, sir, 
from Kingston, near Taunton.” 

“William Reed, from Kingston, near 
Taunton! What was your father’s 
name?” ‘Thomas, sir.” 

“Had he any brother?” “Yes, sir, 
one, after whom I was named; but he 
went to the Indies, and as we have never 
heard from him, we suppose him to be 
dead.” 

“Come along—follow me,” said the 
stranger; “I am going to see a person 
who.says his name is William Reed, of 
Kingston, near Taunton. Come and 
confront him. If you prove to be in- 
deed him you say you are, I have glor- 
ious news for you; your uncle is dead, 
and has left you an immense fortune, 
which I will put you in possession of, if 
all legal doubts are removed.” 

He went by the coach, saw the pre- 
tended William Reed, and proved him 
to be an imposter. This stranger, who 
was a pious attorney, was soon legally 
satisfied of the barber’s identity; and 
told him he had advertised for him in 
vain. Providence had now thrown him 
in his way in a most extraordinary man- 
ner, and he had great pieasure in trans- 
ferring a great many thousand pounds 
to a worthy man, the rightful heir of 
the property. “Man’s extremity is 
God’s opportunity.”—Herald of Mercy. 


168 


2s SOO Maes 
“WHEN PEACE LIKE A RIVER.” 


“It Is Well With My Soul” was writ- 
ten by H. G. Spafford and the popular 
tune to which it is always sung is one 
of P. P. Bliss’s best compositions. 

Mr. Spafford was a member of the 
Chicago bar and an elder of the Presby- 
terian Church. 

He had been successful in_-his profes- 
sion, but had made some unfortunate in- 
vestments, and when the financial panic 
of 1873 seriously disturbed the business 
of the country Mr. Spafford found that 
his savings of many years had been 
swept away. 

The members of his family were pros- 
trated by this disastrous turn in their 
affairs and he acceded to the wish of 
helpful friends that they should visit Eu- 
rope and thus be removed for some time 
from scenes of his financial ruin. 

Mrs. Spafford and her four children 
took passage on the French liner to 
Havre, and the story of that voyage is 
one of the most appalling of the calami- 
ties of the sea. 

When in mid-ocean and in the black- 
ness of a November night in 1873, the 
steamship collided with the Glasgow 
clipper Loch Earn and in twelve min- 
utes the former went down, carrying to 
death 250 souls, and among them were 
Mr. Spafford’s four daughters. 

Mrs. Spafford sank with the vessel 
but floated again, and was finally res- 
cued. 

The saved were taken to Havre, and 
from that city she sent a message to her 
husband in Chicago: 

“Saved, but saved alone. 
I do?” 

This message of fearful import—“‘‘suf- 
ficient to drive reason from her throne” 
—was the first notice Mr. Spafford had 
that his dear ones were not as happy as 
when he parted with them a few days 
before in New York. 

In his unutterable sorrow, Mr. Spaf- 
ford did not chant a dirge to impossible 
hope. 

When he reflected that his property 


What shail 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


was lost in destruction’s waste, that his 
wife was painfully prostrated, and that 
his four children were buried in the dark 
waves of the sea, there came from his 
heart a song of trust and resignation 
that had many times encircled the globe: 


When peace like a river attendeth my 
way, 

When sorrows like sea billows roll, 

Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me 
to say, ‘ 

It is well, it is well with my soul. ,-— 

When Mr. Spafford returned from 
Hiavre with his invalid wife he said to 
his friends: 

“I never felt more like trusting God 
than I do now.” 

Spafford’s hymn of resignation, with 
its fine musical setting by the lamented 
Bliss, is one of the most helpful of the 
many Gospel songs written during the 
past quarter of a century. 

One Sunday evening a service of song 
was given in one of our large city 
churches at which the story of “It Is 
Well With My Soul” was told and the 
lines sung with great tenderness of ex- 
pression by the audience and choir. 

Attending the service was a gentleman 
who had suffered financial reverses in 
the panic of 1893. 

When he heard the story of Spafford’s 
heavy affliction and joined in singing 
the hymn so pathetically inspired, he 
said to his wife on return home from 
the service: 

“T will never again complain of my 
lot. If Spafford could write such a beau- 
tiful resignation hymn when he had lost 
ali his children, and everything else save 
his wife and character, I ought surely to 
be thankful that my losses have been so 
light.”——Philadelphia Press. 


—— 310 —— 
NO LOST EFFORT. 


A young Sunday school teacher in 
Boston had in her class a boy who 
seemed fairly incorrigible. Still she 
clung to him. She prayed for him every 
day, and often a dozen times a day. She 
had moments of discouragement when 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


suc heard how he was going from bad 
to worse in his daily life. 

Finally he was arrested as an accom- 
plice in a burglary, and sent to prison 
ior two years. She did not give him up 
then, but visited him often in prison, 
always finding him hard, sullen and de- 
fiant. 

After his release from prison he dis- 
appeared, and no one knew where he 
went, but everyone was confident that 
he had gone to destruction. 

Years passed, and the teacher mar- 
ried and went far from her native town 
to live. She had grown children of her 
own when she and her husband went 
to the Pacific slope to visit relatives and 
friends. They found the town or city 
in which one of their friends lived great- 
ly agitated over the liquor question. 

“We are trying to elect a ‘no license’ 
mayor,” said the gentleman they were 
visiting. “He is coming to dinner this 
evening, and I'll be glad to have you 
meet him.” 

When he came she saw a tall, fine- 
looking man, whom she would have said 
at once she had never met before. 

“Why,” he said, as he grasped her 
hand, “are you not Miss M rae 

“I was Miss M ” she replied. 

“And you lived in Boston?” 

“Yes, I did.” 

“And you taught a class in a Sunday 
school called the West End Mission?” 

“Ves,” 

“And there was a bad boy in the class 
named Roger Martin.” 

“There was a boy of that name in the 
class. I have never forgotten him.” 

“And yet you don’t know when he 
stands before you, for I am that same 
Roger Martin.” 

Miss M Ss unceasing prayers had 
been heard and answered. 

“IT tried to forget you and all your 
teachings,” said Mr. Martin. “TI tried to 
forget God, I lived a wicked life for 
fifteen years after I left my home, but 
in all those years of sinfulness I could 
not forget your loving patience, nor 
some of the things you had said to me. 
I feel that I owe my final conversion and 











169 


acceptance of God to you. I wrote and 
told you so when I was converted, but 
the letter came back to me through the 
dead-letter office. I wanted you to know 
that after many days and years God 
had answered your prayers for me, and 
that none of your efforts in my behalf 
were lost.” 

“I never felt that they were lost,” said 
Mrs. H , “and I have been pray- 
ing for you all these years.”—The Parish 
Visitor, 





—— 311 —— 


HOW THE DELIVERANCE CAME. 


At one time, Rev. William Hunting- 
ton testifies he was in debt to the sum 
of twenty pounds. “This sum,” says 
he, “hung long in hand. I looked differ- 
ent always, and chalked out different 
roads for the Almighty to walk in; but 
His paths were in the deep waters, and 
his footsteps were not known. No 
raven came, neither in the morning, nor 
in the evening. There was a gentle- 
woman at my house on a visit, and J 
asked her if she had the sum of twenty 
pounds in her pocket, telling her at the 
same time how I wanted it. She said 
she had not, if she had, I should have 
it. A few hours afterward the same 
woman was coming into my study, but 
she found it locked, and knocked at the 
door. I let her in, and she said, ‘I am 
sorry to disturb you.’ I replied: ‘You 
did not disturb me; I have been beg. 
ging a favor of God, and had just fin- 
ished when you knocked. That favor 
I have now got in faith, and shall short- 
ly have in hand, and you will see it.’ 
The afternoon of the same day, two 
gentlemen out of the city came to see 
me; and after a few hours’ conversa- 
tion they left me, and to my great sur- 
prise each of them at parting put a let- 
ter into my hand, which, when they 
were gone, I opened, and found a ten- 
pound note in each. I immediately sent 
for the woman upstairs, and let her read 
the letters, and then sent the money to 
answer that demand.—Life of William 


Huntington. 


170 


—— 312 —— 
WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. 


I was deeply interested in a work in 
which I was unable to take a part; but 
- it came to my mind one morning to offer 
a certain sum of money to help those 
who could work. On second thoughts 
the act appeared imprudent; but if we 
hesitate to act upon our first thoughts 
when they spring from love to God, the 
judgment becomes obscured rather than 
enlightened. To end the strife, I prayed 
God to make his acceptance so evident 
to me that I could not err; for the joy 
of giving the sum that first presented 
itself overcame every prudential consid- 
eration. I asked him to send to me that 
morning one of the least probable per- 
sons connected with the work, the least 
likely, because he had visited me two 
days previously, and I knew him to be 
fully engaged from dawn to night. So 
entirely did I anticipate his arrival as 
hours drew on, that when a lady arrived 
from the country to see me, I told her 
I was expecting a person on business, 
and should be glad if when he arrived 
she would wait in my bedroom until his 
departure. 

Almost immediately there was a ring 
at the door. The lady left the room, as 
my God-sent messenger entered, with a 
degree of embarrassment quite unusual 
to him. He apologized for calling again 
so soon, referring to his recent visit, 
and added: “Nor can I tell you why I 
am here. I had not the least intention to 
come in this direction when I left the 
house this morning; but when I reached 
the summit of the hill I felt drawn round 
in a contrary direction with a power I 
never experienced before, and | conse- 
quently obliged to descend, and my feet 
impelled to your house, and my thoughts 
to you, and here I am.” 

I listened with a joyful heart, and re- 
lated to him the combat over my offer- 
ing and my prayers, and placed into his 
hand the envelope addressed to him, 
with instructions as to the branch of the 
work for which its contents were de- 
signed, at the same time saying that I 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


had been waiting for him. The matter 
was more deeply interesting to me, as 
the messenger, in spite of himself, was 
much afraid of the work of the Spirit in 
the common things of every day life. 
His moistened eyes and tremulous voice 
in prayer told me the Lord had used this 
experience for His glory.—A. Shipton. 

313 
THE DANGER OF IT. 


A young lady in Morristown, N. J., 
grasped the guy-wire on the electric 
light pole in front of her father’s house 
to see if she could get a slight shock. 
Her hand was suddenly contracted by a 
powerful current which swept through 
her body. The young girl screamed in 
agony. She writhed and twisted and 
fell to the ground, but she could not re- 
lax her hold upon the live wire, which 
was burning her hands, for she had 
reached up with her left hand to tear 
her right hand away. Men and boys 
ran toward her, but no one dared to put 
out a hand to save the girl. Then he: 
mother ran out. “Oh, mamma,” cried 
the girl, “save me! My hands are burn- 
ing up!” The mother qaickly grasped 
her daughter around the waist but was 
hurled to the ground as if by a blow of 
a club. Finally a man came up with 
presence of mind enough to take an ax 
and sever the wire. He was in time to 
save the girl’s life, but she was fearfully 
burned. 

The incident suggests tragedies that 
are taking place every day before our 
eyes. Many people are willing to tamper 
with sin, and run the risk of a slight 
shock. A boy likes to drink a glass of 
wine that will make his nerves tingle, 
and many are asking themselves, “How 
far can I go in the wrong way without 
being overthrown?” ‘That is the way the 
devil fishes for men and women. People 
grasp his wires and get a slight shock, 
and only laugh at danger; but some day 
they take hold of a live wire that has all 
the fire of hell in it, and they are struck 
through and through with death. It is 
better not to play with the devil’s wires 
at all—J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D. 








ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 314— 
FORGIVENESS WITH GOD. 


Some years ago a city missionary in 
Boston found a young girl in a police 
prison. She had been arrested the night 
before with a number of companions— 
men and women—in a disorderly house. 
The missionaries found her broken down 
with shame and despair, wretched and 
hopeless. She told her sad story. A 
few months before she had come from 
the country to the city to obtain greater 
freedom and more renumerative employ- 
ment than the narrow sphere of her 
father’s farm offered. She found work 
in the city hard to get, and wages small, 
and fell into a sad state of disappoint- 
ment. Too proud to go home and con- 
fess failure, in an evil hour she listened 
to the tempter, and was led into sin. 
A career of a few months found her 
abandoned, with character gone, without 
friends, cast upon the pitiless world, 
from which she took the only refuge 
open to her—membership in a commun- 
ity of sin. Shamed and penitent, she was 
hopeless as towards God and her earthly 
father. The missionary urged her to tell 
her name and her father’s address, that 
he might communicate with him, and 
arrange for her return to her country 
home. But, no; she had disgraced her 
father’s name, done him foul wrong, and 
would reveal neither her name nor her 
father’s residence. Besides. she said, 
“My father is a good man, a Christian— 
an office bearer in the church. I am 
sure that he would not take me back. I 
know what he will do if he should hear 
of my fall—he will count me as dead; 
my name will never be mentioned by 
him, nor in his presence; he will cast 
me out of his heart and life.” 

After many days, and much entreaty, 
the missionary prevailed upon the poor 
girl to reveal her father’s name and ad- 
dress. Immediately he wrote the father 
the story; how he had found his 
daughter, and what was her present 
state of mind; entreating him to write to 
his child and take her back. The next 
day’s post brought a letter from the 


171 


father, on the outside of which, in large 
letters, was written the word, “Immedi- 
ate.” Inside, in substance, was this: 
My darling child: I am sorry for you. 
Notwithstanding all that has befallen 
you, I love you with all my heart. As 
God forgives my sins, so do I freely fore- 
give your offense against me and our 
good name. Do not delay a moment. 
Come to me. All that love can do to 
restore and make you right again shall 
be done.” 

‘That was forgiveness. Where was it? 
An experience in the fallen daughter’s 
heart, a swelling love in her father’s 
heart? The coming of that letter re- 
vealed to the child the state of her 
iather’s mind toward her. It opened the 
door of her prison house of shame and 
despair. It set her free to go home. 
That is what the Psalmist meant when 
he said: “There is forgiveness with 
Thee’. That is what Jesus meant when 
he said: “He hath sent Me to preach 
glad tidings to the poor, to heal the 
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to 
the captives, the recovery of sight to the 
blind, to set at liberty them that are 
bruised, to preach the acceptable year 
of the Lord.” (Luke 4; 18-20.)—Geo. F. 
Pentecost, D. D. 


—— 315 —— 


WHY HE DECLINED. 


When General Grant was in Paris, the 
President of the Republic, as a special 
token of respect, invited him to occupy 
a place on the grand stand to witness 
the great racing which occurs in that 
country on Sunday. It is considered a 
discourteous act to decline such an invi- 
tation from the head official of the re- 
public. Such a thing had never been 
heard of, but General Grant in a polite 
note declined the honor, and said to the 
French President: “It is not in accord- 
ance with the custom of my country or 
with the spirit of my religion to spend 
Sunday in that way.” And when Sab- 
bath came that great hero found his way 
to the American Chapel, where he was 
one of its quiet worshippers.—Selected. 


172 


—— 316 —— 
DREAMS FROM GOD. 


All dreams that make you better are 
from God. How do I know it? Is not 
God the source of all good? It does 
not take a very logical mind to argue 
that out, 

Tertullian and Martin Luther be- 
lieved in dreams. The dreams of John 
Huss are immortal. St. Augustine, the 
Christian father, gives us the fact that 
a Carthagenian physician was persuad- 
ed of the immortality of the soul by an 
argument which he heard in a dream. 
The night before his assassination the 
wife of Julius Caesar dreamed that her 
husband fell dead across her lap. It is 
possible to prove that God does appear 
in dreams to warn, to convert, and to 
save men. My friend, a retired sea cap- 
tain, and a Christian, tells me that one 
night while on the sea, he dreamed that 
a ship’s crew were in great suffering. 
Waking up from his dream, he put about 
the ship, tacked in different directions, 
surprised everybody on the vessel—they 
thought he was going crazy—sailed on 
in another direction hour after hour, and 
for many hours, until he came to the 
perishing crew, and rescued them and 
brought them to New York. Who con- 
ducted that dream? The God of the sea. 

In 1695 a vessel went out from Spit- 
head for the West Indies, and ran 
against the ledge of rocks called the 
Caskets. The vessel went down, but 
the crew clambered up on the Caskets, 
to die of thirst and starvation, as they 
supposed. But there was a ship bound 
for Southampton that had the captain’s 
son on board. This lad twice in one 
night dreamed that there was a crew 
of sailors dying on the Caskets. He 
told his father of his dream. The ves- 
sel came down by the Caskets in time 
to find and rescue those two dying men. 
Who conducted that dream? The God 
of the rock, the God of the sea. 

The Rev. Dr. Bushnell, in his mar- 
velous book entitled, “Nature and the 
Supernatural,” gives the following that 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


he got from Captain Yount, in Califor- 
nia, a fact confirmed by many families: 
Captain Yount dreamed twice one night 
that one hundred and fifty miles away 
there was a company ef travelers fast in 
the snow. He also saw in the dream 
rocks of a peculiar formatios, and tell- 
ing his dream to an old hunter, the 
hunter said: “Why, I remember those 
rocks; those rocks are in the Carson 
Valley Pass, one hundred and fifty miles 
away.” Captain Yount, impelled by his 
dream, although laughed at by his neigh- 
bors, gathered men together, took mules 
and blankets, and started out on the 
expedition, traveled one hundred and 
fifty miles, saw those very rocks which 
he had described in his dream, and find- 
ing the suffering ones at the foot of 
those rocks, brought them back; to con- 
firm the story of Captain Yount. Who 
conducted that dream? The God of the 
snow, the God of the Sierra Nevadas. 
God has often appeared in dreams to 
rescue and comfort. You have known 
people—you have seen people—go to 
sleep with bereavements inconsolable, 
and they awakened in perfect resigna- 
tion because of what they had seen in 
slumber. Dr. Crannage, one of the most 
remarkable men I ever met—remarkable 
for great benevolence and great philan- 
thropics—at Wellington, England, 
showed me a house where the Lord had 
appeared in a wonderful dream to a 
poor woman. The, woman rheumatic, 
sick, poor to the last point of destitu- 
tion. She was waited on and cared for 
by another poor woman, her only at- 
tendant. Word came to her one day 
that this poor woman had died, and the 
invalid of whom I am speaking lay 
helpless upon the couch, wondering what 
would become of her. In that mood 
she fell asleep. In her sleep she said 
the angel of the Lord appeared, and 
took her into the open air, and pointed 
in one direction, and there were moun- 
tains of bread, and pointed in another 
direction and there were mountains of 
butter, and in another direction land 
there were mountains of all kinds of 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


worldly supply. The angel of the Lord 
said to her: “Woman, all these moun- 
tains belong to your Father, and do you 
think that He will let you, His child, 
hunger and die?” Dr. Crannage told 
me, by some divine impulse he went 
into that destitute home, saw the suffer- 
ing there, and administered unto it, car- 
ing for her all the way through. Do 
you tell me that that dream was woven 
cut of earthly anodynes? Was that the 
phantasmagoria of a diseased brain? No; 
it was an all-sympathetic God address- 
ing a poor woman through a dream. 
Furthermore, I have to say that there 
are people in this house who were con- 
verted to God through a dream. The 
Rev. John Newton, the fame of whose 
piety fills all Christiandom, while a pro- 
fligate sailor on shipboard, in his dream, 
thought that a being approached him 
and gave him a very beautiful ring, and 
put it upon his finger, and said to him: 
“As long as you wear that ring you will 
be prospered; if you lose that ring you 
will be ruined.” In the same dream 
another personage appeared, and by a 
strange infatuation persuaded John 
Newton to throw that ring overboard, 
and it sank into the sea. Then the 
mountains in sight were full of fire, and 
the air was lurid with consuming wrath. 
While John Newton was repenting of 
his folly in having thrown overboard 
the treasure, another personage came 
through the dream, and told John New- 
ton he would plunge into the sea and 
bring the ring up if he desired it. He 
plunged into the sea and brought it up, 
and said to John Newton: “Here is that 
gem, but I think I will keep it for you, 
lest you lose it again’; and John New- 
ton consented, and all the fire went out 
from the mountains, and all signs of 
lurid wrath disappeared from the air; 
and John Newton said that he saw in 
his dream that that valuable gem was 
his soul, and that the being who per- 
suaded him to throw it overboard was 
Satan, and that the one who plunged 
in and restored that gem, keeping it for 
him, was Christ. And that dream makes 


173 


one of the most wonderful chapters in 
the life of that most wonderful man. 

A German was crossing the Atlantic 
Ocean, and in his dream he saw a man 
with a handful of white flowers, and he 
was told to follow the man who had 
that handful of white flowers. The Ger- 
man, arriving in New York, wandered 
into the Fulton street prayer-meeting, 
and Mr. Lamphier—whom many of you 
know—the great apostle of prayer meet- 
ings, that day had given to him a bunch 
of tuberoses. They stood on his desk, 
and at the close of the religious services 
he took the tuberoses and started home- 
ward, and the German followed him, 
and through an interpreter told Mr. 
Lamphier that on the sea he had 
dreamed of a man with a handful of 
white flowers, and was told to follow 
him, Suffice it to say, through that 
interview and following interviews, he 
became a Christian, and is a city mis- 
sionary preaching the gospel to his own 
countrymen. God in a dream! 

John Hardock, while on shipboard, 
dreamed one night that the day of judg- 
ment had come, and that the roll of the 
ship’s crew was called except his own 
name, and that these people, this crew, 
were all banished; and in his dream he 
asked the reader why his own name was 
omitted, and he was told it was to give 
him more opportunity for repentance. 
He woke up a different man. He be- 
came illustrious for Christian attain- 
ment. If you do not believe these things 
then you must discard all testimony, and 
refuse to accept any kind of authorita- 
tive witness. God in a dream!—T. 
De Witt Talmage. 


a 317 


When Louis Napoleon was in prison 
and everybody laughed at his foolish at- 
tempts upon France, he kept saying: 
“Who knows? I am the nephew of my 
uncle, and I may yet sit upon the im- 
perial throne.” And he did. Who knows 
what we may become if we aim right 
and act right? It is worth while to try 
for the highest and the best.—Selected. 


174 


—— 318 —— 
“ABIDE TILL THE MORROW” 


The beautiful valley of Wyoming, on 
the banks of the Susquehanna River, in 
Luzerne Co., Pa., has long been known 
alike to the students of history and lov- 
ers of poetry and song. 

It was in the beginning of July, 1778, 
that an aged saint, who, with his four 
sons, lived on a mountain overlooking 
the valley, found that his barrel of meal 
was nearly exhausted, and bade his sons 
fill their sacks with grain, and early in 
the morning descend the long road to 
the mill in the valley. As requested, 
before daylight each of the boys had 
fed his horse, and they were all pre- 
pared by sunrise for their journey. And 
as the day would be too far spent to 
have their grain ground, they were ac- 
customed as such times to spend the 
night near the mill in Wyoming. 

As the patriarch came forth in the 
morning from the closet of prayer, and 
said to his waiting sons, “Not to-day!” 
the young men were greatly surprised. 

“But, father, our supply is used up, 
and why should we delay?” they said, 
as they turned and gazed over the val- 
ley, which lay in calm and quite peace- 
fulness before them. 

“Not to-day, my sons,” repeated with 
emphasis by the man of prayer, satisfied 
the youth that the father meant what 
he said. He added: “I know not what 
it means; but in my prayer my mind 
was deeply impressed with these words: 
‘Let them abide till the morrow.’” 

Without charging their venerated 
parent with superstition or ignorance, 
the obedient sons yielded to his word, 
unloaded their beasts, placed them in 
their stalls, and waited for another 
morning to come. 

That memorable night a horde of 
savages, with torch and tomahawk, en- 
tered Wyoming Valley, and commenced 
their work of destruction; and it is said 
that before the bloody drama ended, 
not a house, barn, church, school or 
mill, escaped the flames; and few of the 
inhabitants escaped the sudden and 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


deadly blows of the savages. From one 
end of the valley to the other the set- 
tlers were butchered or burned with re- 
morseless fury. 


In the morning at sunrise, the father 
and sons were standing on the highest 
point, and lo! the valley was filled with 
volumes of ascending smoke and flames. 
The awful truth flashed on their minds. 
The aged saint kneeled down with his 
sons on the mountain-top, and in hum- 
ble, adoring prayer, thanked God for the 
promise: “The angle of the Lord en- 
campeth round about them that fear 
Him.”—Dr. W. H. Van Doren. 


wwe 319 —_ 
THE COW CAME BACK. 


A poor man in China went to pray to 
an idol that had been placed outside the 
temple. I do not know what he asked 
for, but he promised if his idol would an. 
swer him he would give him his cow. 

The man’s prayer was answered, but 
he repented of his bargain, and, as he did 
not wish to part with his cow he went 
to the idol/again to let him off. He said: 
“I know I promised to give you my cow, 
but I am very poor. I have only ore 
cow; if I give it to you how shall I get 
my fields plowed?” and so on, asking to 
be allowed to keep the cow. The idol 
would not let him off, but said the cow 
must be kept. At last the man could do 
nothing else but tether the cow to the 
idol’s chair and go sorrowfully home, 
wondering how he was to get on with- 
out her. 


He sat down in his room to think over 
his troubles, and lo! he had not sat long 
before he heard a great shouting. He 
went to the door to see, and there was 
his cow coming along the road, as fast 
as it could, dragging the idol after it. 
How the people laughed, and how glad 
the poor man was! It never occurred 
to him that the cow brought the idol. 
No, indeed! He thought it was the idol 
that had repented of his hardness of 
heart and had brought his cow back to 
him.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 320 —— 
WHY THE CLOCK STRUCK 
THIRTEEN 

The following thrilling narrative ap- 
peared recently in the Southern Cross, 
and is vouched for by the Rev. S. C. 
Kent, a veteran Victorian clergyman, 
who says that he heard the Rev. J. 
Bounsall, of Ottery, St. Mary, Devon, 
narrate the story at his own table, in 
the year 1844, as having occurred, in 
Cornwall, where he had been resident. 

It was about the midnight hour, in 
the town of Plymouth, many years ago, 
he said, when two men stood close to 
the great clock of the town. It struck 
the hour. Both men heard it and re- 
marked to each other that it had struck 
thirteen times instead of twelve. One 
of these men was a gentleman by the 
name of Captain Jarvis. 

It was not very long afterward that 
this same Captain Jarvis awoke very 
early one morning, got up, dressed, and 
went down to the front door of his 
house. When he opened it, what was 
his surprise to find his groom standing 
there, with his horse saddled and bridled 
ready for him to mount. 

“I had a feeling that you would be 
wanting your horse, sir,” he said, “so 
I could not stay longer in my bed, and 
just got it ready for you!” 

The captain was astonished at first, 
and then mounted the horse and rode 
off. He did not direct his steed where 
to go, but just let him go wherever he 
chose, Down to the riverside they 
went, close to the spot where the ferry- 
boat took passengers across. What 
then, was the captain’s amazement when 
he saw the ferryman there waiting with 
his boat to ferry him across—at that 
early hour. 

“How are you here so early, my 
man?” he inguired at once. 

“I couldn’t rest in my bed, sir, for I 
had a feeling I was wanted to ferry 
some one across.” 

The captain and horse both got in the 
boat and were safely conveyed to the 
other side. 


175 


Again the horse was given his own 
way as to where he should go. On and 
on they went, until at length they came 
to a large country town. 

The captain asked a passer-by if there 
was anything of interest going on in 
the town. 

“No, sir; nothing but the trial of a 
man for murder.” 

The captain rode to the place where 
the trial was going on, dismounted, and 
entered the building. As he walked in 
he heard the judge say, addressing the 
prisoner: “Have you anything to say 
for yourself—anything at all!” 

“I have nothing to say, sir, except 
that I am an innocent man, and that 
there is only one man in all the world 
who can prove my innocence; but I do 
not know his name, nor where he lives. 
Some weeks ago we stood together in 
the town of Plymouth when it was mid- 
night, and we both heard the great 
town clock strike thirteen, instead of 
twelve, and remarked it to one another. 
If he were here the could speak for me 
but my case is hopeless, as I cannot get 
him.” 

“JT am here! I am here!” shouted 
the captain from behind. “I am the 
man who stood at midnight beside the 
great Plymouth clock, and heard it 
strike thirteen instead of twelve. What 
the prisoner says is absolutely true; I 
identify him as the man. On the night 
of the murder, at the very time it was 
committed, that man was with me, at 
Plymouth, and we remarked to each 
other how remarkable it was that the 
clock should strike thirteen at the mid- 
night hour.” 

The condemned man was thus proved 
innocent, and was at once set free. 

Who can fail to see the hand of a 
gracious God in this story? In the 
first place, who arranged that these two 
men should meet exactly at the same 
time that night? Who awakened the 
captain at that very early hour that 
summer morning? Who caused him to 
go down stairs to the front door? Who 
awakened the groom and gave him no 
rest until he saddled his master’s horse? 


176 


Who guided the horse, which his mas- 
ter would not guide, till they came to 
the river where the ferryboat was? 
Who awakened the ferryman and sent 
him down to the river’s side? And who 
guided horse and man to take the road 
that led to town where the condemned 
man was being tried for murder, al- 
though perfectly innocent? And, lastly, 
who influenced the captain to go into 
the building and hear the trial at the 
very most opportune moment he could 
possibly have appeared? 

It was the great, all-kind, all-merci- 
ful, all-powerful One, who knew the 
terrible straits that poor prisoner should 
be in, and prepared a wonderful de- 
liverance! 

We do not know the after life of that 
man, but we can well believe that he 
would never after doubt the presence of 
his God, and His power and love. 


—— 321 —— 
THE GREED OF GOLD 


Years ago, in a southwest Georgian 
county, an old couple, with an only son, 
lived in a rude log cabin in the woods. 
It is related that the old man was a 
miser and drove his son from home to 
make his living in the world at a very 
tender age. 

Years passed and the boy was given 
up by his parents, they thinking that he 
was dead. 

One stormy night a tall, bearded 
stranger knocked at the door of the 
little cabin, and asked for shelter. 

It was grudgingly given him by the 
old couple, but when the stranger show- 
ed them a bag of gold which he carried 
in his valise they were over-joyed. 

That night, as the guest was sleeping, 
the old man crept to his side, There was 
the glitter of a keen blade in the dark- 
ness and then— 

When the morning came the old 
woman looked on the dead man’s face 
and screamed with terror. 

“God have mercy on us!” she cried. 
“We have killed our boy—our son that 
was lost!” 

It was so. They had not recognized 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


him when he entered, and he probably 
thought to deceive them until morning, 
and then have a happy family reunion.— 
Atlanta Constitution. 


—— 322 —— 


HIS DEAD BABY’S SHOES 


A minister, who was my neighbor in 
the City of Brotherly: Love, told the 
fcllowing story to a large congregation: 
“We had in the City of Philadelphia a 
man who was secretary and treasurer in 
one of our great institutions. I suppose 
there is scarcely a man in this city that 
would equal him as a financier. Cer- 
tainly not one who could surpass him. 
He was a college graduate, and had all 
the fine instincts of a gentleman. But 
strong drink claimed him as its victim. 
He drank and drank until he had to 
move into a very humble home. When 
his baby died, they had no clothing to 
put on him to make ready for the grave. 
We furnished the clothes. Somebody 
said that, although the child’s feet were 
hidden by the dress, they were bare, 
and that we should put shoes on the 
little feet. I got some white kid shoes 
and slipped them on the little icy feet. 
An old-time friend said, ‘Get the father 
and bring him in. Maybe if he sees 
the baby, he will come back to him- 
self... We brought the father in. He 
stood beside the little casket for a mo- 
ment, and looked down into the sweet 
face of his child. Then he began to 
shake with great emotion. The tears 
just ran down his cheeks. The friends 
said to us, ‘Leave him alone,’ and we 
went out and left him alone with his 
child. He ran his fingers over the folds 
of the little white dress and underneath, 
and took off from those icy feet the 
white kid shoes and crammed them in 
his pocket. When I took his baby to 
the grave the father was insensible from 
drink. He had pawned the little white 
kid shoes and had spent the money in 
a saloon. This man’s heart had at one 
time been as large and as full of love 
as your father’s heart.”-—Rev. J. M. 
Farrar, D, D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


SOC Cee 
JOHN WESLEY. 


John Wesley, the founder of M stho- 
dism, was born June 17th, 1703, at Ep- 
worth, a small town in Lincolnshire, 
England, of which his father, Samuel 
Wesley, was rector. 

On the 9th of February, 1709, Hettie 
Wesley, one of John’s sisters, was awak- 
ened in the night by pieces of burning 
wood falling in her bedroom. Before 
she had aroused her father the fire had 
been seen from the street, and the usual 
crowd and uproar ensued. As soon as 
Mr. Wesley had opened his bedroom 
door, he found the whole house in a 
blaze. Bidding his wife and two daugh- 
ters hasten down stairs, he rushed up to 
the nursery where the five little ones 
were sleeping. The nurse snatched up 
the baby, calling the others to follow 
her. Three of them did so; but John 
slept soundly, and was not missed in 
the confusion until the others had all 
reached a place of safety. This was not 
an easy thing to do; for the doorway was 
in flames, and a northeast wind blew 
them inward fiercely. The children got 
out of the windows; but Mrs. Wesley, 
fearing to clamber out, made a desperate 
effort and “waded through the fire.” 

As soon as John was missed the rector 
ran back into the house, but found to his 
dismay that the stairs would not bear 
his weight; so—there being no fire es- 
capes in these days—he gave the boy up 
for lost, and, kneeling down, commended 
his soul to God, The rest we shall tell 
in John’s own words: 

“I remember all the circumstances as 
well as though it were but yesterday. 
Seeing the room was very light I called 
to the maid to take me up. But, none 
answering, I put my head out of the cur- 
tains and saw streaks of fire on the top 
of the room. I got up and ran to the 
door, but could get no farther, all beyond 
it being in a blaze. I then climbed up 
on a chest which stood near a window. 
One in the yard saw me, and proposed 
running to fetch a ladder. Another an- 
swered, ‘There will not be time; but I 


ANECDOTES 177 
have thought of another expedient. Here 
I shall fix myself against the wall; lift 
a light man and set him on my shoul- 
cers!’ They did so and took me out of 
the window. Just then the whole roof 
fell in; but it fell inward, or we had all 
been crushed at once. When they 
brought me into the house where my 
father was, he cried out, ‘Come neigh- 
bors, let us kneel down! Let us give 
thanks to God! He has given me all my 
eight children. Let the house go—I am 
rich enough!’ ” 

The frightened, half-clad women and 
children were taken in by different neigh- 
bors, who took care of them till their 
house was fit to live in again. In a few 
months the family had once more settled 
down into that quiet order which had 
been so sadly interrupted. 

Although John was only six and a half 
years old, his danger and deliverance 
made a deep impression on his mind. He 
often referred to it, and once had a seal 
engraved bearing the representation of 
a burning house and the motto, “Is not 
this a brand plucked from the burning?” 
—Selected. 

—— 324 —— 
THE PRAYING BOY, JAMIE 

In a very small village there lived a 
little Scotch boy named Jamie. His 
mother loved him, and he loved his 
mother. The little boy wanted to be a 
sailor. 

And his mother at last said, “Jamie, 
you shall go.” 

She gave him her blessing and added: 
“Jamie, wherever you are, whether at 
sea or land, never forget to acknowl- 
edge your God; and give me a promise 
that you will kneel down every night 
on shipboard and say your prayers and 
trust in God.” 

Little Jamie looked up to his mother, 
the tears trickling down his cheeks, 
and said, “Mother, I promise you I 
will.” 

The boy went on board a ship bound 
for India. They had a good captain 
and some very good sailors, and when 
little Jamie knelt down by his locker at 


178 


night no one laughed at him. 

But coming back from India some of 
the sailors deserted and the captain had 
to get fresh ones. Among them was a 
very bad fellow. The first night, when 
the sailors had gone to their berths, see- 
ing little Jamie kneel down to say his 
prayers, the bad man went up to him, 
and, giving him a box on the ear, said: 
“None of that here!” 

Now, among the crew, there was a big 
sailor, a swearing man, and he said to 
the man who struck the boy, “Come on 
deck, and I will give you a thrashing!” 

Now, we do not say it was right to 
fight, but these men did fight, and the 
big sailor beat the one who had boxed 
the little fellow. 

Then they came back again into the 
cabin, and he who had beaten the other 
man said: “Now, Jamie, say your 
prayers, and if he dares to touch you I 
will dress him!” 

Well, the next night Jamie said to 
himself: “I don’t like to make any dis- 
turbance on board ship, so I won’t kneel 
down before the sailors; I will get into 
my hammock to say my prayers!” 

But when the big sailor saw Jamie get 
into his hammock without saying his 
prayers he went up and took him by the 
neck and dragged him out of it and said 
to him: ‘“Kneel down at once, sir. Do 
you think I am going to fight for you, 
and you not say your prayers after all, 
you young rascal?” So Jamie knelt to 
pray again, 

Now hear what happened later. 

Some years ago a very large steam- 
boat was built—the Great Eastern. 
Who do you think was the captain of 
that great ship? They wanted the 
cleverest captain they could find in Eng- 
land, and they selected little Jamie, now 
grown up to be a brave and clever sailor. 

When the great ship came back, after 
fulfilling her mission, the captain knelt 
before Queen Victoria, who said, “Rise, 
Sir James Anderson.” He was none 
other than the little boy who prayed 
every night by his locker. 

You may not always have some kind 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES, 


friend to stand by you to take your part 
when others are mocking and jeering 
you, but you can remember that God, 
wha, hears your prayers, will take care 
of you, whether at home, at school or at 
play. Never be ashamed to pray.—Sel. 


oe 325 


WHO CLOSED THE SWITCH? 


A most remarkable incident happened 
many years ago on a railway in eastern 
Missouri and was told in a railway 
paper. One summer morning a twelve- 
car train containing the members of a 
Sunday School was bound for a picnic 
at a point about fifty miles distant. Al- 
though the sky was cloudless when the 
excursion started, the train had not pro- 
ceeded more than half way when a 
thunder-storm broke. The rain fell in 
torrents. The engineer was worried for 
fear the terrific downpour might cause 
a washout or spreading of the rails, and 
he slowed down to about thirty-five 
miles an hour. As the train swung 
around a curve and approached a small 
station which it was to pass without 
stopping, the engineer, peering through 
the broken curtain of rain, saw that the 
switch just ahead was open. It meant a 
terrible disaster. He closed the throttle 
and put on the brakes in an instant. 

“Better stick to it,” he shouted to the 
fireman, “hundreds of children on 
board.” 

“I mean to,” was the answer. 
help us all!” 

His last words were drowned by a 
terrific crash of thunder which came 
with a flash of lightning that seemed to 
strike the ground just ahead of the en- 
gine. The next thing they knew they 
were past the station, still riding safely 
on the main-line rails. 

The train came to a stop and the en- 
gineer and conductor hurried back to 
discover what had happened and how 
the train had passed the open switch. 
They found that the lightning had 
struck squarely between the switch and 
the rail and had closed the switch. “It 
was the act of God,” said the engineer. 
—Rev. J. M. Farrar, D, D. 


“God 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 326 —— 
A BISHOP’S APPEAL TO A NEGRO. 


Bishop Asbury saw a negro of bad 
character sitting on the bank of a creek 
fishing. The man was quite alone. It 
was just possible that he might be will- 
ing to talk, and that precious seed might 
be dropped. The good old minister 
stopped his horse, tied it to a tree, and 
sat down beside the negro. At first 
sheer surprise sealed the poor slave’s 
lips; but as his new friend spoke, the 
kindness of the tone and the brotherli- 
ness, free from any mark of conscious 
condescension, melted the man’s heart. 
He listened as if the story of the love of 
Jesus at last seemed real. Tears came 
to his eyes as Asbury besought him to 
forsake his evil life and seek God’s for- 
giveness. But whether there was any 
resolve underneath the emotion, Asbury 
could not discover. He left the district, 
and did not see the negro again for 
twenty years. But he was ultimately 
sought out by an old colored Christian, 
who had journeyed seventy miles to 
have an interview and to tell of harvest 
following seed-time. The visitor was 
the negro found once with his rod by 
the stream, and by earnest appeals won 
for the Saviour. This man had since 
been the instrument of leading many 
others into the light. Greater is the 
worker’s reward than his expectations, 
if, in season and out of season, he is 
ready to rescue.—Christian Herald. 


—— 327 —— 
WHY HE REPROACHED HER. 


The story is told of a society girl, a 
worldly church member, who, at an 
evangelistic meeting, approached an ac- 
quaintance of hers and asked him if he 
would not come to Christ. He turned 
upon her, and with flashing eyes and 
bitter tones said: 

“You are the last person in the world 
that should ask me to become a Chris- 
tian! You are the one who came to my 
home and persuaded myself and my 
wife to play our first game at cards. 
Nor were you satisfied until we would 


179 


play for something more than fun, just 
to add zest to the game. We kept on 
until the gambling spirit so possessed 
me that in the trains I would induce fel- 
low-passengers to play, and would fleece 
them of their money and then get off at 
the next station. Until you yourself get 
right with God you are the last one 
on earth that should ask me to bea 
Christian!” 

Without a word but with crimson 
face and downcast eyes she walked 
away. 

Two minutes later a wrinkled old 
woman approached the same man. With 
tremulous voice and with tears coursing 
down her furrowed cheeks, she asked 
him if he would not go forward with her 
and yield himself to Christ. He knew 
this old lady. She was his washer- 
woman, and he knew her to be a sincere 
Christian. He listened attentively as 
she pleaded with him to accept her dear 
Jesus as his Saviour. Presently he 
yielded and together they went to the 
front where he knelt in prayer and soon 
after he was rejoicing in the favor of 
God. 

That man was Charles Kittridge, one 
of the five men who afterwards formed 
the society among commercial travelers 
known as “The Gideons.”—Rev. H. M. 
Tyndall. 

—— 328 —— 


A DAZZLING ARGUMENT. 


“You teach,” said the Emperor Trajan 
to Rabbi Joshua, “that your God is 
everywhere, and boast that He resides 
among your nation. I should like to 
see Him.” “God’s presence is, indeed, 
everywhere,” replied Joshua; “suppose 
we try first to look at his ambassadors.” 
The Emperor consented. The Rabbi 
took him in the open air at noonday and 
bade him look at the sun in the meridian 
splendor. “I cannot,” said Trajan; “the 
light dazzles me.” “Thou art unable,” 
said Joshua, “to endure the light of one 
of His creatures, and canst thou expect 
to behold the resplendent glory of the 
Creator? Would not such a sight anni- 
hilate thee?”—Hebrew Tales. 


180 ILLUSTRATIVE 


ones GZ mm 


THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

In a little dingy shop, in a blind alley, 
and in London’s great city, a tiny boy 
sat perched upon a table, which served 
as a counter. A tall stranger entered, 
and seeing only the child, said kindly— 

“All alone? Run and tell mother I 
want to see her!” 

The child jumped off his perch and 
called out lustily, “Mother, a kind man 
wants you, make haste!” 

The stranger smiled, and was smiling 
as the mother came into the shop. 

“What can I do for you, sir?” she 
asked. 

“I heard in the neighborhood,” he an- 
swered, “that you are in trouble. Here 
is One way out of it”-——he placed a small 
bag of money before her—“and here is 
another’—putting into her hand a book. 
“The first will save your little business, 
this’—touching the book—“will show 
you how your soul may be saved. Put 
your trust in God, and—farewell!” 

“Mother, said the child, anxiously, 
“why are you crying? That man had 
such a kind face—who was he, mother?” 

“The good Samaritan, my child, with- 
out a doubt,” said the mother. 

Twenty-five years afterward a new 
minister came to a certain church, and 
before the sermon he told his people the 
above little story.. “My mother,” he 
continued—“for I was the child—said 
that stranger’s kindness had touched her 
soul; she paid her debts, and she sought 
and found her Saviour.We never met the 
noble stranger, but neither I nor mine, 
will ever cease to pray for the eternal 
peace of him and his. He was, indeed, 
the Good Samaritan; and without any 
words of his own, but just one gracious 
deed, he won a soul for God.” 

After the service an elderly gentleman 
accosted the minister—“You have spo- 
ken of my brother,” said he; “he is one of 
your mother’s chief creditors, and on the 
morning of the day he visited her, he 
was greatly moved by the words, ‘Pure 
religion and undefiled before God and 
the Father, is this: To visit the father- 
less and widows in their affliction.’ He 


ANECDOTES 


acted instantly upon this, with what re- 
sult you know. Just before his death he 
built this church.” 

“How wonderful are God’s ways!” 
cried the young minister. “Truly He 
Himself has appeared unto me—in His 
good Samaritan!”—M. G. Gerds. 


330 —— 
INFLUENCE OF A GOOD BOOK. 


I lost my sainted mother when I was 
a youth, but not before the instruction 
I had received from her beloved lips 
had made a deep impression upon my 
mind; an impression which I carried 
with me into a college (Hampden, Sid- 
ney), where there was not then one 
pious student. There I often reflected, 
when surrounded by young men who 
scoffed at religion, upon the instruction 
of my mother, and my conscience was 

requently sore distressed. I had no 
Bible, and dreaded getting one, lest it 
should be found in my possession. 

At last I could stand it no longer, 
and therefore requested a particular 
friend, a youth whose parents lived near, 
and who often went home, to ask his 
pious and excellent mother to send me 
some religious books. She sent me “Al- 
leine’s Alarm,” an old black book, which 
looked as if it might have been handled 
by successive generations for a hundred 
years. 

When I got it, I locked my room and 
lay upon my bed reading it, when a 
student knocked at my door; and al- 
though I gave him no answer, dreading 
to be found reading such a book, he 
continued to knock and beat the door 
until I had to open it. He came in, 
and seeing the book lying on the bed, 
he seized it, and examining its title, he 
said, “Why, Hill, do you read such 
books?” 

I hesitated, but God enabled me to be 
decided, and tell him boldly, but with 
much emotion, “Yes, I do.” 

The young man replied with much 
agitation, “Oh, Hill, you may obtain 
religion, but I never can. I came heré 
a professor of religion; but through fear 
I dissembled it, and have been carried. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


along with the wicked, until I fear there 
is no hope for me.” 

He told me that there were two 
others, who he believed were somewhat 
serious. We agreed to take up the sub- 
ject of religion in earnest, and seek it 
together. We invited the other two, and 
held a prayer-meeting in my room on 
the next Saturday afternoon. 

And oh! what a prayer meeting! We 
tried to pray, but such a prayer-meeting 
I never heard the like of. We knew 
not how to pray, but tried to do it. It 
was the first prayer-meeting that I ever 
heard of. We tried to sing, but it was 
in a suppressed manner, for we feared 
the other students. But they found us 
out, and gathered round the door, and 
made such a noise that some of the 
officers had to disperse them. 

And so serious was the disturbance 
that the President, the late excellent 
Rev. Dr. John B. Smith, had to invest- 
igate the matter at prayers, that eve- 
ning, in the prayers hall. When he de- 
manded the reason of the riot a ring- 
leader in wickedness got up and stated 
that it was occasioned by three or four 
of the boys holding prayer-meetings, 
and they were determined to have no 
such doings there. The good President 
_ heard the statement with deep emotion, 
and looking at the youths charged with 
the sin of praying, with tears in his 
eyes, he said: 

“Oh, is there such a state of things in 
this college? Then God has come near 
to us. My dear friends, you shall be 
protected. You shall hold your next 
meeting in my parlor, and I will be one 
of your number.” 

Sure enough, we had our next meet- 
ing in his parlor, and half the college 
was there; and there began the glorious 
revival of religion, which pervaded the 
college and spread into the country 
around. 

Many of those students became min- 
isters of the gospel. The youth who 
had brought me “Alliene’s Alarm” from 
his mother was my friend, the Rev. C. 
Stitt, who is preaching in Virginia. 
And he who interrunted me in reading 


181 


the work, my venerable and worthly 
friend, the Rev. Dr. H., is now president 
of a college in the West.—Rev. Dr. Hill. 


—— 331 —— 
THE PRINT OF THE NAILS. 


There is a strange legend of old St. 
Martin. He sat one day in his monas- 
tery cell, busily engaged in his sacred 
studies, when there came a knock at 
the door. “Enter,” said the monk. The 
door opened and there appeared—a 
stranger of lordly look, in princely attire. 
“Who art thou?” asked St. Martin. “I 
am Christ,” was the answer, 

The confident bearing and the com- 
manding tone of the visitor would have 
overawed a less wise man. But the 
monk simply gave his visitor one deep, 
searching glance and then quietly asked, 
“Where is the print of the nails?” He 
had noticed that this one indubtiable 
mark of Christ’s person was wanting. 
‘There were no nail-scars upon those 
jeweled hands. And the kingly mien 
and the brilliant dress of the pretender 
were not enough to prove his claim 
while the print of the nails was want- 
ing. Confused by this searching test- 
question, and his base deception ex- 
posed, the prince of evil—for he it was 
—-quickly fled from the monk’s cell. 

This is only a legend, but it suggests 
the one infallible test that should be 
applied to all truth and to all life. There 
is much in these days that claims to be 
of Christ. There are those who would 
have us lay aside the old faiths, and ac- 
cept new beliefs and new interpretations. 
How shall we know whether or not to 
receive them? The only true test is that 
with which St. Martin exposed the false 
pretentions of his visitor: “Where is the 
print of the nails?” Nothing is truly 
Christ which does not bear this mark 
upon it. A gospel without a wounded, 
dying Christ is not a gospel. The atone- 
ment lies at the heart of Christianity. 
The cross is the luminous centre, from 
which streams all the light of joy, peace 
and hope. That which does not bear the 
marks of the Lord Jesus cannot be of 
Him.—J. R. Miller, D. D. ar iar 


182 


—— 332 — 
UNCONSCIOUSLY INFLUENCED. 


God has the power of influencing the 
minds of men to do things which they 
do unconscious that they are under any 
influence but that of their own desires. 
A remarkable illustration of that power 
is given by Bishop Bedell in his remin- 
iscences of Bishop Chase of Ohio. He 
says that Bishop Chase was staying at 
the house of a Mr. Beck of Philadelphia, 
when a letter reached him from a friend 
in Europe. The letter referred to some 
property in America which was claimed 
by a poor friend of the writer, but the 
claim could not be substantiated because 
certain documents could not be found. 
The letter had been sent to Bishop 
Chase’s home in Ohio, forwarded thence 
to Washington; missed him there and 
followed him to Philadelphia. The 
Bishop mentioned the matter incident- 
ally to Mr. Beck as merely a matter of 
romantic interest. But Mr. Beck ex- 
claimed, to his surprise, “Why, I know 
all about those documents, and I am the 
only man in the world who does know. 
I have them here, and have had them 
forty-three years, not knowing to whom 
they belonged.”—Christian Herald. 


——- 333 —— 
A WILLING SACRIFICE. 


Some years ago a minister was called 
to see a little girl seven years old, who 
was dying. She lived in a back street. 
When the minister got there a woman 
showed him where the child was, and 
he sat down to talk to her. 

“What do you want, darling?” 

“Well, sir, I wanted to see you before 
I died.” 

“Are you dying?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Would you not like to get well 
again?” 

“T hope not, sir.” 

“Why not?” 

“Oh, sir, ever since I became a Chris- 
tian I have been trying to bring father 
to church, and he won’t come; and I 
think if I die you will bury me, won’t 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


you?” 

“Yes, darling.” 

“Well, I have been thinking if I die 
father must come to the funeral; then 
you will be able to preach the gospel to 
him, and I should be willing to die six 
times over for him to hear the gospel 
once.” 

She died as she expected, and just be- 
fore the time she was to be buried the 
minister was himself taken sick, and 
could not attend the funeral. But some 
time afterward a rough looking man 
called upon him and held out his hand.” 

“You don’t know me?” 

“No, I don’t.” 

“I am the father of Mary—the father 
she died for. I heard as how she said 
she would die for me six times if I could 
hear the Gospel once. It nearly broke 
my heart. Now I want to join the in- 
quirers’ class.” 

He did join, and became a true friend 
of Christ. That little girl was truly 
walking in the footsteps of the Saviour, 
because she was willing to die even, in 
order that her father might be saved 
from his sins. If we do not need to die 
for others, we should at least try to be 
like Christ in living for them and in do- 
ing ail that we can to lead them to be 
Christians.—Selected. 


—— 334 — 
A DAY AT A TIME. 


It is a blessed secret, this of living by 
the day. Any one.can carry his burden, 
however heavy, till nightfall. Any one 
can do his work, however hard, for one 
day. Any one can live sweetly, patient- 
ly, lovingly and purely till the sun gets 
down. And this is all that life ever 
really means to us, just one little day. 

Do to-day’s duty, fight today’s tempta- 
tions, and do not weaken and distract 
yourself looking forward to things you 
cannot see and could not understand if 
you saw them. God gives nights to 
shut down the curtain of darkness on 
our little days. We cannot see beyond. 
Short horizons make life easier, and give 
us one of the blessed secrets of brave, 
true, holy living.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


w= 335 —— 


POWER OF THE STORY OF THE 
LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST. 


Bishop Whittle is moved to tell an 
incident which illustrates the power of 
the gospel if it once gets access to a 
man’s heart. He says in a letter to the 
Churchman: 


Thirty-seven years ago I knew a great 
orator of the Lower Sioux—Red Owl. 
He never attended church, for he was 
afraid he would lose his influence among 
his people. One day he carne into the 
schoolroom and stopped before a pic- 
ture of the “Ecce Homo,” and asked: 

“What is that? Why are his hands 
bound? Why are the thorns on his 
head 2” 

Red Owl was so touched by the story 
of the love of “the Son of the Great 
Spirit” that he came again and again 
to ask about Jesus. 

One day I was going to Wabasha’s 
village and saw on the prairie a new- 
made grave; over it was a plain wood 
cross. I learned that Red Owl was 
dead. He had been taken ill suddenly, 
and when dying he said to his young 
men, “That story which the white man 
has brought into our country is true; 
I have it in my heart. When I am dead 
I wish you would put a cross over my 
grave that the Indians may see what 
is in Red Owl’s heart.” 

The power of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth; to the Jew 
first, and also to the Greek. 


—— 336 —— 


A PASSION FOR SOULS, 


David Brainerd used to say, “I care 
not where I go, or what hardships I 
endure, so long as I can see souls won 
to Christ. When I sleep I dream of 
these things, and when I awake it is 
my first thought. All my desire is the 
conversion of souls, and all my hope is 
in God.” Such was his zeal that he 
would often go out into the forest and 
wrestle with God until his clothes were 


ANECDOTES 183 


wet with perspiration, and frequently 
he spent the whole night in prayer. Af- 
ter every such season of protracted 
prayer there was usually a great out- 
pouring of the Spirit, and those stolid 
Indians to whom he preached would be 
mightily moved by the word of God 
and brought into the kingdom by scores. 

Nor is this passion for souls a thing 
of the past. Not long since a young 
man said to me, “I lie awake night after 
night, and wet my pillow with tears, as 
I think of the perishing souls around 
me.” The same young man is now 
planning to go to Africa as a mission- 
ary, “because,” as he says, “I cannot 
bear to remain in this country while in 
other lands many millions of people 
have never even heard of Jesus.”—Se- 
lected. 


—— 337 —— 
HE DID NOT FORGET. 


In 1880 a young girl by the name of 
Miss Burch, of Ashford, England, stoor 
in a crowd in London, watching f ¢ 
arrival of the guests at one of che 
Queen’s receptions. She saw an old man 
stagger and then fall to the ground. 
Some laughed at him, for they thought 
that he was intoxicated; but she tenderly 
cared for him, giving him water. Soon 
he revived and told her that he had been 
unexpectedly taken ill. He took her ad- 
dress and said that he would never for- 
get her kindness. 


Twelve years passed, when one day 
a letter came asking her to go to certain 
lawyers. There she learned that the 
old gentleman had died and left her over 
seven hundred thousand dollars. This 
was a large reward for a glass of water 
and a helping hand in the hour of need. 

Such kindness may not be always 
thus rewarded; but if you are led by, 
listen to, love, and live, for God you 
will be respected by all good people in 
this world. “And when the chief Shep- 
herd shall appear, ye shall receive a 
crown of glory that fadeth not away.”— 
Rev. C. H. Tyndall, D. D. 


184 


woe 338 


RESTRAINED FROM MURDER. 

One day, in my professional residence 
at Sedalia, Missouri, I had occasion to 
go to an adjacent town some miles dis- 
tant. The engagement being very press- 
ing, I could not wait for the regular pas- 
senger train, but was forced to make my 
way there in the caboose of the fast 
freight. There were several other gen- 
tlemen in the caboose when I boarded 
it. Among them I particularly ob- 
served one who appeared to be a Car- 
penter, laboring under the burden of a 
heavy bag of tools. 

It happened that on one side of the 
caboose stood a tub of fat, oily refuse, 
used, no doubt, for oiling the wheels 
and parts of the common freight ma- 
chinery. The atmosphere being very 
warm, this oily matter had melted and 
became very sloppy. During the prog- 
ress of the journey, the carpenter, shiit- 
ing his position from one side of the car 
to the other, very unfortunately stumb- 
led over this tub of melted grease 
splashing a large part over the clean 
floor of the caboose. He lamented the 
accident very sorrowfully, and pro- 
ceeded, with a few old sacks that were 
lying in one corner, to correct the mis- 
chief as quickly as possible. 

At that moment, however, the con- 
ductor of the train came in. The car- 
penter stammered out some apologies; 
but the conductor, a hot-tempered man, 
flared up in an instant at the sight of 
that monstrous grease spot on the im- 
maculate floor of his caboose and for 
fully five minutes he showered upon that 
unfortunate carpenter such a torrent of 
the vilest abuse that it causes an invol- 
untary shudder even now as I recollect 
it. 

At the next station, the carpenter sig- 
nified his intention of getting off. He 
appeared to be very weak, and his coun- 
tenance showed an unusual paleness, 
whether on account of the sultry con- 
dition of the atmosphere or the fierce 
onslaught of that brutal conductor I 
was not then in a position to know. At 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


any rate, prompted by a disinterested 
and generous motive, | went up to that 
gentleman as the train was slowing up, 
and, in a kindly manner offered to assist 
him and his heavy burden from the steep 
platform. He looked at me with a most 
peculiar look of surprise, which, since 
he said nothing, 1 immediately con- 
strued into an acceptance of my ser- 
vices, and helped the poor fellow from 
the car. The train pulled out, and I 
thought no more of my friend the car- 
penter. 

Six years after I was walking, one 
evening, along the streets of Sedalia, 
when I observed some one coming rap- 
idly along the pavement behind me. 
When he had caught up with me he 
tipped his hat very respectfully, and en- 
quired: 

“Sir, are you Dr. Y——?2” calling me 
by name. I answered in the affirma- 
tive. 

“Don’t you recognize me?” 
that I did not, 

He then explained that he was my 
friend the carpenter whom I had as- 
sisted from the platform of the fast 
freight on a certain hot day in August, 
over six years ago. I, of course, recol- 
lected the incident immediately, and ex- 
pressed great pleasure to have met him. 

“Oh, sir!” he went on in a most 
earnest manner, “but you did a most 
wonderful service for me that day by 
your kind offer of assistance. It was 
only a little act; bitt, sir, that little act 
saved me from being a murderer.” 

I was naturally much surprised at 
such an announcement, and became 
greatly interested in the story, but he 
continued: 

“T had intended, sir, in the bitterness 
of my soul, to have revenge on that dog 
of a conductor. In fact, my mind had 
already been fully made up to bury that 
heavy hammer I had with me in his 
head. But your kind words, breaking 
so unexpectedly on my dark, gloomy 
feelings, arrested my unworthy purpose. 
I was ashamed; but I determined to 
show myself a man, and keep back the 
mad impulse that was gainine its con- 


I replied 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


trol over me. I did it, sir, and am a 
free man today; God bless you! I 
Shall never forget it.” 

My heart was too full for reply. I 
extended my hand, and as the unre- 
Strainable tears sprang up in each 
other’s eyes, we warmly grasped hands 
and parted, and as I walked home that 
evening, more slowly than usual, i 
thought how sweet life would be, if, 
without such ostentatious philanthropy, 
for which we sometimes have such an 
extravagant regard, we might begin to 
cultivate such a spirit of kindly forbear- 
ance and helpfulness, one toward an- 
other, that as the humdrum minutes of 
daily life go ticking fast away, we might 
have them filled up by just such little 
offerings of love and kindness.—Sun- 
day School Times. 


—— 339 —— 


THE GOLDEN RULE. 

A beautiful and inspiring incident is 
recorded concerning Alfred the Great, 
king of England, while in retreat at 
Athleney, in Somersetshire, after his 
forces had been completely routed by 
the Danes. He and his royal family 
were forced prisoners within the walis 
of their little castle there, with little 
hope of immediate release or prospect of 
food. One day while discussing their 
straitened condition, a poor beggar 
knocked at the door and asked for alms. 
The queen responded, informed the man 
of their own plight, and stated that they 
had only one-half loaf of bread leit, 
which would be inadequate to their pres- 
ent needs, to say nothing about the 
future. Their friends had gone out in 
search of food, but had very poor pros- 
pect of finding any. They could do 
nothing for the beggar. But the kine 
overheard the conversation at the door, 
and said to his queen: “Give the poor 
man half of the loaf. He who could feed 
the five thousand with five loafs and two 
fishes can certainly make that half of a 
loaf suffice for our necessities.” 

The half loaf was given, the man was 
relieved of his hunger, and the king’s 
compliance with the Golden Rule was 


ANECDOTES. 185 
soon rewarded with an ampie store of 
fresh provisions which lasted them for 
the eitire time spent in that memorable 
rétreat.—Selected. 


Se Agee 


SOMETHING ALWAYS GIVES 
WAY. 

A Christian woman in a town in New 
York State desired to obtain a school 
liouse for the purpose of starting a Sun- 
day School, but was refused by a skep- 
tic trustee. Still she persevered, and 
asked him again and again. 

“I tell you, Aunt Polly, it is of no use; 
once for all I say to you, you cannot 
have the school house for such a pur- 
pose!” 

“I think I am going to get it,” said 
Aunt Polly. 

“T should like to know how, if I do 
not give you the key.” 

“I think the Lord is going to unlock 
tr 

“Maybe He will,’ said the infidel, 
“but I can tell you this—He will not 
get the key from me.” 

“Well, I am going to pray over it, 
and I have found out from experience 
that when I keep on praying something 
always gives way.” And the next time 
she came the infidel gave way, and she 
received the key. More than this, when 
others opposed the school he sustained 
her, and great good was done for per- 
ishing souls. “Something gives way.” 
Sometimes it is the man’s will, and 
sometimes it is the man himself, But 
God always finds the way.—Selected. 


341 


“HOW CAN I KEEP SILENT?” 


A faithful and venerable soldier of the 
cross was reproached by a friend be- 
cause on every occasion and under all 
circumstances he seo ie to bring 
Christ into the conversation. The old 
man’s voice trembled with emotion as he 
answered: “How can I keep silent on 
that theme when I see souls perishing all 
around me because Christ has been’ so 
persistently kept out of their lives?’— 
Selected, 








186 


By Peat 
A NOBLE SACRIFICE 


‘(One of the banks in the city of Den- 
ver was in danger of failing. A line of 
men and women stretched for more than 
a block. All were anxious for their 
money. Some of the women were cry- 
ing, for the bank might close its doors 
at any moment and they would lose 
their money. 

One man had stood in line since five 
o’clock in the morning, and was near 
the window where the depositors were 
being paid. In a few minutes more he 
would have his money. He felt some 
one pulling at his coat, and, looking 
around, recognized a fellow-workman. 

“Ah, Jim, that you? Did not know 
that you were about.” “Just came to 
town last night. Will the bank hold 
out?” “TI hope it will till I get my 
money. I have two hundred in there.” 
“We have three hundred and fifty dol- 
lars.” “Why don’t you get in line 
then?” “There is no show. The line 
goes clear around to B. Street, and my 
rheumatism cuts like a knife. I could not 
stand in line half an hour.” 

His wife was by his side crying, the 
baby in her arms. The man moved up 
one more step, and then called softly to 
his friend, “Jim, here! Come into my 
place.” “I won’t do it; it isn’t fair.” 
The generous offer touched his heart, 
and tears came into his eyes. “It’s all 
right, old boy. You have got Mary and 
the babies, and, don’t you see, I have 
neither wife nor chick in the world. 
Come, man! I’m strong and it’s little 
that you can do. Creepin here.” And 
he pulled his friend into his place, while 
he went and stood at the end of the line. 

In an hour the bank suspended pay- 
ment. Scores were unable to get their 
meney, and among them the noble soul 
who sacrified his that he might shield 
his friend from sorrow. This is like 
Christ, who drew us into His place, 
while He stepped into ours and took 
upon Himself all the consequences of 
our failures; for “surely He hath borne 
our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”— 
Rev. C, H. Tyndall, D. D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


mee BAB tent 
HE WOULD NOT FIGHT. 


There were some Friends or Quakers 
from South Carolina in the battle at 
Gettysburg, who were forced into the 
ranks, but who, from the beginning to 
the end, refused to fight. They were 
from Guilford county, which was mostly 
settled by their sect, and as the writer 
can testify by personal observation, 
presented the only region in that state 
where the evidence of thrift, which free 
labor gave in a land cursed with slavery, 
might be seen. These excellent people 
were robbed and plundered by the Con- 
federates without mercy. About a dozen 
of them were in Lee’s army at Gettys- 
burg and were among the prisoners cap- 
tured there. They had steadily borne 
practical testimony to the strength of 
their principles in opposing war. They 
were subjected to great cruelties. One 
of them who refused to fight was or- 
dered by his colonel to be shot. A squad 
of twelve men was drawn up to shoot 
him. They loved him as a brother be- 
cause of his goodness, and when ordered 
to fire every man refused. The re- 
mainder of the company was called up 
and ordered to shoot the first twelve if 
they did not execute the order. The in- 
tended victim folded his hands, and 
raised his eyes saying: “Father forgive 
them, for they know not what they do.” 

The entire company threw down their 
muskets and refused to obey the order. 
The exasperated captain, with a horrid 
oath, tried to shoot him with his pistol. 
The cap would not explode. Then he 
dashed upon him with his horse, but the 
meek cOnscript was unharmed. Just 
then a charge of some of Mead’s troops 
drove the Confederates from their posi- 
tion, and the Quaker became a prisoner. 
He and his co-religionists were sent to 
Fort Delaware, when the fact was made 
known to some of their sect in Philadel- 
phia. It was laid before the President, 
and he ordered their release.—Lossing’s 
Field Book of the Civil War. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ea Gad ener 
IN THE UNLIGHTED CHURCH. 


Three miles to the evening appoint- 
ment and a heavy rain. The ‘young 
home missionary was tired and the 
night was near. The morning service 
at Bolton had brought out a bare dozen 
through the rain, and the afternoon ser- 
vice, which had brought him five miles 
through the mud, had been little larger. 
“Don’t go over to Kenwood tonight,” 
the people said. “What’s the use? 
There won’t be anybody out. The 
church won’t even be lighted.” 

Half-tempted not to go, the young 
preacher hesitated. The dull clouds 
shut in closer and the night was de- 
scending early. Within the fire was 
bright, and without the rain was heavy 
and the mud deep. But something 
pulled at his heart-strings. ‘There 
might be some one there,” he said. “TI 
think I ought to go.” 

He never remembered the ride as un- 
pleasant; rather there was an anticipa- 
tion of something good at the end that 
made him more cheerful than usual. And 
when the end of the journey drew near 
he felt less tired than when he started. 

There was no light in the church. 
He saw that as he entered the strag- 
gling little settlement, and he drove to 
his stopping place and put up his horse. 

“We didn’t hardly look for you,” 
said his host. “It’s such a bad night. 
There won’t be anybody out. You 
must be wet. Here, I’ll take care of the 
horse; you go in and get dry.” 

“Thank you!” said the preacher. 

“T’ll just run over to the church a 
minute and be sure there’s no one 
there.” 

He pushed open the door; the little 
room was empty enough. The tick of 
the little nickel clock on the cabinet or- 
gan sounded very loud in the silence. 
He gropped forward to the pulpit, and, 
kneeling a moment, asked God’s bless- 
ing on the work of the day. Then, his 
eyes a little more accustomed to the 
darkness within, he moved toward the 
door. 

Just inside he met a man and a woman 


187 


who had come from a cabin some dis- 
tance away. 

“We thought it was a pity if you 
should come not to have anyone here,” 
explained the man apologetically. 

“It was kind to think of me in that 
way,’ said the preacher. “And it would 
be good if I could say something that 
would reward you for coming through 
the rain. You came because you 
thought of me and did not want me to 
fail of some hearers. But have you no 
need of your own?” 

There was silence in the darkness and 
the clock ticked on. After an interval 
the woman said: “It was a year ago 
today the baby died.” | 

“It was that that brought you,” said 
the minister, “Yes, and I know the 
word you want to hear. No, we will 
not light the lamps. Sit here while we 
talk a little.” 

There in the dark they sat and talked 
till the place seemed light with the 
beautiful truths to which they listened. 

When at last he said, “Let us pray,” 
they knelt together and the man and 
the woman were in tears, but the tears 
were the welling forth of a new hope. 

“It was her little angel brought you 
through the rain,” said the woman. “I 
somehow know’d you’d come, and we 
was so hungry for comfort.” 

Six months later the rough man lay 
dying. He clasped the hand of the 
preacher as the end drew near and said: 

“Parson, you ’member that night— 
and what brought you? It sorter like 
that to me. Kinder dark, but seems 
like she’s guidin’ me—like she did you 
that night.”—Youth’s. Companion. 


SH 345 on 


Remember the good old rabbi who 
was awakened by one of his twelve sons 
saying, “Behold! my eleven brothers 
lie sleeping, and I am the only one who 
wakens to praise and pray.” “Son,” 
said the wise father, “you had better be 
asleep too, than wake to censure your 
brothers.” No fault can be as bad as 
the feeling which is quick to see and 
speak of other people’s faults —Selected. 


188 


pee SAG ares 
THE NEGLECTED TREASURE. 


A traveler who had been walking for 
hours on a hot, dusty summer day, and 
who longed for a draught of fresh water, 
knocked at the door of a wayside cot- 
tage. The parents of the family resid- 
ing there had just been quarreling, and 
the frightened children, ragged and half- 
starved looking, were crouching in a 
corner. It was evidently not the place 
where the inmates were accustomed to 
sing, “Home, Sweet Home.” The 
stranger drank the water which was 
given him in a broken cup, and, as he 
handed the cup back, he spied through 
the half-opened door a Bible high upon 
a shelf. Before passing on his way he 
thanked the inmates, spoke kindly to 
them, and sang a little Christian song 
to the children, and added, with a 
bright look, “Dear friends, I know what 
would help you. There is a treasure in 
this house of which you are not aware, 
and which would at once make you 
rich and happy. Will you search for 
it?” 

His parting words, though not un- 
derstood, were not forgotten. When 
the wife was not looking the husband 
searched for the hidden treasure, and, 
when the husband was out to work, the 
wife did the same. At last she discov- 
ered it; it was the Bible on the sheif 
which her mother had given her as a 
gift on her wedding day, and which had 
lain for years unopened. She “hap- 
pened” to cast her eye upon it, and the 
thought occurred, “What if this is the 
treasure that the stranger meant?” She 
took it down from its perch with trem- 
bling fingers, and a kind of choking in 
her throat, and found, in her mother’s 
hand-writing, on the fly-leaf: “The 
word of thy mouth is better to me than 
thousands of gold and silver.” She 
began eagerly to read it, and found it 
all new and very wonderful. By and 
by she began to pray, and to read it to 
her children. One day her husband 
came home raging like a wild beast. 
She answered his questions gently and 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


meekly, and marking the surprise in his 
eyes, she said, “I have found the treas- 
ure that the stranger spoke of;” and, at 
the same time, laid the Bible reverently 
down before him on the table. He bit 
his lip and was silent. Soon they be- 
gan to read it together, and to pray to 
God with tears in their eyes that He 
would bless the message of His wonder- 
ful love to their souls. Gradually the 
light of Divine love entered their 
hearts, the light that shone from the face 
of Jesus Christ, and with the light there 
came a simple trust and peace that 
passeth ail understanding. All things 
soon became new, both within and with- 
out—looks, tones, ways, as well as 
hearts, and that lowly home was 
changed by the proper use of that “neg- 
lected treasure” into a little nook of 
paradise.—Joseph Sanderson, D. D. 


PUNY, 
SHE READ WITH HER LIPS. 


I have read of a poor blind girl in 
France who obtained the gospel. of 
Mark in raised letters, and learned to 
read it with the ends of her fingers. By 
the peculiar character of her daily toil 
her fingers became calloused and her 
sense of touch diminished till she couid 
not distinguish the letters. One day 
she cut the skin from the ends of her 
fingers to increase their sensibility, 
only, however, to destroy it. She felt 
that she must now give up her beloved 
book, and weeping, pressed it to her 
lips, saying, “Farewell, farewell, sweet 
word of my Heavenly Father, food for 
my soul! I must part with thee!” But 
to her surprise, her lips, more delicate 
than her fingers, discerned the form of 
the letters. She read “Gospel accord- 
ing to Mark.” Her soul, overflowing 
with gratitude, pours out thanks before 
the throne of her Father in heaven. All 
night she perused with her lips the holy 
book, and her heart overflowed with joy 
at the new acquisition, 

Oh for such a love for God’s word in 
the hearts of God’s people! Shall we 
wait for disasters before we know our 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


privileges and cultivate our true de- 
lights? 

In urging Christians to love the 
Word, I am really urging them to love 
the Lord more. When they are filled 
with His love they will love His love- 
letters. When they feel that no love- 
relation is so grand and so absorbing as 
that which binds them to the Saviour, 
they will then feel that no words are so 
sweet as His, no books so precious as 
that which speaks of Him and speaks 
from Him to the saved soul. And so, 
conversely, if the Bible is not lovingly 
pondered, then there is but little force 
in the love for Jesus, the appreciation of 
His glorious presence is dull, and the 
thoughts of His wooing and winning 
work for the soul are benumbed.—Rev. 
Howard Crosby, D. D. 


ey a 
HELPFUL VISIONS. 


Recently an old man gave us the 
story of his wonderful career. In an 
hour of temptation he determined to 
disappear from his home and city, to 
forswear every duty and to turn his 
back on honor. In his madness he 
went to the railway station, for the new 
career was now to begin. But suddenly 
as he stepped from the carriage he 
thought he saw his old father, long 
since dead, standing in the door of the 
station, The father lifted his right 
hand, and the youth heard a voice say- 
ing, “My son, go back! Go back!” The 
man turned and fled as though an 
angel with a flaming sword had waved 
it in his face. An hour later, and once 
more he had taken up his accustomed 
task. But from that day he looked 
back to the event as to a moment when 
his feet stood on the edge of a preci- 
pice. He tells us that forty years have 
come and gone since that weak hour 
and that he still believes that vision 
was vouchsafed to preserve his soul. 
Perhaps you and I think it was an illu- 
sion; that conscience and memory, in 
a moment of great excitement, clothed 
some aged stranger with the likeness of 
a revered father. But so far as the ex- 


189 


planation is concerned we neither know 
nor care what it was. One thing is 
certain, an angel with a flaming sword 
stood in a man’s way, and barred his 
feet back from the path of death.—Rev. 
Newell Dewight Hillis, D. D. 


PE (ude 
WHAT A TRACT DID. 


Rev, N. Watts, being appointed to 
preach at Newbold, near Rugby, as his 
custom was, distributed tracts from 
house to house. At one house a very 
sullen man was having his tea. When 
Mr. Watts invited him to the preach- 
ing he said, “I sha’n’t come.” “Well, 
now,” said Mr. Watts, “come, and we 
will try to do you good.” “I sha’n’t 
come,” he replied. “Then perhaps you 
will read this tract,” said Mr. Watts, 
and without waiting for a reply wen 
to the next door. Some time after, 
while Mr. Watts was leading a prayer- 
meeting at Rugby, this man stood up 
in the gallery and praised God for what 
He had done for his soul, stating that it 
was through reading the tract left him 
at the time spoken of. What encour- 
agement to tract-distributors to ,per- 
severe in their good work!—Selected. 


350 —— 
GOD’S CARE AND THE SPIDER. 


Why do we doubt the special prov- 
idences of God? Was it strange that 
Molinoeus, taking refuge in an oven in 
the night of the massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, should be spared? “O God,” 
he prayed, “cover me with thy hand!” 
And while he prayed a spider wove its 
web across the oven’s mouth; a gust of 
wind filled the web with dust; the dew 
came down and in the early morning 
glistened upon it. The fugitive’s heart 
stood still as the footfall of his pursuers 
came nigh; but seeing the spider’s web, 
they said, “He is not here,” and passed 
on. Thus the God who hears the chirp 
of the sparrow hearkens to His people’s 
cry. “Are you not of more value than 
many sparrows, and shall He not care 
for you?”—Selected. 





190 


—— 351 —— 
HOW SHE WON TWO. 


A college friend of mine told me, a 
little while ago, how he became a Chris- 
tian. His teacher came along and 
dropped a note behind him on the seat, 
so no one else could see it. He picked 
it up. It read: “Dear Charles, as you 
are specially good in mathematics, I 
want to propound the following prob- 
lem: ‘What shall it profit a man if he 
shall gain the whole world and lose his 
soul?’ ” That word put in that way led 
me to accept Christ, he said, and my 
seatmate whose name was Ripley, and 
who was the best mathematician in the 
class, came out for Christ about a year 
after, and this was the story he told. 
He said: “I accidentally looked over 
your shoulder, and caught the first line 
of that note, ‘Dear Charles, as you are 
especially good in mathematics.’ It 
raised all the jealousy in me, for I be- 
lieved I was a better mathematician 
than you, and I was just mean enough 
to look over your shoulder and read the 
rest of it. It went like an arrow into 
my heart, and I was never able to shake 
it out.” About a year after he accepted 
Christ and told what it was that set 
him to thinking.-—Howard Pope. 


—— 352 —— 


THE PRAYING SOLDIER'S 
COURAGE. 


It takes courage to be a Christian 
anywhere, but more under circum- 
stances like these than you can imagine. 
During the Civil War a soldier went to 
his chaplain and said to him, “Chaplain, 
I am the only man in our tent who is 
a Christian and every night when [ 
kneel down to say my prayers the boys 
make fun of me and throw their shoes 
at me and bother me so I do not know 
what to do. What must I do about 
it?’ The chaplain told him to wait 
until he got under his blanket at night 
and say his prayers to himself. A very 
poor piece of advice, I think, for a 
preacher to give. A few days after- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


wards he met the soldier and asked 
him how he came out. “Well,” he 
said, “your plan didn’t work at all. I 
waited until the lights were out and 
tried to pray under my blanket. The 
boys were all laughing because they 
thought they had whipped me out. I 
lay there and thought to myself, ‘You 
coward, you are willing to stand up 
on the battlefield and let them shoot 
at you because you love your country 
but you are not willing to get down on 
your knees and pray to the Lord be- 
cause you are afraid somebody will dis- 
turb you.’ I just threw the blanket off 
and got down on my knees and prayed 
aloud for every soldier in the tent.” 
“Well, how did that do?” inquired the 
chaplain, “They all listened,” he said, 
“and every night, now, when I kneel 
down to pray they kneel with me and 
we have regular family worship there 
together.” It took courage, and the 
man had it. That is exactly what you 

eed, my friend, to make you come out 
on the Lord’s side and take your stand 
for Christ as you ought to do.—Rev. 
H. M. Wharton, D. D. 


—— 353 —— 

WHAT CAME OF A TRACT. 

Early in 1819, while waiting to see 
a patient, a young physician in New 
York took up and read a tract on Mis- 
sions, which lay in the room where he 
sat. On reaching home he spoke ta his 
wile of the question that had arisen in 
his mind. As a result they set out for 
Ceylon, and later, India, as foreign mis- 
sionaries. For thirty years the wife, 
and for thirty-six years the husband, 
labored among the heathen, and then 
went to their reward. Apart from what 
they did directly as missionaries, they 
left behind them seven sons and two 
daughters. Each of these sons married, 
and with their wives and both sisters, 
gave themselves to the same mission 
work. Already have several grand- 
children of the first missionary become 
missionaries in India. And thus far 
thirty of that family—the Scudders— 
have given 529 years to India missions. 
—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 354 —— 
REPROVING IN LOVE. 


John Wesley, having to travel for a 
considerable distance in a stage coach, 
fell in with a pleasant and well-informed 
officer. His conversation was sprightly 
and entertaining, but frequently min- 
gled with oaths. 

When they were about to take the 
next stage Wesley took the officer apart 
and, after expressing the great pleasure 
he had enjoyed in his company, told 
him he was thereby encouraged to ask 
him a favor. “I would take pleasure in 
obliging you,” said the officer, “and I 
am sure you will not make an unreason- 
able request.” “Then,” said Wesley, 
“as we have some time to travel togeth- 
er, | beg that if I should so far forget 
myself as to Swear in your company 
you will kindly reprove me.” 

The officer immediately saw the mo- 
tive, felt the force of the request and, 
smiling, said none but Mr. Wesley 
could have conveyed a reproof in such 
a manner.—Ernest .L. Rand. 


350 
TRUE LOVE. 


One day when I was in Brooklyn I 
Saw a young man going along the street 
without any arms. A friend who was 
with me pointed him out and told me 
his story. 

When the war broke out he félt it to 
be his duty to enlist and go to the front. 
He was engaged to be married and 
while in the army letters passed fre- 
quently between him and his intended 
wife. After the battle of the Wilder- 
ness the young lady looked anxiously 
for the accustomed letter. For a little 
while no letter was received. At last 
one came in a strange hand. She 
opened it with trembling fingers and 
read these words: “We have fought a 
terrible battle. I have been wounded 
so awfully that I shall never be able to 
support you. A friend writes this for 
me. I love you more tenderly than ev- 
er but I release you from your prom- 
ise. I will not ask you to join your life 








191 


with the maimed life of mine.” 

That letter was never answered. The 
next train that left, the young lady was 
on it. She went to the hospital. She 
found out the number of his cot and 
she went down the aisle between the 
long rows of the wounded men. At 
last she saw the number and, hurrying 
to his side, she threw her arms around 
his neck and said: “I'll not desert you. 
I'll take care of you.” He did not re- 
sist her love. They were married and 
there is no happier couple than this one. 

We are dependent on one another. 
Christ says, “I’ll take care of you. Vl 
take you to this bosom of Mine.” That 
young man could have spurned her 
love; he could, but he didn’t. Surely 
you can be saved if you will accept the 
Saviour’s love. If God loves us, my 
friends, He loves us unto the end. “For 
God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish but 
have everlasting life.’-—D. L. Moody 


—— 356 —— 
A GREAT PRAYER MEETING: 


The world’s largest prayer meeting: 
Where is it to be found? In Christian 
America or in Europe? Not so, but in 
“heathen” Korea. Rev. A. J. Brown, 
Der iesdy si 

“T attended the prayer meeting in the 
Yua Mot Kol Church in Seoul. It was 
a dark and rainy night. A Korean 
was to lead and the people did not 
know that a traveler from the West 
would be present but I found about 
1,000 ‘Christians assembled. No visitor, 
however distinguished, would bring out 
1,000 American church members on 
prayer meeting night in any city in the 
United States but 1,200 people packed 
the Syen Chyun Church the evening we 
spent there. 

“Tt was worth going far to hear these 
Christians pray. They bow with their 
faces to the floor as those who know 
what it is to have daily audience with 
God. This spirit of prayer pervades 
their daily lives.” 


192 ILLUSTRATIVE 


——- 357 —— 
A REMARKABLE CONVERSION. 


The conversion of Eugene Reveil- 
laud, the French journalist, politician, 
orator and patriot, was as sudden and 
astonishing as that of Paul of Tarsus. 

He retired to his bed on the 13th day 
of July, 1878, an unbeliever, a free- 
thinker, and rose the next morning a 
subdued and rejoicing disciple of Jesus 
Christ. In the night-watches the Spirit 
of God had fallen upon him in over- 
whelming power, convicting, conquer- 
ing and converting him. 

The next morning he entered a Prot- 
estant church, and to the astonishment 
of all present asked permission to speak. 

“A miracle!” he exclaimed. “Is not 
my conversion a miracle? I had fallen 
asleep yesterday on thoughts altogether 
secular. I do not remember that I had 
once raised my soul to God in all that 
day. At night God visited me by His 
Spirit, and by His divine baptism I have 
been regenerated. I have now the sense 
of God’s favor, of His pardon, of His 
love. I am converted, I am saved.”— 
Dr. A. J. Gordon. 

A very striking and suggestive fact 
with regard to M. Reveillaud’s conver- 
sion was the method employed by the 
Holy Spirit to open his eyes to the truth. 
He was, we understand, an unbeliever; 
not an infidel—an unbeliever, not be- 
cause of enmity to the truth, but because 
he had never really understood the 
Christian religion, 

On that night, as the writer has heard 
him tell, after waking, he found his 
mind repeating the “apostle’s creed” al- 
most unconsciously and without any 
reason for doing so that he knew of. But 
when he came to the words, “I believe 
in the Holy Ghost,” a light flashed upon 
his mind. He was wide awake in a 
moment. 

“I believe in the Holy Ghost.” He 
felt that he had at last struck the true 
chord. He had found the truth that he 
needed, the truth which his country 
needed. 

And when Eugene Reveillaud went 


ANECDOTES 


through France preaching the Gospel of 
the Holy Ghost, which is the Gospel of 
Christ’s Kingdom in the hearts of men, 
thousands believed and found peace and 
joy through a new-born faith in Christ. 
—Sabbath Reading. 


—— 358 —— 
THE WARNING REFUSED. 


Years ago a corps of civil engineers 
came to a little town in a valley in 
Pennsylvania and went up into the 
mountains and examined the dam which 
controlled the waters of the stream 
which flowed down into the valley. They 
came back to the valley and said to the 
people of the town, “That dam is unsafe. 
The people in the valley are in constant 
danger.” The people said to them, 
“You can’t scare us.” That fall the men 
came back to the valley and examined 
the dam again and said to the people in 
the valley, “We warn you people again, 
you are in danger every hour.” They 
laughed at them again and said, “Scare 
us if you can.” The men went up again 
in the spring and warned the people 
again, but the people said “That is a 
chance. We have been hearing that so 
many times. Scare us if you can.” 

It was not fifteen days later that a 
boy with a horse on the dead run came 
down into the valley shouting, “Run for 
your lives! The dam is gone and the 
water is coming!” The people only 
laughed at him; but he did not wait to 
hear their laughter; he went on down 
the valley shouting the warning. In 
a very few minutes the dirty water came 
and in less than thirty minutes after the 
water struck the town Johnstown was in 
ruins with more than 3,700 of those who 
had been in the town in the presence 
of God. 

You have been reproved many a time 
yourself, and frightened many a time 
yourself and you sit out there and say, 
“Scare me if you can.” “Get me by 
frightening me if you can.” But on 
God’s judgment day you will run and 
call for the rocks and the mountains to 
hide from God’s just fire your little 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


soul. God gets closest to the man who 
is honest with his own soul, and is in 
need of Christ. God help you to pray 
about this, “I am not to be frightened 
into Christianity.” 

“He that being often reproved and 
hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be 
destroyed and that without remedy.” 
Prov. 29:1—Rev. Sam. Jones. 


—— 359 —— 
A BLACKSMITH’S REMINISCENCE 


I was standing about the blacksmith 
shop of Mr. T. D. Chase—at the cross- 
roads, some five miles from Peekskill- 
on-Hudson, this beautiful October 
moming and in a reminiscent manner 
he spoke of his present happy life and 
home, as compared to that of former 
times, 

“See the difference,” he said. “There 
goes the daughter of a Peekskill rum- 
seller. Did you notice, she salutes me 
with, “Good morning, Mr. Chase.’ Years 
ago, when in her father’s bar-room, 
standing, or rather leaning against a 
post, for support, upon my saluting her, 
she replied, ‘How dare you, a drunken 
bum, speak to me?’ I replied that I 
got the rum from her father. 

“The incident comes back like a flash; 
the rum-seller, to pacify me, gave me 
more drink. It was then from the rum- 
seller, ‘Chase, what will you have?’ 
It is to-day as I pass him on the street 
‘How do you do, Mr. Chase?’ Quite a 
difference between being a slave to him 
and a fellow man. 

“About a year after I stopped enrich- 
ing rum-sellers I was in the restaurant 
of John Garrison getting a clam chow- 
der, when in walked a white-aproned 
rum-seller whom I had once helped to 
support. He called to the restaurant 
keeper for ‘a fine porterhouse steak.’ 
After a while he noticed me and said, 
‘I am glad you have stopped drinking, 
as you got pretty low down, but after a 
while you can take a drink once in a 
while” It being winter time and the 
Hudson River frozen, I said to him— 
‘Suppose I go down to the whari, jump 


198 


upon the ice, go out and out, all the 
time the ice cracking beneath my 
weight, until it occurs to me that it is 
best to go back to the shore which I 
do with difficulty, and finally land safe 
on the dock. Do you think it would be 
sensible for me to venture out again?’ 
The rum-seller made no reply. The res- 
taurant keeper was in the habit of tak- 
ing a drink occasionally. He told me 
sometime afterward that the reply to 
that rum-seller so convinced him of the 
truth that from that minute until his 
death he was a total abstainer.”—Wm. 
T. Totten. 
—— 360 —— 


THE UNDEFENDED BRIDGE. 


At the battle of Waterloo a certain 
skilled officer and a small company of 
picked men were sent by the Duke of 
Wellington to guard a certain bridge. 

They had not long been there when 
they heard the sound of guns; and soon 
their ears told them that a fierce battle 
was raging. Officers and men grum- 
bled. “Fighting going on, and we not 
there,” said they. “The Duke needs 
all the men he can get, yet here are we 
doing nothing!” 

At last the officer gave orders to go to 
join the fray, and joyfully did his men 
obey. Just as they arrived, they saw 
that the enemy were in full flight; also 
that many of them were making for the 
bridge that they had left unguarded. 

Hastily they returned, but it was too 
late. The enemy were in possession, 
and, knowing its value to the retreating 
army, they defended it well. The Duke 
had special reasons for placing good 
soldiers at that point, but officers and 
men felt sure he had made a mistake, 
and that they could arrange things bet- 
ter. Obedience to orders was disre- 
garded, with the result we have seen. 

St. Peter begs believers, “as obedient 
children” (1 Peter 1, 14) to do various 
things. Are we not often inclined to 
imitate the officers and men at Waterloo, 
who were sure they knew better than 
their commander, and did well to be 
disobedient ?—Selected. 


194 


—— 361 —— 
ROBERT MORRISON’S HELPER. 


Robert Morrison, the noted mission- 


ary, wrote to friends in England, asking 
for an assistant. 

In response a young man from the 
country came and offered himself. He 
was an earnest Christian but was rough 
and unpolished. He was introduced to 
the gentlemen of the Board and had a 
long talk with them. They then asked 
him to call again in an hour or two and 
they would give him an answer. In 
talking the matter over after he was 
gone they came to the conclusion that 
this young man would not do to go asa 
helper to Dr. Morrison. Finally they 
said to Dr. Phillips, one of their mem- 
bers: “Doctor, you see the young man 
when he calls again and tell him that 
we do not think him fit to be a mission- 
ary; but that if he would like to go out 
as a servant to the missionary we will 
send him.” The Doctor did not much 
like to do this but he did it. He told 
the young man just what the Board had 
said. 

Now many a young man would have 
been .angry on hearing this but this 
young man did not feel or act so. After 
hearing what the Doctor said his an- 
swer was: “Well, sir, if the gentlemen 
don’t think me fit to be a missionary I 
will go as a servant. I am willing to be 
a hewer of wood or a drawer of water 
or do anything to help on the cause of 
my heavenly Master.” 

He was sent out as a servant but he 
soon got to be a missionary and turned 
out to be the Rev. Dr. Milne, one of 
the best missionaries that ever went to 
that country.—Selected. 


362 ——— 


PENITENTS ALWAYS WELCOME 


At the close of the twelfth century 
Richard, son of Henry II, conspired 
against his father and took refuge in a 
walled city to which the king laid siege. 
In the course of the campaign Richard 
was wotnded unto death and, being 
overwhelmed with contrition, sent a 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


messenger to his father asking that he 
might be permitted to see his face. His 
request was refused. Once and again he 
sent his humble appeal in vain. At 
length a procession passed through the 
gateway of the city under a flag of truce 
bearing the dying prince upon a stretch- 
er; but ere it had reached the royal pa- 
vilion he had breathed his last. As the 
bearers waited there they heard from 
within a strong cry like that of David, 
“QO Richard, my son, my son, would 
God I had died for thee!” 

The Lord, with whom we have to do, 
makes no such mistakes. He knows the 
deep secrets of the heart and, where 
there is true penitence, He has sworn by 
Himself that He will not reject it—Rev. 
David James Burrell, D. D. 


—— 363 —— 
HOW HE FOUND CHRIST. 


Ata Moody Meeting.—I have made a 
great many speeches in my life and some 
from this platform but this is the first 
time I have ever spoken at a religious 
meeting. For months I have been per- 
plexed very much on the subject of 
Christianity. I had been looking for- 
ward to the meetings of Mr. Moody and 
determined to attend them. When [ 
first came I thought to sneak in and 
take a back seat but I changed my mind 
and said I would go onto the platform 
and identify myself with these meet- 
ings. This I have.done, with the excep- 
tion of one evening. This was the first 
victory over my pride. 

Yesterday Mr. Moody came to my 
house and I joined with him in prayer— 
the first time I ever bowed my knee to 
God or man in my life. This was my 
second victory. Last night I got up and 
asked the prayers of God’s people. This 
was my third victory. I feel now per- 
fectly satisfied; the burden is rolled off 
and all gone and I feel that I could run 
or fly into the arms of Jesus Christ. 
This is my fourth victory. May God 
give us all strength to be true to our 
convictions.—Ex-Attorney Gen’l Geo. H. 
Williams, Portland, Ore. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


th Lode Wl elas 
AFTER MANY DAYS. 


Nine or ten years ago Dr. Len 
Broughton, visited a district in the 
mountains of southwest Virginia, hold- 
ing a three days’ mission for the deep- 
ening of spiritual life. The people were 
exceedingly poor, but living pure, whole- 
some lives. He was entertained by a 
family living in a house of only three 
rooms, where his deepest interest was 
awakened by one whom he took to be a 
daughter of the family. 

Speaking of her to the minister of the 
place, he was told that she was the most 
remarkable girl in that country. She 
had never had more than three months 
schooling in her life, and was not a 
daughter, but only a servant, in receipt 
of $4.00 per month. 

Out of this she gave every month one 
dollar to her church (being the largest 
contributor), one dollar to foreign mis- 
sions (being again, the largest contrib- 
utor), two dollars to her family, her 
father being very poor, and the family 
very large. How, then, did she clothe 
herself? By taking in work and sitting 
up far into the night. 

The room occupied by Dr. Broughton 
was the girl’s, and there he found her 
Bible. It was marked on every page, 
and almost at every verse, but it was 
at Mark 16:15 that he found, as he be- 
lieved, the secret of her life. Over 
against the “Go ye into all the world,” 
eic., was written in firm, clear hand, 
“Oh, if I could!” 

He felt he must follow this up, and 
so he spoke to her about it, whereupon 
she broke into crying. 

“Don’t cry, come to business,” said 
he; but the crying went on all the same, 
and he had to try again later on, when 
she told him her story. 

At fourteen she was converted at a 
meeting, and when she reached home 
she found a tract lying there, entitled, 
“China’s Call for the Gospel.” Nobody 
knew anything about it—whence it 
came, who brought it, or how long it 
had been there. Yet it was that that 


ANECDOTES. 195 
shaped all her after life. She showed 
Dr. Broughton the tree where for ten 
years she had prayed the Lord to send 
her to China. 

But a great change had come over her 
recently. Exactly two weeks before 
Dr. Broughton’s coming she had come 
to the conclusion that she had misunder- 
stood God’s purpose for her—that, 
after all, His plan was that she should 
be a missionary for Him in the kitchen. 
At once her prayer became, “Make me 
willing to be a missionary for Thee in 
the kitchen!” She told how the Lord 
had answered her prayer, but now Dr. 
Broughton’s first sermon had brought 
back the old longings stronger than 
ever. 

“TI have been so miserable that I al- 
most wish you hadn’t come,” she said. 

His reply was that she must come off 
at once with him and be trained. He 
felt so sure that God had sent him to 
help this chosen servant of His into her 
true path that she must do it even if he 
had to sell his own clothes. She follow- 
ed him in a few days to Atlanta. His 
people responded nobly to his appeal. 
She was sent 1,000 miles to Brooklyn 
for training, and at the end she came out 
first of all the students. For seven 
years she did good work in China, came 
home on furlough, and has now just re- 
turned for her second term of service. 

The point to be noted, especially, is 
this: For ten years she had longed for 
the big thing. Then she was brought to 
willingness to accept the little thing— 
to shine for God in that narrow home 
as kitchen maid; and as soon as she 
reached that point, God Himself sent 
her out to China. 

“He that humbleth himself shall be 
exalted.”’—Selected. 


——— 365 —— 


A WRONG RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

“Some people’s religion is just like a 
wooden leg. There is neither warmth 
nor life in it; and, although it helps you 
to hobble along, it never becomes a 
part of you, but has to be strapped on 
every morning.” 


196 


ae 366 ——— 
SUBMISSION TO GOD. 

What a blessing my late friend, Dr. 
Moon, of Brighton, has been, the pro- 
jector of the great Moon System to aid 
the blind to read the Word of God, the 
greatest system of its kind, in my opin- 
ion, ever devised. When twenty-three 
years of age he was struck with total 
blindness. He besought God, when the 
symptoms were coming on, that He de- 
liver him from this curse of total blind- 
ness. He was an educated man, just at 
the beginning of his true service of God 
and man. But the blindness continued. 
What did he do? It is one of the sub- 
limest things in history. He looked up to 
God and said: “My heavenly Father, 
I thank Thee for the talent of blindness. 
May I so invest that talent that at the 
coming of the Lord Jesus He may re- 
ceive His own with usury.” 

Is not that profoundly, sublimely and 
ecstatically heavenly? And the Lord 
at once taught him that He had permit- 
ted the blindness that he might min- 
ister to the millions of blind people in 
the world; and Dr. Moon used his in- 
ventive faculties and devised this beau- 
tiful system, containing only a very few 
characters in combination. According 
to the account which I received last year 
that system has been utilized in 492 lan- 
guages and dialects. So that after this 
man went to God in heaven a few years 
ago he must have found thousands of 
people from that day coming to heaven 
through reading the raised characters 
by which he made it possible to com- 
mtne with the Word of God. By tak- 
ing blindness as a talent from God, and 
using it for God, he accomplished far 
more for God and man than he ever 
could have done if he had followed out 
the devices and desires of his own heart. 
—A. T. Pierson, D. D. 

—— 367 —— 
WHOSE BOY IS IN DANGER? 


Rev. Cortland Myers, of Boston, re- 
lates the following story as told by a 
ship’s surgeon: 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“On our last trip a boy fell over- 
board from the deck. I didn’t know 
who he was and the crew hastened out 
to save him. They brought him on 
board the ship, took off his outer gar- 
ments, turned him over a few times and 
worked his hands and his feet. When 
they had done all that they knew how 
to do I came up to be of assistance and 
they said he was dead and beyond help. 
I turned away, as I said to them, ‘I 
think you have done all you could,’ 
but just then a sudden impulse told me 
I ought to go over to see what I could 
do. I went over and looked down into 
the boy’s face and discovered that it 
was my own boy. Well, you may be- 
lieve I didn’t think the last thing had 
been done. I pulled off my coat and 
bent over that boy; I blew into his nos- 
trils and breathed into his mouth; I 
turned him over and over and simply 
begged God to bring him back to life 
and for four long hours I worked, until, 
just at sunset, I began to see the least 
flutter of breath that told me he lived. 
Oh, I will never see another boy drown 
without taking off my coat in the first 
instance and going to him and trying 
to save him as if I knew he were my 
own boy.” 


oom 368 ——= 


WHEN FAILURE WINS. 


Apparent failure may really spell suc- 
cess. Some years ago a genius sent a 
raft of logs from Canada to New York. 
This method of transporting logs was 
then unknown. When near New York 
a great storm snapped the cables that 
bound the logs and they were scattered 
far and wide. The Chief of the Hy- 
drographic Department at Washington 
heard of the accident and sent word to 
shipmasters the world over to watch 
out for the logs, noting the latitude and 
longitude in which they were discov- 
ered. Hundreds of captains reported, 
with the result that remarkable discov- 
eries were made as to the courses of 
ocean currents. Joggins lost his raft 
but the world gained new knowledge of 
marine geography and navigation. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


Perhaps your raft has been destroyed. 
You had hoped great things for it; but 
the logs are not lost. You will find 
them scattered all through your life and 
perhaps in a time of storm they will 
save you from shipwreck. They have 
gone into the building up of your char- 
acter. Also, and more important, they 
will save some other fellow from disas- 
ter. Columbus failed in finding a back 
door to India but he discovered Amer- 
ica. The Spanish court could see in 
Columbus’ discovery merely a few Indi- 
an souvenirs but to the world it meant 
a vast continent.—Rev. Charles Stetzle. 


369 
SAVED BY A THREAD. 


A tall chimney had been completed 
and the scaffolding was being removed. 
One man remained on the top to super- 
intend the process. A rope should have 
been left for him to descend by. His 
wife was at home washing when her 
little boy burst in with “Mother, moth- 
er, mother, they have forgotten the rope 
and he’s going to throw himself down!” 
She paused; her lips moved in the ago=- 
ny of prayer and she rushed forth. 

A crowd was looking up to the poor 
man who was moving round and round 
the narrow cornice, terrified and be- 
wildered. It seemed as if at any mo- 
ment he might fall or throw himself 
down in despair. His wife from below 
cried out, “Wait, John!” The man be- 
came calm. “Take off thy stockings; 
unravel the worsted.” And he did so. 
“Now tie the end to a bit of mortar and 
lower gently.” Down came the thread 
and the bit of mortar swinging back- 
wards and forwards. Lower and lower 
it descended—eagerly watched by many 
eyes. It was now within reach and was 
gently seized by one of the crowd. They 
fastened some cord to the thread. “Now 
pull up.” The man got hold of the 
cord. The rope was now fastened on. 
“Pull away again.” He at length 
seized the rope and made it secure. 
There were a few moments of suspense 
and then amidst the shouts of the peo- 








ANECDOTES 197 
ple he threw himself into the arms of 
his wife, sobbing “Thou’st saved me, 
Mary!” The worsted thread was not. 
despised; it drew after it the cord, the 
rope, the rescue! 

Ah! My friend, thou mayest be sunk 
very low down in sin and woe but there 
is a thread of divine love that comes 
from the throne of heaven and touches 
even thee. Seize that thread. It may 
be small but itis golden. Improve what 
you have, ‘however little, and more shall 
be given. That thin thread of love, if 
you will not neglect it, shall lift even 
you up to God and glory. “Who hath 
despised the day of small things?’—— 
Newman Hall. 


——— 370 —— 


“GOD USE THIS STAMMERING 
TONGUE.” 

One day during his great mission in 
London, Mr. Moody was holding a 
meeting in a theatre packed with a most 
select audience. Noblemen and noble- 
women were there in large numbers. 
A prominent member of the royal family 
was in the royal box. Mr. Moody arose 
to read the Scripture lesson. He at- 
tempted to read Luke 4:27, “And many 
lepers were in Israel in the time of 
Eliseus the prophet.” When he came 
to the name Eliseus he stammered and 
stuttered overit. He went back to the 
beginning of the verse and began to 
read again but again when he reached 
the word “Eliseus” he could nof get over 
it. He went back and began the third 
time to read the verse but again the 
word “Eliseus” was too much for him. 
He closed the Bible with deep emotion 
and looked up and said, “Oh, God! Use 
this stammering tongue to preach 
Christ crucified to these people.” The 
power of God came upon him and one 
who heard him then and had heard 
him often at other times said to me af- 
terward that he had never heard Mr. 
Moody pour out his soul in such a tor- 
rent of eloquence as he did then, and 
the whole audience was melted by the 
power of God.—R, A. Torrey, D. D. 


198 ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 371 ——. 
“THEY DID NOT FIND IT OUT” 


Evangelist “Billy” Sunday tells the 
story of a certain man, a professing 
Christian, whose business required him 
to spend some months among the lum- 
ber-jacks of the far Northwest. 

Knowing how rough and godless 
many of these men are, and how they 
ridicule sacred things, a friend said 
to him, “What did the jackies do to 
you when they found out you were a 
Christian?” 

And the traveler answered with a 
touch of shameless pride, “They did 
net do anything, for they did not find 
it out!” 

How glaring the contrast between 
his cowardly silence and the witness- 
jearing of a Western traveling man! 
In the office of a rude hotel several 
miners were gambling. As they became 
intoxicated, they began to swear, par- 
ticularly taking in vain the name of 
Jesus. 

The Christian traveler was writing 
his daily letter to the house. He sat 
still a moment, wondering whether to 
leave the room or rebuke these strangers 
for their profanity. Finally he walked 
over and said: “Pardon me, boys, but 
this Jesus Christ whose name you are 
coupling with such vile oaths is my 
Saviour, and it hurts to hear you use 
His name so. He’s done too much for 
us all to be given such treatment. If 
you must swear, can’t you leave the 
name of Jesus out?” 

Rough as they were, the men saw the 
genuineness of the man who spoke, and 
saying, “All right, pard; we'll see what 
we can do,” they quieted down, and 
swore no more. 

Does the world know you are a Chris- 
tian? Do the members of your frater- 
nity, lodge, or social circle know it? If 
they do not, how does it happen? [It 
cannot be that you are ashamed of it. 

Let us live so true to Him that, 
whether our acquaintances know much 
about us or little, they will at least 


ANECDOTES. 


know that we dearly love our Lord.— 
Christian Endeavor World. 


— 3/2 — 


THE WARNING VOICE HEEDED. 


If we speak to another of God’s good- 
ness to us perhaps that other will be 
led to speak of God’s kindness to him. 


Returning from a vacation a few 
years ago, in the train between Albany 
and New York, I got in conversa- 
tion with a man occupying the seat in 
front of mine. He was, as I learned, a 
Mr. Edwards of Albany, a keeper in 
the penitentiary in that city. Although 
he felt too unworthy to esteem himself 
a Christian, yet he believed in God, and 
in prayer; and in speaking of God's 
goodness to him he related the follow- 
ing occurrence: 


About a year previous he wanted to 
go by trolley from Albany to Kinder- 
hook, and hailed a car intending to 
take it. The conducter stopped, and he 
began to run to get aboard the car when 
a voice seemed to say to him, “Do not 
go! Do not go!” He yielded to the 
warning, and motioned to the conduc- 
tor to go on, and the car sped on with- 
out him. After the car was gone he 
felt foolish and disappointed, for he 
wanted to go to Kinderhock, and to 
wait for another car would make it so 
late that he abandoned the purpose al- 
together; but he could not understand 
why he had not gone when the chance 
was his. 


As he was standing on the stoop of 
his house, not long after, some one pass- 
ing asked him if he had heard of the 
accident. Then, to his surprise, he 
learned that that car had come into 
collision with another car. Three or 
four persons had been killed outright 
and others were injured. When Mr. 
Edwards heard of this disaster which he 
so mercifully escaped, he said he knelt 
down where he was standing and 
thanked God for that warning which he 
thought more than likely was the means 
of saving his life-—Rev. H. M. Tyndall., 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 373 —— 
PRAY YOUR OWN PRAYERS. 


In my boyhood days after I had been 
converted, I had a great desire to be 
useful in the work of the Lord, but al- 
most despaired doing so because of my 
inability to express myself publicly, 
either in testimony or prayer. I could 
not think of enough words to make a 
testimony or prayer two minutes in 
length. 

While attending a United Brethren 
Quarterly Conference, at the close of 
the morning session the presiding elder 
stated that in the afternoon a “love 
feast” would be held, meaning a prayer 
and testimony meeting. I was iil at 
ease for some time wondering what I 
should say when called upon to offer a 
prayer. I then remembered that in the 
library at home was a paper containing 
one of Henry Ward Beecher’s sermons, 
at the beginning of which was a short 
prayer. Immediately a decision was 
made to go home and commit that 
prayer to memory before the afternoon 
service. 

After arriving home I went to my 
room, read the prayer over a few times, 
then kneeled and repeated it until I felt 
assured that I could make use of it in 
the afternoon. After services had be- 
gun, I silently repeated the prayer to be 
sure that it was still at my command. 
When called upon to pray I broke forth 
with the following words of Henry 
Ward Beecher: 

“O Lord God Almighty, bless our 
nation; bless the President of the 
United States and his cabinet; bless the 
Vice-president, the Senate and the 
House of Representatives. Bless the 
governors of the various States and— 
a-n-d—.” 

This was all I could remember of the 
prayer. After some little hesitation I 
had to drop down to my own words 
and common language, which indeed 
seemed very flat to me, and, no doubt, 
to those who were listening. The fall 
from Henry Ward Beecher’s fluent 
language to my small vocabulary was 


199 


so great that it cured me for life. Feel- 
ing so chagrined over my failure in the 
meeting I was for a time in great trial, 
but the Lord comforted me when I de- 
cided thereafter to pray my own prayers 
and not the prayers of some one else, 
to be myself and not try to be Henry 
Ward Beecher or some other noted 
man. 

I decided to pray my short prayer and 
to say what I had to say in testimony, 
and, when through, to sit down and 
rest assured that I had done the will of 
God so far as was required of me. In 
doing this, the Lord helped me and in- 
creased my talent on these lines as I 
obeyed him and did my duty. Although 
he never did see fit to give me a gift of 
speech as he has given to many others, 
yet I learned that it is the prayer of 
faith that counts instead of the ability 
to offer a prayer of many words. 

—E. E. Byrum. 


tla yp at 
A LOAN TO THE LORD. 


A poor man with an empty purse 
came one day to Michael Feneberg, the 
godly pastor of Seyg, in Bavaria, and 
begged three crowns that he might fin- 
ish his journey. It was all the money 
Feneberg had, but as he besought him 
so earnestly in the name of Jesus, he 
gave it. Immediately after he found 
himself in great outward need, and see- 
ing no way of relief, he prayed, saying; 
“Lord, I lent Thee three crowns; Thou 
hast not yet returned them, and Thou 
knowest how I need them. Lord, I 
pray Thee, give them back.” 

The same day a messenger brought a 
money-letter, which Gossner, his assist- 
ant, handed over to Feneberg, saying, 
“Here, father, is what you expended.” 
The letter contained 20 thalers, or about 
$146, which the poor traveler had begged 
from a rich man for the vicar; and the 
childlike old man, in joyful amusement, 
cried out, “Ah, dear Lord, one dare ask 
nothing of Thee, for straightway Thou 
makest one feel so much ashamed!’ 
—Selected. 


200 
—— 375 —— 


THE DOXOLOGY IN EMPTY 
FLOUR BARREL, 


It is one thing to trust God when the 
flour-barrel is full, when there is money 
in the bank to fail back on and when 
the wages are coming in regularly. 

It is quite another thing to trust God 
when the barrel is empty, the money in 
the bank gone, and no wages coming 
in. Under these conditions one is apt 
to find that what was supposed to be 
faith in God was simply faith in a full 
flour-barrel. 

I heard the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, 
of the China Inland Mission, say, 
“When I came to a place of testing 
where my faith was most needed, I 
found it gradually going; then I learned 
to look less to my faith, and to depend 
more on God’s faithfulness.” 

Only as we come to God’s Word and 
plant our feet upon the promises shall 
we find faith abiding in times of testing. 

The flour may be gone; the money 
may be gone, the salary gone; but God 
is there. 

I know this to be true. I had often 
Said in public talks, “It takes real faith 
in God to be able to put your head into 
an empty flour-barrel and sing the dox- 
ology.” My wife had heard me say 
this and not long since she called me to 
the kitchen. I said, “What do you want 
me for?” 

she replied, “I want you to come out 
here and sing.” I thought this queer, 
so I went out to see what it all meant. 

In the center of the floor there was 
an empty flour-barrel she had just dusted 
out. 

“Now, my dear,” said she, “I have 
often heard you say one could put his 
head into an empty flour-barrel and 
sing, ‘Praise God from whom all bless- 
ings flow,’ if he believed what God said. 
Now here is your chance; practice what 
you preach.” 

There was the empty flour-barrel 
staring at me with open mouth; my 
pocket-book was empty as the barrel; 
I was not on a salary, and knew of no 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


money that was coming in. I do not 
know that my wife enjoyed my preach- 
ing, but she was evidently bent on en- 
joying my practicing. I looked for my 
faith and could not find it; I looked for 
a way of escape, but could not find that, 
my wife blocking the door of exit with 
the dust-brush covered with flour. 

I said, “I will put my head in and 
sing, on one condition.” 

“What’s that?” said my wife. 

“The condition that you will put your 
head in with me. You know how you 
promised to share my joys and sor- 
rows.” 

She consented; so we put our heads 
in and sang the long-metre doxology. I 
will not say what else we did, but we 
had a good time; and when we got our 
heads out we were a good bit powdered 
up, which we took as a token that there 
was more flour to follow. 

Sure enough, though no person knew 
of our need or the empty barrel, the 
next day a grocery man called with a 
barrel of flour for the Gibbuds! Who 
sent it, or where it came from, we do 
not know to this day, save that we 
know that our heavenly Father knew 
that we had “need of these things.” 

I have joined with a thousand voices 
in singing the grand old doxology; I 
have sung it in many a fine church 
building, also in the open air under the 
blue canopy of heaven; but there is 
something very peculiar about the 
sound of the song when sung in an ermp- 
ty flour-barrel under the foregoing con- 
ditions. I have repeated the experience 
once or twice since with the same result 
though now I never spend any time in 
looking for my faith; I simply apply for 
flour at Phil. 4:19, and then sing, 
“Praise God from whom all blessings 
flow.” Bread, butter, beef, beans, and 
all our needs we find can be supplied 
from the same place. 

In days gone by we have trusted in a 
good salary, but that sometimes failed 
to materialize; we have trusted in a 
good committee, but they did not al- 
ways know when rent was due. But 
the Lord knows when the first day of 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


the month comes around, and He has 
never failed to send us our rent money 
before it was due. “Trust in the Loxd, 
and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the 
land, and verily (in ‘truth,’ the margin 
says) thou shalt be fed,’ the Douay 
version reading, “Thou shalt be fed 
with its riches.” 

There is board and lodging for any- 
body who will “trust in the Lord and 
do good.”—H. B. Gibbud. 


—— 376 ——= 


HOW A TEACHER FAILED. 


Mrs, Barney of Rhode Island tells the 
following incident: 

“My business in W. C, T. U. work 
called me to Pitsburgh, where I was met 
by a young friend who took me to her 
home in one of the public carriages 
found at the station. As I got into the 
carriage I noticed the very disreputable- 
looking driver and the very shabby car- 
riage. I wondered at my friend select- 
ing that particular outfit. As I turned 
to my friend, I found her weeping bit- 
terly. ‘Mary, what is it?’ She replied, 
‘O, Mrs. Barney, look at that dreadful 
driver! He was once my Sunday school 
scholar and look at him now!’ I 
thought: ‘You may well weep.’ She 
continued, ‘I went away to college and 
was gone four years. When I came 
back he had become a common drunk- 
ard. I went to him, and said, “O Jack, 
I see you are going wrong; do you for- 
get all my teachings?” He replied: 
“Miss Mary, you had your chance with 
my life and you failed to use it for good. 
You taught the Bible as if it were a bit 
of Roman or Greek history. You never 
got any Christ into your lessons or any 
Christ into me. Too late to talk to me 
now.’ ” 

“Fellow teacher, in God’s eternal day 
will any soul look into your face or mine 
and say: ‘You had your chance with 
my life and you failed. You never had 
Christ in your lesson and there is no 
Christ in me.’ Rather let us strive to 
be able to say: ‘Dear Lord, here is every 
soul committed to my care. I have 


ANECDOTES 201 
done my best to make them honorable 
citizens of the Republic of the United 
States and glorious citizens of the King- 
dom of God.” 


—— 3/7] —— 


HOW “SAFE IN THE ARMS OF 
JESUS” CAME TQ-BE 
WRITTEN. 


The blind hymn writer, Fanny Cros- 
by, in telling how one of her most 
beautiful and tender hymns, “Safe in 
the Arms of Jesus,” came to be written, — 
says: 

“Mr. W. H. Doane, the author of 
the music, came to my home one morn- 
ing, and he said he was anxious to get 
the next train for Cincinnati, his home, 
and he was very anxious as well that I 
should write a hymn to a melody which 
he had just written, and which he 
played. Then he said: “In order to do 
this we have only forty minutes. Can 
you do it?” I smiled, and said, “We 
will try.” So I ran upstairs to my room, 
and, as I always do, knelt down and 
asked divine assistance. I finished the 
hymn in less than fifteen minutes. But 
I believe the Holy Spirit dictated that 
hymn. It was born for a mission, and 
that was to comfort sad and lonely 
hearts. 

“I have heard a great many stories in 
regard to that hymn. Dr. John Hall, 
of New York, once told me that he went 
one day to visit one of his parishioners 
whose little girl was lying in bed very 
ill. The gentleman came in tears into 
the reception room, and Dr. Hall asked, 
“Has the little one gone home?” “No,” 
replied the anxious father, “but she 
wants to do something that I cannot do. 
I never sang a song in my life, and 
she won’t be comforted until I sing 
‘Safe in the Arms of Jesus.” “Never 
mind,” said Dr. Hall, “I will go up and 
sing it for her,” and he went up where 
the little sufferer was, and sang the 
hymn until he came to the third line of 
the last verse, when the little spirit 
plumed its wings, flew away home, ana 
was “safe in the Arms of Jesus.” 


202 


ean 378 ——— 
HERO OF “PUNCHEON CAMP.” 


Once when I was on a preaching tour 
through the mountains, a humble, un- 
lettered young man joined the church. 
Amoung a hundred others he made no 
impression on me, unless it was by his 
homeliness. On a subsequent visit he 
met me at the church on the Middle 
Fork of the Kentucky River and urged 
me to visit his Sunday School on Pun- 
cheon Camp. I was astonished that he 
had a Sunday School anywhere, espe- 
cially on the Puncheon Camp. 

It was several miles from where he 
worked (as a hired man) among a 
sparsely settled people, in a narrow val- 
ley. between big mountains. He urged 
so persistently that I promised to stop 
on the Puncheon Camp Creek at nine 
o’clock Thursday morning on my way 
to Jackson. I could hardly believe that 
a Sunday School could be gathered at 
nine o'clock on a week day out of those 
wild, rough mountains. I did not know 
the man. 

It was blazng hot; I came near hav- 
ing a sunstroke as I crossed the moun- 
tain at the head of the Puncheon Camp 
though I started early. By nine o’clock 
I came in sight of the old deserted house 
where the Sunday School was taught. 
Imagine my astonishment when I saw 
an anxious crowd of men and women 
and children filling the house, porch and 
yard at nine o’clock in the morning. 
They had climbed the mountains and 
crossed the streams on foot to hear the 
Gospel. 

My friend was there and made a place 
big enough for me to stand in a crowd 
that filled every inch of space both in- 
side and outside the house. His equip- 
ment for the Sunday School consisted 
of one small copy of Gospel Hymns 
(“words only’) and a small ten-cent 
Testament. Out of these he taught the 
Puncheon Campers to sing and to love 
Jesus. He led the singing and I 
preached. A hundred earnest, eager, 
hungry people sitting on the floor and 
porches of a mountain cabin would make 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the dumb speak and the stones ery out 
if others were silent, 

That poor, untutored lad, Lewis Hens- 
ley, who had spelled out the story of 
Jesus’ love to the simple mountain folk, 
had sowed the seed of the kingdom. I 
don’t remember the sermon but I do 
remember that when I was done some 
eighteen souls, some well stricken in 
years, some in the dew of youth, came 
forward to say they believed in Jesus. 
It was not far from there to heaven that 
day.—Edward O. Guerrant. 


——— 379 


SANKEY AND THE GIPSY BOY 


While holding meetings at Burdett 
Road, London, in 1874, Mr. Moody 
and Mr. Sankey one Saturday took a 
drive out to Epping Forest. “There 
we visited a gipsy camp,” says Mr. 
Sankey, “and while stopping to speak to 
two brothers who had been converted 
and were doing good missionary work, 
a few young gipsy lads came up to our 
carriage. I put my hand on the head 
of one of them and said: ‘May the 
Lord make a preacher of you, my boy!’ 

“Fifteen years later, when Gipsy 
Smith made his first visit to America, 
I had the pleasure of taking him for a 
drive in Brooklyn. While passing 
through Prospect Park he asked me: 
‘Do you remember driving from Lon- 
don one day to a gipsy camp at Epping 
Forest?’ I replied that I remembered. 
‘Do you remember a little gipsy boy 
standing by your carriage,’ he asked 
again, ‘and you put your hand on his 
head, saying that you hoped that he 
would be a preacher? ‘Yes, I remem- 
ber it very well.’ ‘I am that boy,’ 
said Gipsy Smith. My surprise can 
better be imagined than described. 
Little had I thought that the success- 
ful evangelist and fine Gospel singer of 
whom 1] had heard so much was the 
little boy I had met in the gipsy camp. 
Truly God had granted my wish and 


had made a mighty preacher of the gip- 
sy boy.” 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 380 ——— 
SHE SAVED THE TRAIN. 


One day in September, 1893, a little 
girl, named Jennie Creek, was strolling 
through the woods near her home in 
Indiana, when she noticed the smell of 
burning wood. She looked for the 
cause, and to her surprise she saw that 
the railroad bridge which spanned the 
big river was on fire. Into her soul 
came a great horror. She knew that in 
five minutes the eastbound Chicago ex- 
press would come dashing along at a 
terrific speed, bearing its load of passen- 
gers from the World’s Fair. 


There she stood alone, a little girl 
eleven years old. There was no one 
near to call upon for help. Suddenly 
she heard the whistle of the train. It 
was rushing fast toward the burning 
bridge. What should she do? But Jen- 
nie was a Christian girl, and in this 
moment of agony she prayed, “Lord 
Jesus, help me. Tell me what to do.” 
She realized that she must stop the 
train; but how? She knew that a red 
flag was the sign of danger; if she only 
had something red. The next second 
she remembered her underskirt of red 
flannel. She ripped off her dress, tore 
off her petticoat and ran toward the 
train, shouting and waving the garment 
as she ran. 

The train was thundering along to 
certain destruction, when into the eyes 
of the engineer came a flash of red. In 
an instant he saw a little gizl waving 
the signal. The engine was reversed, 
but not a second too soon. Half a min- 
ute more and the train would have 
crashed headlong into the river with a 
terrible loss of life. The passengers 
showered her with blessings, and car- 
ried her through the cars in triumph on 
their shoulders. 

Among the passengers were some dis- 
tinguished people from France, who had 
come to attend the World’s Fair. A 
few months afterward Jennie received 
a letter with a strange-looking post- 
mark. It was about the first letter she 
had ever received. It was from Presi- 


208 


dent Carnot of France. It called her a 
brave, good girl, and told her she had 
been chosen a member of the Legion of 
Honor. She was offered an education 
in the best schools of France at the ex- 
pense of the government. Then when 
the great Paris Exposition occurred in 
1900, the French government invited 
her to visit France as the guest of the 
nation, showing that after seven years 
those grateful foreigners had not for- 
gotten the little girl who stopped their 
train at the burning bridge. 

Yes, they were grateful to her; but 
Jennie was thankful to God who had an- 
swered her prayer in that moment of 
perplexity, and had shown her what ta 
do.—Rev. H. W. Pope. 


—— 381 —— 


SAVED FROM DEATH IN A 
TRUNK. 


A special despatch to the New York 
Herald from Saginaw, Mich., February 
17, 1914, tells the following beautiful 
story: 

Monday, while Mrs. Michael Hart 
was busy with her housework she 
missed her two children, Mary, eight 
years old, and Leon, six. At first she 
was not alarmed, but the continued ab- 
sence of the children frightened her, 
and she hurried from one room to the 
other without finding them. She was 
quite sure they had not leit the house, 
as their coats and hats were not gone. 

Suddenly she lifted the lid of a trunk 
and screamed. Two little forms, hands 
clasped on their breasts, two little chil- 
dren seemingly wax, she saw. Physi- 
cians were called, and the unconscious 
children were revived just in time. 

The children told how they had 
prayed, “Jesus, tell ma we are in the 
trunk and tell her to come quick.” 

“We were afraid Jesus was not listen- 
ing,” said Mary, “and we asked Him to 
take us to heaven if we were going to 
die. I made Leon fold his hands across 
his breast like people in coffins and I 
folded mine, too. Then we waited.” 


204 


——- 382 —— 
A HEBREW’S SEARCH FOR THE 
BLOOD OF ATONEMENT. 


In the spring of 1898 I was holding 
some gospel meetings in San Francisco, 
and several times addressed the Jews 
attending a “Mission to Israel.” On one 
occasion, having concluded my dis- 
course, the meeting was thrown open 
for discussion with any Hebrews who 
desired to ask questions or state diffi- 
culties, as also for any who had been 
brought to Christ to relate their con- 
versions. 

The experience of one old Jew inter- 
ested me greatly, and as nearly as I can, 
I give his remarks in his own words, 
though not attempting to preserve the 
inimitable Hebrew-English dialect. 

He said: “This is Passover week 
emong you, my Jewish brethren, and 
as I sat here I was thinking how you 
will be observing it. You will have put 
away all leaven from your houses; you 
will eat the “motsah” (unleavened 
wafers) and the roasted lamb. You will 
attend the synagogue services, and 
carry out the ritual and directions of 
the Talmud; but you forget, my breth- 
ren, that you have everything but that 
which Jehovah required first of all. He 
did not say, ‘When I see the leaven put 
away, or when I see you eat the motsah, 
or the lamb, or go to the synagogue; 
but His word was, ‘When I see the 
blood I will pass over you.’ Ah, my 
brethren, you can substitute nothing for 
this. You must have blood, blood, 
BLOOD!” 

As he reiterated this word with ever- 
increasing emphasis, his black eyes 
flashed warningly, and his Jewish hear- 
ers quailed before him. 

“Blood!” It is an awful word, that, 
for one who reveres the ancient oracle, 
and yet has no sacrifice. Turn where 
he will in the book, the blood meets him, 
let him seek as he may, he cannot find 
it in the Judaism of the present. ; 

After a moment’s pause, the patri- 
archal old man went on somewhat as 
follows: “I was born in Palestine, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


nearly seventy years ago. As a child 
I was taught to read the Law, the 
Psalms, and the Prophets. I early at- 


tended the synagogue and learned He- 
brew from the Rabpis. At first I Le- 
lieved what I was told, that ours was 
the true and only religion, but as I grew 
older and studied the Law more intent- 
ly, I was struck by the place the blood 
had in all the ceremonies outlined there, 
and equally struck by its utter absence 
in the ritual to which I was brought up. 

“Again and again I read Exodus xii. 
and Leviticus xvi., xvii., and the latter 
chapters especially made me tremble, as 
I thought of the great Day of Atone- 
ment and the place the blood had there. 
Day and night one verse would ring in 
my ears. ‘It is the blood that maketh 
an atonement for the soul!’ I knew I 
had broken the law. I needed atone- 
ment. Year after year, on that day, I 
beat my breast as I confessed my need 
of it; but it was to be made by blood, 
and there was no blood! 

“In my distress, at last, I opened my 
heart to a learned and venerable rabbi. 
He told me that God was angry with 
His people. Jerusalem was in the hands 
of the Gentiles, the temple was des- 
troyed, and a Mohammedan mosque was 
reared up in its place. The only spot 
on earth where we dare shed the blood 
of sacrifice, in accordance with Deuter- 
onomy xii. and Leviticus xvii., was des- 
ecrated, and our nation scattered. That 
was why there was no blood. God had 
Himself closed the way to carry out 
the solemn service of the great Day of 
Atonement. Now, we must turn to the 
Talmud, and rest on its instruction, and 
trust in the mercy of God and the merits 
of the fathers. 

“T tried to be satisfied, but could not. 
Something seemed to say that the law 
was unaltered, even though our temple 
was destroyed. Nothing else but blood 
could atohe for the soul. We dared not 
shed blood for atonement elsewhere 
than in the place the Lord had chosen. 
Then we were left without an atone- 
ment at all? 

“This thought filled me with horror. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


205 


In my distress I consulted many other man the agitated appeal, “Yet more, O 


rabbis. I had but one great question— 
Where can I find the blood of atone- 
ment? 


“I was over thirty years of age when 
I left Palestine and came to Constanti- 
nople, with my still unanswered ques- 
tion ever before my mind, and my soul 
exceedingly troubled about my sins. 

“One night I was walking down one 
of the narrow streets of that city, when 
I saw a sign telling of a meeting for 
Jews. Curiosity led me to open the 
door and go in. Just as I took a seat 
I heard a man say, ‘The blood of Jesus 
Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all 
sin.’ It was my first introduction to 
Christianity, but I listened breathlessly 
as the speaker told how God had de- 
clared that ‘without shedding of blood 
is no remission’; but that He had given 
His only begotten Son, the Lamb of 
God, to die, and all who trusted in His 
blood were forgiven all their iniquities, 
This was the Messiah of the fifty-third 
of Isaiah: this was the Sufferer of 
Psalm xxii. Ah, my brethren, I had 
found the blood of atonement at last. I 
trusted it, and now I love to read the 
New Testament and see how all the 
shadows of the law are fulfilled in Jesus. 
His blood has been shed for sinners. It 
has satisfied God, and it is the only 
means of salvation for either Jew or 
Gentile.” 

Reader, have you yet found the blood 
of atonement? “Behold the Lamb of 
God, who taketh away the sin of the 
world” (John 1:29). Are you trusting 
in God’s smitten Lamb?—the ever-suffi- 
cient, all-availing sacrifice? Rev. H.A. 
Tronside 393 


EARNESTNESS. 


When Xavier was preparing to £0 
forth upon his mission through the East, 
his friend Rodriguez, who shared 
his apartment in the Hospital at Rome, 
was awakened in the night by his earn- 
est exclamations. He heard him toss- 
ing restlessly on his couch; and at times 
there came from the lips of the sleeping 








my God! yet more!” 

It was not until many months after- 
wards that he revealed the vision. He 
had seen in his slumber the wild and 
terrible future of his career spread out 
before him. There were barbarous re- 
gions, islands, and continents, and 
mighty empires which he was to win to 
his faith. Storms, indeed, swept around 
them, and hunger and thirst were every- 
where, and death in many a fearful form; 
yet he shrank not back. He was willing 
to dare the peril, if he could but win the 
prize. Nay, he yearned for still wider 
fields of labor, and with an absorbing 
passion, that filled every faculty, and 
haunted him even in his slumber, he ex- 
claimed, “Yet more, O my God! yet 
more!” The incident furnishes a fine il- 
lustration of Christian earnestness.— 
Selected. 

—— 384 ——. 


BIBLE READING IN A CHIMNEY. 


Now that the Bible is an open book 
in so large a part of the world, it is hard 
to realize to what devices the Christians 
of former times were forced to resort 
in order to enjoy their precious copies 
of God’s Word. One famous Bible still 
in existence was preserved by being 
baked inside a loaf of bread. Rev. 
George Whalpton of the French Metho- 
dist Evangelistic Mission tells how an 
old woman in a Norman village gave 
him a smoked Bible with an interesting 
history. 

It belonged to the great-grandfather 
of “la mere Vardon” (Mother Vardon), 
who, at the beginning of the last cen- 
tury, used to hide it up the great chim- 
ney of his cottage, in a niche made by 
the removal of a brick. In order to read 
the book without incurring the certain 
danger of imprisonment or even of a 
cruel death, he would close the shutters, 
lock his door, put out the fire, and get 
up into the chimney, where with the 
daylight which reached him from above, 
he strengthened his heart by the pre- 
cious promises of God’s Word. 

—Selected, 


206 


—— 385 —— 


A DANIEL EXPERIENCE OF 
TO-DAY. 


The victorious life which The Sunday 
School Times is teaching was, to my 
husband and myself at the time of this 
experience, quite in its infancy, and we 
both had a burning desire to know God 
more thoroughly. On our knees with 
our Bibles and putting the promises to 
the test we came to have many experi- 
ences like the following: 

My husband, on account of ili health, 
was acting as superintendent of a silver 
mine near Leadville, Colorado, I re- 
maining in Illinois. The mining camp 
was quite far up the trail from where 
he was “batching it” with a friend. 

One morning he arose, and, having 
finished breakfast and devotions, started 
to leave the cabin. As his hand reached 
the latch, it was supernaturally held; 
he could not touch the latch. He re- 
turned to his seat to think, believing that 
it was the hand of God. Then he prayed 
about it, asking for light in the reverent 
but familiar way we had come to feel 
toward God. 

He then opened his Bible, saying, “I 
recognize thy hand; will you choose to 
show me by a passage of Scripture that 
you are here, that I am right, and you 
are leading me?” He opened to a pass- 
age speaking of where meat was cook- 
ing on a fire. At this he thanked God, 
saying, “I recognize the answer,’ for he 
was then boiling on the stove some 
meat for his friend’s return at noon. 

Rising, he went to the door, but with 
the same success as before. Again he 
returned to his seat, saying, “Perhaps I 
am to be detained to meet some one 
here On business to-day.” He spent 
some time talking it over with the Mas- 
ter; then saying, “Unless I am to go 
now it will be too late to start,” he went 
to the door and passed out naturally. 

Going to where his pony was tied he 
started up the trail, and, being a close 
observer and a geologist, he soon no- 
ticed two sets of tracks in the light 
snow which had fallen through the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


night, and which he had never seen be- 
fore. He dismounted and examined 
them closely. 

As he reached the camp a great shout 
arose as the great doors burst open, 
from a hundred thankful men. Then 
followed explanations. Two immense 
mountain lions had passed the very time 
Mr. Perry usually arrived, for he was 
methodical almost to the minute. “We 
supposed, of course, one had eaten the 
pony and you were eaten by the other.” 
Of all the lions seen by the men, none 
had ever been so large. 

As their superintendent told them of 
the wonderful providence, godless men 
though they were, they accepted it as 
God’s hand. For “no manner of hurt 
was found upon him, because he had 
trusted in his God” (Dan. 6:23).—Mrs. 
Frances Perry, in Sunday School Times. 


—— 386 
DELIVERANCE FROM WANT. 


At one time I was recounting to a 
Christian friend some of our remarkable 
deliverances from want, by which he 
was so much affected that he even wept. 
While I was speaking, as if to confirm 
my statement, I received a letter con- 
taining a check for five hundred ducats. 
At another time I was in need of a large 
sum, but did not know where to obtain 
ten ducats. The steward of the orphan- 
age came, but having no money for 
him, I asked him to come again after 
dinner and in the meantime gave my- 
self to prayer. When he came in the 
afternoon all I could do was to ask him 
to come again in the evening. In the 
afternoon I was visited by a friend with 
whom I united in prayer to God. As 
I accompanied my friend to the door on 
his departure, I found the steward 
standing on one side, and on the other 
a person who put into my hands a hund- 
ted and fifty ducats. On another occa- 
sion the superintendent began to pay 
the laborers with only fourteen ducats, 
but before he got through he received 
enough to complete the cae 
A. H. Franke. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


—— 387 ——- 
BRICK WITHOUT STRAW. 


A few days ago, being in the store of 
a Jewish bookseller in this part of the 
city, and the conversation leading to 
Biblical questions, the bookseller, who 
has drifted away from the faith of his 
fathers, made the remark that there is 
no evidence that the Israelites ever were 
in Egypt. We told him he was quite 
mistaken; that not only is there evi- 
dence of the Hebrews having dwelt in 
Egypt, but also the spades of the exca- 
vators are helping to confirm in cer- 
tain minute particulars the statements 
of Scripture, touching their residence in 
that land. And then we referred to the 
following facts: 

Since 1883 a society known as the 
“Egypt Exploration Fund,” composed 
of Profs. Petrie, Naville and others, has 
been at work in Egypt; and one of their 
discoveries is the site of the ancient city 
of Pithom. 

In the first chapter of Exodus we are 
told that “the Egyptians made the chil- 
dren of Israel to serve with rigor; and 
they made their lives bitter with hard 
bondage, in mortar and in brick.” 

Now, it was not customary for the 
Egyptians to lay their brick in mortar, 
but in mud, which was a fair substitute 
for taortar. But in Pithom, one of 
Pharaoh’s treasure cities, built we are 
told in Exodus by the Israelites, it has 
been discovered that the bricks are laid 
in mortar instead of mud. 

Furthermore, the lower courses of the 
foundation walls of this same _ store- 
city are made, it is said, of brick in 
which straw was mixed with the clay; 
but in the upper courses of the walls the 
straw disappears, and the bricks are 
made of the Nile mud, without the help 
of straw to hold it together. This is 
surely an interesting verification of the 
statement in Exodus, that one of the 
oppressive measures of Pharaoh was to 
refuse finally to supply the Hebrews 
with straw for their brick, and yet to re- 
quire them to produce the same number 
as before—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


—— 388 ——— 
AM 1 BETTER OFF? 


The following story is told of Jacob 
Ridgeway, a wealthy citizen of Phila- 
delphia. “Mr. Ridgeway,” said a young 
man with whom the millionaire was 
conversing, “you are more to be en- 
vied than any one I know.” “Why so?” 
responded Mr. Ridgeway; “I am _ not 
aware of any cause for which I should 
be envied.” “What sir!” exclaimed the 
young man in surprise. “Why, you are 
a millionaire! Think of the thousands 
your income brings every month!” 
“Well, what of that?” replied Mr. Ridge- 
way. “All I get out of it is my victuals 
and clothes, and I can’t eat more than 
one man’s allowance, and wear more 
than one suit of clothes at a time. Pray 
can’t you do as much?” “Ah, but,” 
said the youth, “think of the hundreds 
of fine houses you own, and the rentals 
they bring you.” “What better am I 
off for that?” replied the rich man. “I 
can only live in one house at a time; 
as for the money I receive for rents, 
why I can’t eat or wear it; I can only 
use it to buy other houses for other peo- 
ple to live in; they are the beneficiaries, 
not I.” “But you can buy splendid 
furniture, and costly pictures, and fine 
carriages and horses—in fact, anything 
you desire.” “And after I have bought 
them,” responded Mr. Ridgeway, “what 
then? I can only iook at the furniture, 
and pictures, and the poorest man, who 
is not blind, can do the same. I can 
ride no easier in a fine carriage than 
you can ride in an omnibus for five 
cents, without the trouble of attending 
to drivers, footmen, and hostlers; and 
as to anything I ‘desire’ I can tell you 
that the less you desire in this world, 
the happier you will be. All my wealth 
can’t buy a single day more of life— 
can not buy back my youth—can not 
procure me power to keep off the hour 
of death; and then what will all avail, 
when in a few short years at most, I 
must lie down in the grave and leave it 
all forever? Young man, you have no 
cause to envy me.”—Selected. 


208 “ILLUSTRATIVE 


pa, eae 
A NARROW ESCAPE. 


The Denver News reports the follow- 
ing story related by attorney J. W. 
Donovan, in a case in the recorder’s 
court, which shows how a touch of 
nature makes the world akin, and de- 
velops beneath a rough exterior the 
principles of tender sympathy and kind 
charity: 

On a hot day in July, 1860, a herds- 
man was moving his cattle to a new 
ranch further north, near Helena, Texas, 
and passing down the banks of a stream, 
his herd became mixed with other cattle 
that were grazing in the valley, and 
some of them failed to be separated. 
The next day about noon a band of 
about a dozen Texas rangers overtook 
the herdsman and demanded their cat- 
tle, which they said were stolen. 

It was before the day of law and 
court-houses in Texas, and one had 
better kill five men than steal a mule 
worth five dollars, and the herdsman 
knew it. He tried to explain, but they 
told him to cut it short. He offered to 
turn over all the cattle not his own, but 
they laughed at the proposition, and 
hinted that they usually confiscated the 
whole herd and left the thief hanging 
on a tree, a warning to others in like 
cases. 

The poor fellow was completely over- 
come. They consulted apart for a iew 
minutes, and then told him if he had 
any explanations to make or business 
to do, they would allow him ten minutes 
to do so and defend himself. 

He turned to the rough faces and 
commenced: “How many of you have 
wives?” Two or three nodded. “How 
many of you have children?” They 
nodded again. 

“Then I know whom I am talking 
to, and you'll hear me;” and he con- 
tinued, “I never stole any cattle. I 
have lived in these parts over three 
years. I came from New Hampshire. 
I failed in the fall of °57, during the 
panic. I have been saving. I have no 


ANECDOTES 


home here; my family remain East, 
for I go from place to place. These 
clothes I wear are rough, and I am a 
hard-looking customer; but this is a 
hard country. Days seemed months to 
me, and months like years. Married 
men, you know that. But for letters 
from home (here he pulled out a hand- 
ful of well-worn envelopes and letters 
from his wife) I should get discouraged. 
I have paid part of my debts. Here 
are the receipts,” and he unfolded the 
letters of acknowledgment. “I expect 
to sell out and go home in November. 
Here is the Testament my good old 
mother gave me; here is my little girl’s 
picture,” and he kissed it tenderly, and 
continued, “now, men, if you have de- 
cided to kill me for what I am inno- 
cent of, send these home, and send as 
much as you can from the cattle when 
I am dead, Can’t you send half the 
value? My family will need it.” 

“Hold on, now; stop right thar!” said 
arough ranger. “Now, I say, boys,” he 
continued, “I say, let him go. Give us 
your hand, old boy; that picture and 
them letters did the business. You can 
go free, but you’re lucky, mind ye.” 

“We'll do more than that,” said a 
man with a big heart, in Texan garb, 
and carrying the customary brace of 
pistols in his belt; “let’s buy his cattle 
here and let him go.” 

They did, and when the money was 
paid over and the man about to start 
he was too weak to stand. The long 
strain of hopes and fears, being far 
away from home under such trying cir- 
cumstances, the sudden deliverance from 
death, had combined to render him help- 
less as a child. He sank to the ground 
completely overcome. An hour later, 
however, he left on horseback, for the 
nearest staging route, and, as _ they 
shook hands and bade him good-bye, 
they looked the happiest band of men 
I ever saw. 


—— 390 —— 
THE WIDOW’S MEAL. 
I remember being much struck long 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


years ago oy an incident related to me 
by a Highland shepherd on my uncle’s 
estate of Arndilly, the facts of which he, 
a good Christian man, was quite pre- 
pared to vouch for. 


Up on a lone hillside, and far removed 
from any other dwelling, there lived, 
about the middle of the century, a poor 
lone widow, who for many a long year 
had learned to rest, in every difficulty 
and in all her need, upon Him who has 
somewhere said: “Let thy widows trust 
in me.” It was the depth of winter 
when the incident that I am going to re- 
late occurred, and the poor woman’s 
stock, never very abundant, was, I sup- 
pose, reduced to its lowest by the diffi- 
culty of finding any employment at that 
season of the year. Unlike the widow 
in the Hebrew story, she actually found 
her barrel of meal fail, and when she had 
finished the last handful she went to 
bed, possibly with the hope that she 
might be more fortunate in earning a 
few pence on the morrow. 

But when the morrow came a terrible 
snow-storm swept over the land, and 
the lane leading to her little cot 
was almost blocked with the snow. It 
was quite beyond her slender powers to 
battle with the raging storm, and make 
her way to some neighbor’s house, 
where at least she would be made wel- 
come to a dish of porridge. There was 
One only Friend to whom she could ap- 
ply, and in Him she had the most perfect 
confidence. 

Accordingly she filled her pan with 
water, and put it on the fire, and actually 
put the salt in the water. “Noo,” she 
said to herself, “I'll jist gang ben, and 
ask the Loord for the meal.” So she 
retired into her inner chamber, and there 
“with praise and thanksgiving she made 
her wants known unto the Lord.” She 
hadn’t been long on her knees when 
there came a loud knock at the door. 
“Na, na, Loord!” she exclaimed. “Thou 
cans’ na hae sent the answer sae soon!” 

But the knocking continued, and, on 
her opening the door, a buxom farmer’s 
lass, who lived some little distance off, 


ANECDOTES 209 


flung down a sack of meal on the floor, 
exclaiming: “Father sent ye that; and 
I think ye may be very grateful to me 
for bringing it here through all this 
terrible storm. Whatever possessed my 
father I don’t know, but all the morning 
he has been dinning into me about that 
sack of meal, and, snow or no snow, I 
must be sure and fetch it up to you; 
but it’s been a pretty hard job getting 
through the storm, I can tell you.” 


So she was rattling on, when a glance 
at the old woman fairly overawed and 
silenced her. There she stood with up- 
lifted hands and eyes bedimmed with 
tears of grateful praise, as she exclaimed: 


“He’s aye the same, Jeanie! He’s aye 
the same! Many a lang year hae I 
trusted Him, and I ne’er found Him fail; 
and He’s na failed me noo. Look at 
yon pot on the fire, Jeanie. I put on the 
water, and I put in the sait, and ne’er 
a grain o’ meal had I in the hose. Sae 
I was jist asking the Loord to send me 
the meal, when I heard ye knock at the 
door, and noo here comes the meal, jist 
while I was asking for it.”--W. Hay M. 
H. Aitken. 


—— 391 —— 


AN AFRICAN LAKE. 


Of a lake in Central Africa, Rev. R. 
Stewart Wright says: “When this lake 
was first discovered there was no out- 
let, and the water was brackish. When 
Cameron and Stanley visited the lake 
it was commencing to dribble into the 
Lukuga, and thence into the Congo. 
Shortly afterward it burst the barrier 
and flowed out in a full stream, which 
it has maintained ever since. Eighteen 
years ago, when I first lived on the 
shore, the water was still slightly min- 
eral; today, however, it is pure and 
wholesome. Fish abound, and afford 
sustenance to many of the people, as 
well as to innumerable birds.” 

Many lives are suffering for want of 
an outlet. Beneficence to others reacts 
upon the quality and happiness of our 
own. lives. 


210 


—— 392 —— 
SPECIAL PROVIDENCES OF 
GOD. 


The following events transpired un- 
der my own observation in the town of 
Allen, Allegany, N. Y. Although 
many years have passed away since 
their occurrence, they are still fresh in 
my memory. 

There was a neighbor of ours, by the 
name of Peter Jones, then in the prime 
of life, very ambitious, an honest and 
honorable man in his dealings with men, 
as far as I knew, but greedy of gain and 
very irreligious. Although he would 
scorn the idea of robbing his fellow man, 
yet he would rob God by breaking His 
holy Sabbaths, apparently taking pride 
in doing secular work on the day which 
God has sanctified, and commanded to 
keep holy. He was not satisfied with 
what he could make by working six 
days in a week, and often would also 
work on the Sabbath. 

Finally, he conceived and put in oper- 
ation a plan to increase his worldly in- 
terest and make property faster than his 
more moral neighbors. He said he was 
going to keep a separate account of his 
Sunday labor, and at the close of the 
year see how much he had made by it, 
while others were losing their time, 
thinking perhaps he would prove the 
falsity of the declaration of the Bible 
that, “godliness is profitable unto ail 
things; having the promise of the life 
that now is, and of that which is to 
come.” He succeeded in putting in six 
acres of wheat, and one acre of potatoes, 
and prepared the ground on the Sab- 
bath. What he could not do in season 
alone, he changed works with some of 
his ungodly neighbors and paid the work 
back again on the Sabbaths. An early 
frost came and killed the potatoes be- 
fore they matured, not injuring others 
in the neighborhood materially. His 
wheat was good, harvested and stacked 
in season, and in good order. About one 
week after it was stacked a whirlwind 
or hurricane passed directly over the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Stacks, catrying both stacks almost en- 
tirely away. 

But little of it was ever discovered, 
and that was several miles away in the 
big swamp. No other damage was done 
by the tornado except tearing down or 
twisting about a narrow strip of tim- 
ber in its course. Mr. Jones very ir- 
reverently remarked that “the old gen- 
tleman was most too hard on him.” But 
a short time after the gale he was 
doomed to suffer a still heavier afflic- 
tion. One of his children, a beautiful 
little boy, fell backwards into a vessel of 
hot water and was so badly scalded 
that it lived but a few days. Mr. Jones 
quite naturally considered these misfor- 
tunes and afflictions as the just judg- 
ment of God for his impious conduct, 
and from that time ceased working on 
the Sabbath, began to attend the means 
of grace, and at a protracted meeting in 
that vicinity soon after, was hopefully 
converted, and made a public profession 
of religion, and united with the church. 
When God’s judgments are abroad in 
the earth the people will learn right- 
eousness.—D, Reynolds. 


— 393 —— 


THE BEST ARGUMENT. 


The late Dr. Bernardo, of London, the 
great philanthropist, relates that he was 
once standing at his front door on a bit- 
ter day in winter, when a little ragged 
chap came up to him and asked for an 
order of admission into his home. 


To test the boy, he pretended to be 
rather rough with him. 

“How do I know,” he said, “if what 
you tell me is true? Have you any 
friends to speak for you?” 

“Friends!” the little fellow shouted; 
“Tf these rags’—waving his arms about 
as he spoke—“won’t speak for me, 
nothing else will.” 

So your very needs are the strongest 
appeal to the Saviour. And if you come 
to Him with all your heart, just be- 
cause you need Him, you shall have His 
sympathy and love.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ae) ea 
UNSELFISH SUCCESS. 


No man in English-speaking countries 
has so richly earned the title of “the chil- 
dren’s friend” as a poor man in London 
known by the very common name of 
George Smith. He was the son of a 
brickmaker, and at the tender age of four 
years he was put to work in the yard 
with a host of other children not much 
older than himself. The heavy lumps of 
clay which he was compelled to carry 
for fourteen hours a day injured his 
spine and dwarfed his growth. 

In very busy seasons the little fellows 
were allowed an extra sixpence if they 
continued their work far into the night. 
George was fond of reading, and his 
hard-earned bits went for books, by 
means of which he gained much prac- 
tical information. He had suffered so 
much in his early years that long before 
he had attained his majority he had set 
for himself a life-task of seeking to bet- 
ter the condition of the hordes of over- 
worked children in England. With so 
much earnestness did he enter into his 
purpose that, although without money, 
friends or education, he compelled his 
countrymen to listen to the pitiful story 
of the children’s woes and wrongs. By 
his own persistent efforts he finally in- 
Guced Parliament to pass an act by 
which three thousand little waifs were 
freed from the labor that was crushing 
out their lives, and were sent to school. 
His next step was to seek legislation 
liberating the sixty thousand children 
employed on canal boats, whose servi- 
tude in England was no better than that 
ef our former slaves in the rice-fields. 
In this case as in the other, he ceased 
from his efforts only when he had gained 
the victory sought. 

This is a grand record for a poor un- 
lettered man, for, though grown old and 
eray-haired in service, he is still wretch- 
edly poor. He has had no time to make 
money or to earn fame, for his whole 
life and energy have been given to his 
one noble purpose. Though all leading 
men in England know him and have felt 


2i1 


his power and influence, George Smith 
has never yet asked a personal favor 
from one of them. 


The histories of men who through 
their own persevering efforts have 
achieved honor and riches are legion, but 
it is seldom that the youth of our land 
have the privilege of studying the record 
of a life so poor and obscure, yet so rich 
in its goodness and greatness. In the 
higher, better life to which all unselfish 
service for God and human welfare 
tends, the noble deeds of such men as 
poor George Smith shall have an abun- 
dant reward. We cannot help believing 
that in the spiritual kingdom the one 
who makes the greatest sacrifice for 
others is the one who will receive the 
richest blessings from God. The law of 
this world is, “He that saveth his life 
shall lose it,” but the law of the larger 
life reads, “He that loseth his life shall 
keep it alive.”—Forward. 


395 
THE ORIGINAL “ROCK OF AGES.” 


Burrington Coombe is a deep ravine 
in the grim and frowning Hill known as 
Black Down, which rises to the height 
of 1,100 feet, and is the highest sum- 
mit of the beautiful Mendip Range. It 
is within an easy walk of Blagdon 
Church, of which Augustus Toplady 
was for some time curate in sole charge. 
The whole scene is most picturesque and 
romantic. At one point is a grand crag 
ef mountain limestone eighty feet in 
height. Right down the center of this 
mass of stone is a deep fissure, wherein 
grow, like little children playing in the 
arms of men in armor, soft and delicate 
ferns and wild flowers. 

Toplady was one day overtaken by a 
tremendous thunderstorm, from which 
he sought refuge in this glen, between 
two massive piers of limestone rock. 
While the storm raged it inspired in his 
soul the idea of this hymn, “Rock of 
Ages,” which he wrote at once on the 
spot. Years afterward he died in full 
confidence in the everlasting shelter of 
which he had thus sung.—Selected. 








212 ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 396 ——— 
A MOTHER’S TRUST. 


A troubled Christian mother sent for 
me in great distress. Her only son had 
been for a time wayward and dissipated. 
She had prayed for him earnestly and 
constantly. After a while he had been 
brought into the church and had become 
an active Christian worker. This gave 
her joy unspeakable. But now he had 
fallen back again. He had seemingly 
abandoned his faith, and had become a 
reprobate. He had left his home, and 
had enlisted in the navy, and had sailed 
for the Far East. The poor mother was 
almost broken-hearted and was well-nigh 
in despair. 

I asked that mother if she had less 
reason to trust God now than before, as 
she prayed for the boy of her love. She 
replied that, of course, she hadn’t as 
much ground for faith now that her son 
seemed a reprobate as while he was an 
active Christian worker. 

“Is the difference in God, or in your 
boy?” I asked. 

“The difference is in my boy,” she 
said, “and that’s what’s troubling me.” 

“On whom did your faith rest, when 
your boy was doing best?” 

“On God, of course.” 

“And has God changed?” 

“Of course not.” 

“Then why is your faith lessened?” 

“Then you are looking at your boy as 
the ground of your faith, instead of at 
God?” 

“Do you mean to suggest,” said the 
anxious mother, “that even now, while 
my poor boy is in his present state, I 
can look up to God and pray for my 
boy as trustfully as I prayed for him 
while he was active in Christian work? 
Do you mean to suggest that?” 

“If your faith rests upon God for your 
God-given boy, you can pray to God for 
your boy just as confidently now as be- 
fore for all that he can do for you or 
your boy. But you must look to God and 
not at your boy for hope while you 
pray.” 

“Then T’ll do that,” said the anxious 


intimate friend. 


ANECDOTES 


mother. And she turned again to God 
in need and in trust. 

Two months or so after that, that 
mother sent for me again. She had re- 
ceived a letter from her son that glad- 
dened her heart. It was a letter full of 
penitence and of good purposes, and of 
hope andtrust. It told a touching story. 

About the time when the mother 
turned anew to God, anxiously but in 
trust, in her New England home—be- 
fore, of course, he could have had any 
word from her about it—as he was on 
the deck one sunny afternoon in those 
far-off Chinese waters, a call seemed to 
come to him from God summoning him 
to return from his evil courses to his 
better self, and to God and to his old 
faith in God. 


Overpowered by his feelings, that 
prodigal son went down into the forecas- 
tle and prostrated himself before God, 
confessing his sin, and asking pardon 
and help to do differently. And then he 
wrote as a penitent child to his mother, 
asking her to pray for him, telling of 
his sorrow and of his new purpose of 
living a new life by God’s help. That 
mother gained, in consequence, new rea- 
son for having faith in God for her son 
as for herself. Would that every parent 
had learned that lesson as thoroughly 
as she learned it. That returning prod- 
igal became again active in Christ’s 
work; and in that work he was engaged 
when God called him away from earth 
with its temptations. Such faith as that 
mother’s for child as well as for self 
God always enjoins and honors.—H. 
Clay Trumbull. 


—— 397 —— 
HOW I WON MY NEIGHBOR. 


It happened on the wild shores of the 
Georgian Bay, and my neighbor was an 
We settled there be- 
fore I was married, and my neighbor ex- 
pected to be among the guests at my 
wedding, but when the time came I 
could not invite him, and he was grieved 
and offended, refusing to be reconciled 
by my rather cool approaches. How- 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ever, I was to make an appeal that he 
could not withstand. 

It was winter. Snow deep enough to 
hide the stumps lay upon the ground. 
We were in need of fodder, and, hearing 
of some for sale at a distance of fourteen 
miles, we hired a team one morning, and 
set off for a load. Passing the door of 
my neighbor, I did not even look that 
way, little thinking that I should soon 
be a beggar at his table. 


It soon began to snow, and the cold 
grew intense, as we made our way along 
the winding bush road at a very toilsome 
pace. Leaving the bush, we started 
across a lake on which the newly formed 
ice was not very strong, but we reached 
our destination safely, put on our load, 
and after dinner were ready to return. 
We started, but soon upset our load, 
and, by the time we drew part of it 
back to the barn, and reloaded, the short 
winter’s day was drawing to a close, 
and we were forced to remain for the 
night. 

Food was scarce in that backwoods 
home, so after a light breakfast we were 
again upon the lake, our struggling 
horses making desperate efforts to drag 
their half-load through the two feet of 
fresh-fallen snow, while we contended 
with Jack Frost for the possession of 
our members. Then, too, the ice began 
to crack, threatening each moment to 
give way beneath the tramp of the 
horses’ feet. 

I found a place of prayer in the shelter 
of our load, lifting my soul to God, who 
was just then preparing me for restora- 
tion to my neighbor. It was noon again 
when we reached the shore, but our 
tired team could not pull the load up the 
bank, so our much-handled hay was 
again unloaded, carried up the bank, and 
once more loaded. The road was now 
almost impassable, and, coming to an 
Indian stable, we there left our burden, 
starting for home with the emptied 
sleigh. 

By eight o’clock we reached the team- 
ster’s home, but mine was three miles 
farther on. I was not accustomed to 
hardship, and found myself scarcely able 


ANECDOTES 213 
to walk. Making a brave attempt, how- 
ever, I soon came in sight of my offended 
neighbor’s light. Just here the road ran 
through his field, and I soon lost the 
beaten track, and struggled almost vain- 
ly to make headway. I fell repeatedly, 
and with some difficulty rose again. My 
Strength was all but gone. A feeling of 
despair began to creep over me. Again 
I fell, and thought I could rise no more. 
I lay for some time, looking wistfully 
towards my neighbor’s house, who had 
been in my thoughts all the time. Should 
I call and ask for warmth at his fireside? 
Would he admit me, and be reconciled, 
or should I be spurned? My need de- 
cided me, and I seemed to get strength 
with the decision. 


I was shortly at his door. He opened 
to me with an uninviting look. His 
manner was in keeping with the Decem- 
ber air, and his eye was unpitying. But 
I began my appeal, which resulted in my 
being seated at a refreshing repast in a 
very short time, while interest and sym- 
pathy overflowed, and I knew that I had 
won my neighkor. Nor have I ever re- 
gretted the toil and weariness through 
which it was brought about, for I entered 
again a kingdom of friendship and love 
from which I had been excluded.—Wm. 
Harker in S. S. Times. 


—— 398 —— 
THE SWEETEST VERSE. 


A young Christian, at the death-bed 
of an aged saint, said to him, “Shall I 
read to you the sweetest verse of the 
Bible?” “Yes.” The young man read 
the second verse of John 14, “In my 
Father’s house are many mansions; if 
it were not so I would have told you; 
for I go to prepare a place for you.” 
“No,” said the dying man, that is not 
the sweetest verse. Read on.’ The 
young man read, “And if I go and pre- 
pare a place for you, I will come again 
and receive you unto myself, that where 
I am, there ye may be also.” “That is 
the sweetest verse,” said the dying man. 
“Tt is not the mansions, it is Himself 
I want.”—Selected. 


214 


——-- 399 ——— 
AN OPPORTUNITY LOST. 


I once had a friend who was a very 
bright scholar. He entered college at 
an earlier age than most men are able 
to enter. He was a young fellow of 
good habits but without settled princi- 
ples. After he had been in college 
awhile it began to be rumored about 
that he was thinking of becoming a 
Christian. Some one came to me and 
said, “Frank is thinking of becoming a 
Christian,” but I was not a Christian 
myself and was not greatly interested 
in the information. If I had been a 
Christian, I believe I could have spoken 
the word that would have brought him 
over the line, but not being a Christian 
and not being interested in the matter, 
I said nothing to him about it. After 
a few days of indecision, he decided the 
wrong way. He became infatuated with 
a beautiful actress and followed her 
about the country. He never married 
her but he got to going to the bad. He 
graduated from college a moral wreck. 
Not long after graduation he married 
the daughter of one of the best families 
in one of our eastern states. Of course, 
the marriage was unhappy. 

One day he and his young wife were 
preparing to go out riding together. The 
carriage stood at the door and he stood 
by it waiting for his wife. She did not 
appear. He hurried up to her dressing- 
room and went in. The servants heard 
sharp words, then they heard the crack 
of a revolver, and as they rushed into the 
room, that beautiful young wife lay dead 
upon the floor with a bullet through her 
brain. Whether she shot herself or 
whether he shot her, it was difficult to 
say. The coroner’s verdict was that she 
died by her own hand. At all events, he 
became a haunted man. Not long after, 
he came to the house of a friend and 
said, “John, can I spend the night with 
youe” “Certainly,” he replied. “Can I 
have the room next to yours?” “Why, 
Frank, you can have anything in 
the house,” They sat up late into the 
night talking and then retired. The 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


host had fallen asleep when suddenly he 
was awakened by a constant rapping at 
his door. “What is it, Frank?” he cried. 
“Are you there, John?” the wretched 
man calied. “Yes, can I do anything for 
you?” “No, I only wanted to know that 
you were there.” The host fell asleep 
again but was soon awakened by an- 
other rap at his door. “What is it, 
Frank?” he called. “Are you there, 
John?” “Yes. Are you sick, can I do 
anything for you, Frank?” “No, I only 
wanted to know that you were there.” 
Again he fell asleep, and again he was 
awakened by the same woeful call. All 
the night through the man haunted by 
evil memories would come and wake him 
by a rap on the door to find if he was 
there. He could not bear to be alone a 
moment. 


The next day he left. He went west 
to San Francisco, took a steamer on the 
Pacific Ocean, and when several days 
out jumped overboard. To-night his 
body rests beneath the waters of the 
Pacific Ocean. If I had been a Chris- 
tian in the early days, I might have led 
that friend to Christ and saved all this 
frightful, awful tragedy.—R. A. Torrey. 


400 —— 


THE MYSTERY OF GOD’S LOVE. 


A gentleman, who thought Christian- 
ity was merely a heap of puzzling prob- 
lems, said to an old minister, “That is a 
very strange verse in the ninth chapter of 
the Epistle to the Romans, ‘Jacob have 
I loved, but Esau have I hated.’ ” 

“Very strange,” replied the minister; 
“but what is it, sir, that you see most 
strange about it?” 


“Oh, that part of course,” said the 
gentleman, patronizingly, and with an 
air of surprise, “ ‘Esau have I hated’ is 
certainly very strange.” 

“Well, sir,” said the old minister, 
“how wonderfully are we made, and how 
differently constituted. The strangest 
part of all to me is that He could have 
loved Jacob.” 

There is no mystery so glorious as the 
mystery of God’s love.—Selected. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 401 —— 
HOW HIS CALL CAME. 


One of our Sunday-school teachers 
was telling me recently how it was that 
he became actively interested in Chris- 
tian work. His sympathies for some 
time had favorably disposed him toward 
such work, but he felt his inefficiency, 
and he was so closely tied to his busi- 
ness that he had but little time at his dis- 
posal. 

For some time the refrain of that 
hymn, “The Master wants workers,” had 
been running through his mind. He 
seemed unable to dismiss the thought, 
and in that mental attitude he attended 
the service at the 104th Street Taber- 
nacle. That very hymn, “The Master 
wants workers,’ was announced and 
sung, and a request was made for 
teachers for the Sunday school at. Taber- 
nacle No. 2, which was just to be opened. 
He was so impressed by this fact that 
he decided to go asateacher. He went, 
and was given a lot of unmanageable 
boys, which so discouraged him that he 
resolved not to go again. But that 
night, in a dream, he saw one of those 
very boys beckoning him with his hand 
to come. He told his wife his dream, 
and she, bursting into tears, said, “There 
is more in this dream than you think. 
You better go back to the class.” Her 
counsel prevailed, and he came, and is 
now very thankful that he did so, and 
so are we, for he has been of great serv- 
ice in the work. 


The pastor of the People’s Tabernacle 
first wrote and published the above story 
September 4, 1897; and now, twenty 
years later, October 15, 1917, he would 
add: That Sunday school teacher was 
Mr. C. H. Busch, who has continued 
loyally at his post from that day to this, 
and for the past nineteen years has been 
also a faithful Elder of the Church. His 
good wife, ever an inspiration to him, 
shortly after became a Sunday school 
teacher also, and she was eminently use- 
ful in the Church in many ways, until 
called to her reward, February 9, 1912.— 
Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


216 


—— 402 —— 
A HUMBLE GIRL’S FAME. 

One of the grandest women of whom 
literary Europe is now talking was the 
daughter of a family so poor that her 
little cradle was rocked by a waterfall, 
by means of a wheel attached to a rocker, 
while her mother toiled in the fields. 


As the child grew up she mended her 
father’s nets in winter, oiled his great 
boots so that he could stand in the icy 
water to fish, dug the potatoes, cut the 
wheat, gathered pine needles to fill the 
beds, sheared the sheep, and spun until 
her hands were bleeding. 

At sixteen she went out to service, 
and at twenty she married a poor peas- 
ant lad who had loved her from child- 
hood. Until very recently she regularly 
swung the flail on the threshing flccr, 
mowed the hay with a scythe, and bound 
the sheaves in time of harvest. For 
twelve years after her marriage, so stern 
was her poverty, she never saw a news- 
paper or a book, a Bible or a hymn-book, 
the things above all else she craved. 


Uncomplainingly, however, she en- 
dured her lot, and from the darkness 
rose—a poet. A special messenger was 
lately sent by the Empress of Germany 
to find this unknown writer of verses 
which had so moved her. The messen- 
ger found a woman of forty in a poor vil- 
lage home near the Russian border. She 
was weak and feeble, but her soul was 
full of song which all the hardships of a 
bitter life could not quench. The world 
wondered at and appreciated the peas- 
ant-poet, and now Johanna Ambrosius is 
finding her lot easier and her friends 
wonderfully multiplied. What a lesson 
in encouragement her life contains for 
those who, because they are born amid 
poor surroundings, feel that “it isn’t 
worth trying” to fill any special state in 
life or to strive to reach a higher plane. 


Had Johanna simply accepted her lot 
and left. her talent to lie unused, she 
would never have been heard of and the 
world would have missed a great in- 
spiration.—Christian Herald. 


216 


so A pant 
WINNING AN ENEMY. 


We quote from the Manchester Times 
an anecdote of the late William Grant, 
of the firm of Grant Brothers, a man re- 
markable for the great liberality of his 
nature. “Many years ago a warehouse- 
man published a scurrilous pamphlet, in 
which he endeavored, but very unsuc- 
cessfully, to hold up the house of Grant 
Brothers to public ridicule. William 
remarked that the man would live to re- 
pent what he had done; and this was 
conveyed by some tale-bearer to the 
libeler, who said, ‘Oh, I suppose he 
thinks I shall some time or other be in 
his debt; but I will take good care of 
that.’ It happens, however, that a man 
in business cannot always choose who 
shall be his creditors. The pamphleteer 
became a bankrupt, and the brothers 
held an acceptance of his which had been 
indorsed to them by the drawer, who had 
also become a bankrupt. The wantonly- 
libeled men had thus become creditors 
of the libeler! They now had it in their 
power to make him repent of his audac- 
ity. He could not obtain his certificate 
without their signature, and without it 
he could not enter into business again. 
He had obtained the number of signa- 
tures required by the bankrupt law, ex- 
cept one. It seemed folly to hope that 
the firm of ‘the brothers’ would supply 
the deficiency. What! they who had 
cruelly been made the laughing-stock of 
the public, forget the wrong and favor 
the wrong-doer. 

“He despaired. But the claims of a 
wife and children forced him at last to 
make the application. Humbled by 
misery, he presented himself at the 
counting-house of the wronged. Mr. Wil- 
liam Grant was there alone, and his first 
words to the delinquent were, ‘Shut the 
door, sir!’—sternly uttered. The door 
was shut, and the libeler stood trembling 
before the libeled. He told his tale, 
and produced his certificate, which was 
instantly clutched by the injured 
merchant. ‘You wrote a pamphlet 
against us once?’ exclaimed Mr. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Grant. The supplicant expected to see 
his parchment thrown into the fire. But 
this was not its destination. Mr. Grant 
took a pen, and writing something upon 
the document, handed it back to the 
bankrupt. He, poor wretch, expected 
to see ‘rogue, scoundrel, libeler,’ in- 
scribed; but there was, in fair round 
characters, the signature of the firm. “We 
make it a rule,’ said Mr. Grant, ‘never 
to refuse signing the certificate of an 
honest tradesman, and we have never 
heard that you were anything else.’ The 
tears started into the poor man’s eyes. 
‘Ah,’ said Mr. Grant, ‘my saying was 
true! I said you would live to repent 
writing that pamphlet. I did not mean 
it as a threat. I only meant that some 
day you would know us better, and be 
sorry you had tried to injure us. I see 
you repent of it now.’ ‘I do, I do!’ said 
the grateful man; ‘I bitterly repent it.’ 
‘Well, well, my dear fellow, you know us 
now. How do you get on? What are 
you going to do?’ The poor man stated 
that he had friends who could assist 
him when his certificate was obtained. 
‘But how are you off in the meantime?’ 
And the answer was, that, having given 
up every farthing to his creditors, he 
had been compelled to stint his family of 
even common necessaries, that he might 
be enabled to pay the cost of his certifi- 
cate. ‘My dear fellow, this will not do; 
your family must not suffer. Be kind 
enough to take this ten-pound note to 
your wife from me; ‘There, there, my 
dear fellow. Nay, don’t cry, it will be 
all well with you yet. Keep up your 
spirits, set to work like a man, and you 
will raise your head among us yet.’ The 
overpowered man endeavored in vain to 
express his thanks; the swelling in his 
throat forbade words. He put his hand- 
kerchief to his face, and went out of the 
door crying like a child.” 


NEI) We 
FOR LACK OF A TOUCH. 


Two professional men were lingering 
together at the restaurant table after 
luncheon and exchanging scraps of ex- 


aah ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


perience. The talk turned to things re- 
ligious. “I became a Christian when I 
was twelve years old,” said one, “and 
I’ve never for one instant been sorry 
that I made a stand so early.” 

His companion’s eyes took on the 
dreamy expression of one who is looking 
far back into the past. “It was differ- 
ent with me,” he said, at length. “I did 
not make a public profession of religion, 
and, indeed, did not become a Christian, 
until after I had been graduated from 
college and from the medical school. 
There were many times when I was 
almost persuaded and when I needed 
just a touch to bring me to a decision, 
but nobody ever gave me that touch— 
not even my Christian father. 

“IT can remember yet,” he continued, 

“how I used to sit in the back seat of 
the old meeting house, when special ser- 
vices were being held, and wish that 
some one would come and speak to me. 
I was waiting only for a word of invita- 
tion, and I was hungry for it. It never 
came, though, and so, through my own 
fault, of course, I missed all those years 
of Christian disciple-ship, growth, and 
joy.” 
A little touch may turn the course of 
a life for eternity. And a touch is such 
a little thing! The query suggests it- 
self, what is our part of the responsi- 
bility for a life which takes the wrong 
course because of the touch we did not 
give?—Forward. 


Biscay faa 
BULLET-PROOF. 


The following story of the narrow es- 
cape of an American sailor in Chile, told 
in the Boston Transcript, shows the 
respect commanded by the American 
and British flags: 

One of the men had gone ashore and 
become somewhat hilarious, and one of 
the police officers, instead of warning 
him not to make a noise in the street, 
drew his sword and knocked him down. 
The American got up, and promptly 
knocked the policeman down in return. 
He was arrested, tried, and condemned 


S17 


to be shot the next morning. 

Mr. Loring, the American consul, ex- 
postulated with the authorities, saying 
that it would be monstrous to put a man 
to death for such an offense; but they 
paid no attention to him. On the day 
specified the sailor was brought out and 
pinioned, in readiness for execution. 

The English consul, preparing to hoist 
the Union Jack, saw a crowd in the 
field opposite, and realized that the exe- 
cution was about to take place. He 
rushed over to the American consul, 
and cried: 

“Loring! You’re not going to let them 
shoot that man?” 

“What can I do?” was the answer. 
“I have protested against it. I can do 
no more.” 

“Give me your flag!” cried the Eng- 
lishman. 

With the two flags in his hand, he 
ran to the field, elbowed his way through 
the crowd and soldiery, and reached the 
prisoner. He folded the American flag 
about him, and laid the Union Jack over 
it. He stepped back and faced the offi- 
cers and soldiery. 

“Shoot if you dare,” he shouted, 
“through the heart of England and 
America!” 

The man was not shot. 

“The name of the Lord is a strong 
tower: the righteous runneth into it, 
and is safe.” Prov. 18:10. 


406 —— 


THE FROZEN CREW. 


The record of the party finding Sir 
John Franklin, reads: “We found the 
ship, an English vessel, crowded up in 
the ice. It had been there thirteen years 
and the sailors cried when they saw it. 
We climbed in and saw the captain 
sitting at a table, with his hat and over- 
coat on, and pen in hand. The last 
words he had written were: “My wife 
froze last night.” The sailors were 
sitting around frozen. Are there not 
churches in the same condition? Their 
members have the semblance of life, 
but are dead—frozen perhaps. 





218 


—— 407 —— 
THE JEWISH BROTHERS. 


The late Dr. Capadose, a converted 
Israelite and Christian minister to Hol- 
land, used to relate the following touch- 
ing incident: 

“My worthy grandfather was a very 
affectionate but passionate man. He 
had a brother for whom he felt a tender 
love. They had once fallen into a dis- 
pute with each other, and had returned 
to their respective homes in a rage. This 
happened on a Friday. At the close of 
the day, when it began to grow dark, 
my good grandmother, like another 
Martha, began to make all things ready 
for the Sabbath. She called out, ‘My 
beloved joseph, it is already dark; come 
and light up the Sabbath lamp.’ But 
he, sunk in profound sadness, paced the 
room backward and forward, to the in- 
creasing anxiety of the good old wom- 
an, who exclaimed, ‘See! the stars are 
already in the firmament, and our Sab- 
bath lamp is still dark.’ My grandfather 
then took his hat and staff, and with 
visible perturbation hurried out of the 
house; but in a few minutes he returned 
with tears of joy in his eyes. ‘Now, my 
beloved Rebecca,’ cried he ‘now I am 
ready.’ He offered up the prayer, and 
with evident feelings of delight kindled 
the lamp. He afterward made known 
his dispute, adding, ‘it was impossi- 
ble for me to offer up the prayer and 
light the lamp before I was reconciled 
with Isaac.’ 

““But how came it to pass that you 
returned so quickly?’ 

“ ‘Why,’ said he, ‘Isaac, like me, could 
not rest—it was with him as it was with 
me—he also could not enter upon the 
Sabbath without being reconciled. We 
met each other in the street—-he was 
coming to me, I was going to him—we 
fell into each other’s arms weeping.’ 

“When, many years after, I first read 
in the gospel of our Lord the words: 
“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the 
altar, and there rememberest that thy 
brother hath ought against thee; leave 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


there thy gift before the altar, and go 
thy way; first be reconciled to thy 
brother, and then come and offer thy 
giit,’ this event, which had affected me 
when a child, presented itself anew to 
my mind, and I thanked God that He 
had still left such indications of life amid 
so much death in that people who are 
my flesh and bones.”—Selected. 


—— 408 


THE POOR BLACKSMITH’S 
POWER WITH GOD. 


In a certain town, says Rev. Chas. G. 
Finney, there had been no revivals for 
many years; the church was nearly run 
out, the youth were all unconverted, 
and desolation reigned unbroken. There 
lived in a retired part of the town, an 
aged man, a blacksmith by trade, and 
of so stammering a tongue that it was 
painful to hear him speak. On one Fri- 
day, as he was at work in his shop, 
alone, his mind became greatly exer- 
cised about the state of the church, and 
of the impenitent. His agony became 
so great that he was induced to lay 
aside his work, lock the shop door, and 
spend the afternoon in prayer. 

He prevailed, and on the Sabbath, 
called on the minister and desired him 
to appoint a conference meeting. After 
some hesitation, the minister consented, 
observing, however, that he feared but 
few would attend. He appointed it the 
same evening, at a large private house. 
When evening came, more assembled 
than could be accommodated in the 
house. All was silent for a time, until 
One sinner broke out in tears, and said 
if any one could pray, he begged him to 
pray for him. Another followed, and 
another, and still another, until it was 
found that persons from every quarter 
of the town were under deep convictions. 
And what was remarkable was that 
they all dated their conviction at the 
hour when the old man was praying in 
his shop. A powerful revival followed. 
Thus this old stammering man pre- 
vailed, and as a prince, had power with 
God. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


BY ti 409 —— 
PRAYER CHANGES THINGS. 


In the early days of Mr. Moody’s 
work in Chicago, a reckless, worthless 
Scotchman used to hang around the 
Tabernacle. He was a desperate fellow, 
feared by his own companions. He 
would carry a dagger in his stocking, 
and many were afraid that he would 
draw that dagger upon them. He 
seemed to have an especial spite against 
the meetings that were going on. One 
night he stood outside the Tabernacle 
with a pitcher of beer in his hands offer- 
ing a drink to every man that came out 
of the building. At other times he 
would go into the inquiry meetings and 
try to interfere with the workers. 

One night Major Whittle was talking 
to two young men, who were more or 
less interested, and this jeering Scotch- 
man was interfering. Finally Major 
Whittle turned to the two young men 
and said, “Young men, if you set any 
value on your souls, I advise you to 
have nothing to do with that man.” 
This seemed only to amuse the Scotch- 
man. But God was working. Over in 
Scotland was an earnest Christian 
mother who was praying for her way- 
ward son. One night he went to bed 
‘as godless as ever, but in the middle of 
the night he was aroused from his 
sleep. He awakened under conviction 
of sin, and as he lay there in bed the 
Holy Spirit brought to his mind a pas- 
sage that he had forgotten was in the 
Bible. He did not even know it was 
there at all, though doubtless he had 
heard it some time in his boyhood. It 
was Romans 4:5, “But to him that 
worketh not, but believeth on Him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is 
counted for righteousness.” The Holy 
Spirit made clear the meaning of the 
verse to him. Then and there, with- 
out getting out of bed, he believed on 
Him that justifieth the ungodly and 
found peace. 

He at once became as active in the 
cause of Christ as he had been active in 
the cause of the devil. For nearly 


ANECDOTES 219 


thirty years he has been a member of 
Chicago Avenue Church and is to-day a 
deacon in the church. 

some time after his conversion he 
went back to Scotland to visit his old 
mother. They had glad times of Bible 
reading and prayer together, but there 
was another wayward son, a sailor, sail- 
ing the sea somewhere, they knew not 
where. One night the old mother and 
the converted son knelt down and be- 
gan to cry to God for the wandering 
son and brother. That very night he 
was in the China Seas, though they did 
not know it, and while they prayed in 
Scotland, the Spirit of God fell in the 
China Seas and that son and brother 
was converted there on the deck of the 
ship. 

He returned to Scotland and told his 
mother the good news. He entered the 
Free Church college and commenced to 
study to be a foreign missionary. He 
was sent out by the missionary society 
of the Free Church of Scotland, and 
after years of faithful service laid down 
his life as a missionary in India.—R. A. 
Torrey. 

——~— 419 -—— 


CONTINUING IN PRAYER. 

I asked Mr. Muller a short time be- 
fore he died if he had asked anything of 
God that had not been granted, and he 
told me he had prayed sixty-two years, 
three months, five days, two hours— 
with his mathematical precision—for 
two men to be converted, and there were 
no signs of that happening. I said: 
“Do you expect God to convert them?” 
“Certainly. Do you suppose that God 
would put upon His child for sixty-two 
years the burden of two souls if He had 
no purpose of their salvation? I shall 
meet them in heaven certainly.” Shortly 
afterward he died, and I was preaching 
in his pulpit, in Bristol, and referred to 
this occurrence. As I was going out a 
lady said: “One of these men was my 
uncle, and he was converted, and died 
a few weeks ago.” I understand that 
the other man, a man in Dublin, was 
also brought to Christ.”-—-A. T, Pierson 


220 


oan | a 
“I DON’T KNOW!” 


It was one of those delightful autumn 
days and the Westchester Presbytery 
was enjoying its noon recess. Several 
candidates had been examined for ordi- 
nation, among them young Stanley 
Phraner, son of one of our best-known 
and best-loved ministers. In answer to 
several questions about future affairs I 
noticed that he answered firmly, “I do 
not know.” We took a little stroll along 
the country road that passed the church, 
and I asked him why he had made that 
answer, “I do not know.” He said: 

“That is a lesson I learned at sea. I 
will tell you the whole story. 

“One summer when a college student 
at Princeton, I thought I would vary my 
vacation by taking a trip as a sailor. 
The invitation of a sea captain, known 
to our family, offered the opportunity. 
I started from New York on a three- 
masted schooner bound for the island 
of Porto Rico. Being good at figures, 
the captain asked me to do his naviga- 
tion for him. He gave me a chart, an 
almanac, a book of logarithms, and a 
quadrant. He showed me how to use 
these things, and this was the formula 
by which I was always to work: 

“‘Secant your latitude, co-secant 
your polar distance, take the co-sine of 
one-half the sum and the sine of the 
remainder.’ 

“So day after day, under the watch- 
ful eye of the captain, I calculated the 
ship’s position. The captain was always 
careful to note that the rule had been 
followed exactly. So one day I asked 
him: 

_ “Captain, why do you secant your 
latitude?” > 

“I don’t know!” said the captain 
bluntly. 

“Well, can you tell me why you co- 
secant your polar distance?” 

“I don’t know! Except—except— 
well, that’s the rule. Young man, you 
want to know too much, Do as I tell 
you, follow the rule, all sailors use it. 
Trust your book of logarithms and you 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


will make port all right.’ 

“So day by day I put down the posi- 
tion on the chart. On the fourteenth 
day out I went to the captain and ven- 
tured my first forecast. 


“*To-night if the wind holds fair,’ 
I said, ‘we ought to make the Sail 
Rock passage into the Caribbean Sea.’ 
That night I watched eagerly, and sure 
enough about eleven o’clock we sighted 
the great white rock looming up in the 
ocean, and next day we entered the 
harbor of Mayaguez. Along the shore 
giant palms waved their lofty plumes 
in the soft breeze. Beyond, we could 
see the groves of orange and banana 
trees and all the tropical verdure of the 
island, while from bluff to bluff of the 
headlands on either shore of the harbor 
arose a mighty rainbow arch, which, 
reflected on the sea beneath, formed a 
circle of wondrous light into which we 
slowly drifted that Sabbath evening as 
we came to anchor in the harbor of our 
destination. The rule was right, and 
by it we made port. When I got back 
to Princeton I was able to study out 
some of the reasons why of the rule that 
could not be explained at sea, but had 
to be followed in simple trust.” 

In the school of the sea this Prince- 
ton student had learned to say “I don’t 
know!” It is a lesson in the faith-life 
worth the learning. How many queries 
rise in our Christian thinking and liv- 
ing when we ought just to set to our 
seal that God is true and that His prom= 
ises are sure. 

Why did holy angels fall from heaven? 

“T dont know!” 

How was it sin entered Eden? 

“IT don’t know!” 

Why is it some wicked people seem 
to prosper while some very good people 
suffer? 

“T don’t know!” 

How can one reconcile man’s free 
will and God’s sovereignty? 

“TI don’t know!” 

For the present I can get along with- 
out knowing some of these things, for I 


walk by faith and not by sight. We 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


seek a better country, we are still at 
sea. We have not yet reached the home 
port—God’s haven of eternai rest. Our 
book is the Bible, God’s own word. 
The Gospel rule is, “Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved.” When at last we enter the 
City of Light we may learn many a 
reason why that cannot be given now. 
““For now we see through a glass 
darkly; but then face to face; now I 
know in part; but then shall I know 
even as also I am known.”—John §&. 
Allen, D, D. 


peren toreat 2 
“YOUNG FELLER, YOU’RE AFIRE, 
THERE!” 


It was a crisp morning on the 29th of 
November, 1881. 

Having held a Gospel Temperance 
meeting with the men of Bennett’s 
Camp the evening before, Bro. Mills 
and I had walked down to the track of 
the Saginaw Bay and Northwestern 
Logging R. R., and were waiting for 
the next logging train to take us to Pin- 
conning, Michigan, near the shore of 
Lake Huron. 

Several stout woodsmen near us were 
trundling pine logs upon the skid-ways 
_-beside the railroad, when an old man ap- 
peared, walking down the track, accom- 
panied by a boy of seventeen. Smoke 
was pouring from the mouth of the man, 
but this seemed to surprise no one. A 
glance of the campmen at the boy, how- 
ever, from whose right hip-pocket smoke 
was also issuing, led one of them to 
shout, “Young feller, you’re afire, there!” 

The lad quickly pulled a pipe from 
the smoking pocket, and beat out the 
fire from his clothing, which, having 
caught from his pipe, had, until the 
woodsman’s warning, smouldered un- 
observed. 

This little incident occasioned me to 
wonder greatly— 

1st. That any one should be more 
alarmed to see smoke coming from a 
man’s pocket than from his mouth. 

2d. That the consumer of tobacco in 


ANECDOTES 221 


pipes and cigars seems to forget that 
every time he puffs smoke from his 
mouth he burns a hole in his pocket. 

3d. That so many behave as though 
their heaith is better than they need, 
and therefore deliberately and repeatedly 
pOison themselves. 

4th. That persons of usually neat 
habits will, by tobacco smoking, make 
of themselves nuisances to others. 

5th. That the wide extent of this 
evil should occasion any one to think 
lightly of it. 

6th. That so many should pretend 
that it is necessary to practice that 
which everybody knows needs to be 
abandoned. 

Young fellow! Old fellow! Any 
fellow who may be “afire there,” God 
designed your person and your purse 
for a nobler sacrifice than to become a 
holocaust upon the altar of the filthy, 
unhealthy, and unwealthy tobacco 
abomination —William F. Davis. 


LSS Tees 


ABIDING INFLUENCE. 


The promise of influence belongs to 
every faithful child of God. Frances 
Willard, in this illustration, gave an 
instance of its fulfilment: A young 
nobleman found himself in a little vil- 
lage off in Cornwall. It was a hot day, 
and he was thirsty. He rode up and 
down the village street seeking in vain 
for a place where something stronger 
than water could be had. At last he 
stopped and made impatient inquiry of 
an old peasant who was on his way 
home after a day of toil: “How is it 
that I can’t get a glass of liquor 
anywhere in this wretched village of 
yours?” he demanded harshly. The 
old man, recognizing his questioner as 
a man of rank, pulled off his cap and 
bowed humbly, but nevertheless there 
was a proud flash in his faded eyes as 
he answered quietly: “My lord, some- 
thing over a hundred years ago a man 
named John Wesley came to these 
parts.” And with that the old peasant 
walked away. 


7 Aa 


Aen ay ee 
LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE, 


A more astute politician than Lincoln 
America has not produced, and a greater 
temptation never came to any mere pol- 
itician than came to Lincoln the day 
after his nomination for the presidency 
by the Republican National Convention, 
which met in the “Wigwam,” in Chi- 
cago, 1860. It occurred in connection 
with the visit of the committee appointed 
by the convention to notify Lincoln of 
his nomination. A number of the citizens 
ef Springfield, knowing Lincoln’s total 
abstinence habits, and believing that he 
would in all probability have no liquors 
in the house, called upon him, and sug- 
gested that perhaps some members of 
the committee would be in need of some 
refreshment, wine, or other liquors. “I 
haven’t any in the house,” said Lincoln. 
“We will furnish them,” said the vis- 
itors. “Gentlemen,” replied Lincoln, “TI 
cannot allow you to do what I wiil not 
do myself.” Some democratic citizens, 
however, who felt that Springfield had 
been honored by the nomination, sent 
several baskets of wine to Lincoln’s 
house, but he returned them, thanking 
the senders for their intended kindness. 

After the formal ceremonies connected 
with the business of the committee of 
notification had passed, Lincoln re- 
marked that, as an appropriate conclu- 
tion to an interview so important and in- 
teresting, he supposed good manners 
would require that he should furnish the 
committee something to drink; and 
opening a door, he called out, “Mary! 
Mary!” A girl responded to the call, 
to whom Lincoln spoke in an under- 
tone. In a few minutes the maid en- 
tered bearing. a large tray containing 
several glass tumblers and a large 
pitcher, and placed it upon the centre 
table. Lincoln then arose, and gravely 
addressing the distinguished gentlemen, 
said: “Gentlemen, we must pledge our 
mutual healths in the most healthy 
beverage God has given to man. It is 
the only beverage I have ever used 
or allowed in my family, and I cannot 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


conscientiously depart from it on the 
present occasion; it is pure Adam’s ale 
from the spring.” And, taking a tumb- 
ler, he touched it to his lips, and pledged 
them his highest respects in a cup of cold 
water. A few months later he started 
on his journey to Washington to take 
his seat as President of the United 
States, 

In a number of cities his visit was 
honored with grand banquets at which 
wine was served, but of which he never 
partook. On one occasion, being urged 
to drink a glass of wine, he replied, “For 
thirty years I have been a temperance 
man, and I am too old to change.” It 
is declared that actions speak louder than 
words. The cause of temperance would 
possibly have been victorious had the 
actions of all temperance men been as 
consistent and as persistent against the 
liquor traffic as their utterances have 
been. But when men’s acts and words 
are in accord, great is their power. Such 
were Abraham Lincoln’s. He not only 
abstained from the use of intoxicating 
liquors, but he was bold in publicly ad- 
vocating total abstinence—David D. 
Thompson. 


Mibouane Wp aah 


AN UNDERGROUND CITY. 


In Galicia, in Austrian Poland, there 
is a remarkable underground city, which 
has a population of over 1,000 men, 
women, and children, scores of whom 
have never seen the light of day. It is 
known as “The City of Salt Mines,” 
and is situated several hundred feet be- 
low the earth’s surface. It has its town 
hall, theatre, and assembly room, as 
well as a beautiful church, decorated 
with statues, all being fashioned from 
the pure crystalized rock salt. It has 
well graded streets and spacious squares 
lighted with electricity. There are 
numerous instances in this underground 
city where not a single individual in 
three or four successive generations has 
ever seen the sun, or has any idea of 
how people live in the light of day.— 
Christian Herald. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


e416 oe 
THE CAPTAIN AND THE 
(QUADRANT. 


A godly man, the master of an Ameri- 
can ship, during one voyage found his 
ship bemisted for days and he became 
rather anxious respecting her safety. 
He went down to his cabin and prayed. 
The thought struck him, if he had with 
confidence committed his soul to God, 
he might certainly commit his ship to 
Him; and so accordingly he gave all 
into the hands of God and felt at per- 
fect peace; but still he prayed that if 
He would be pleased to give a cloudless 
sky at twelve o’clock he should like to 
take an observation to ascertain their 
real position, and whether they were on 
the right course. 


He came on deck at eleven o’clock, 
with the quadrant under his coat. As 
it was thick drizzling the men looked 
at him with amazement. He went to 
his cabin, prayed, and came up. There 
seemed still to be no hope. 

Again he went down and prayed, and 
again he appeared on deck with his 
quadrant in his hand. It was now ten 
minutes to twelve o'clock, and still 
there was no appearance of a change; 
but he stood on the deck, waiting upon 
the Lord, when, in a few minutes, the 
mist seemed to be folded up and rolled 
away as by an omnipotent and invisi- 
ble hand; the sun shown clearly from 
the blue vault of heaven and there stood 
the man of prayer with the quadrant in 
his hand, but so awe-struck did he feel, 
and so “dreadful” was that place, that 
he could scarcely take advantage of the 
answer to his prayer. He, however, 
succeeded, although with trembling 
hands, and found to his comfort that all 
was well. But no sooner had he fin- 
_ished taking the observation than the 
mist rolled over the heavens and it be- 
gan to drizzle as before. 

This story of prayer was received 
from the lips of the good Captain Cras- 
by, who was so useful in the Ardrossan 
awakening; and he himself was the man 


223 


who prayed and waited upon his God 
with quadrant in his hand,—Selected. 


aoe 417 


“I DON’T KNOW HIM!” 


A beautiful young mother in New 
York City returning to the building in 
which her little infant lay asleep was 
appalled to see the building in flames. 
The firemen could not restrain her and 
she dashed through the fames and res- 
cued her child, but in doing so she 
was so severely burned that her face 
was horribly disfigured for life. When 
she looked at her face in the glass after 
it was healed, she was shocked at her 
disigurement, but was comforted by the 
thought that when her little daughter 
grew up she would appreciate the sac- 
rifice that her mother had made to res- 
cue her. The little child did grow up to 
be a young woman of uncommon beau- 
ty. She was much admired and petted. 


One day there was an excursion up 
the river and both mother and daughter 
went. The beautiful daughter was on 
the front deck surrounded by a host of 
admirers, laughing and talking. The 
disfigured mother was on the rear deck 
looking after the wraps and other things. 
The mother had occasion to go to the 
front deck to speak to her daughter. 
As she drew near, a gay young man 
asked the beautiful young girl, “Who 
is that hideous looking woman com- 
ing?” In a low tone the beautiful 
daughter said, “I don’t know.” But the 
words were not so low but what the 
mother caught them and that loving 
heart was broken by the gross ingrati- 
tude of the daughter for whom she had 
sacrificed so much. 


How we shudder at the thought of 
such awful ingratitude, but are we not 
guilty of a grosser ingratitude toward 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? 
His visage was more marred than any 
man’s and His form more than the sons 
of men, and yet how many to-day are 
ashamed of Him and say, “I do not know 
Him.”—— Rev. R. E. Torrey 


224 


ieee 
SNATCHED FROM DEATH. 


When we escaped from Van in the 
spring of last year, all but dead from 
the dread typhus fever, I was carried in 
the only horse litter the caravan boasted. 
Pneumonia followed typhus, and parotid 
abscess succeeded that. When our 
journey out of the ravaged city began, 
I had fallen off from 186 pounds to 95. 

On our perilous trip through the 
Turkish lines to the southern part of 
Russia we came to a spring that was 
poisoned with the bacillus of dysentery. 
Forty thousand people were said to 
have died of dysentery as a result of 
this. I and other missionaries were in- 
fected. 


In the old Turkish custom house at 
the foot of Mt. Ararat we found a Red 
Cross hospital, and the student who 
was acting as surgeon operated on my 
parotid abscess as best he could. At 
Igdir I was taken to the officer’s hos- 
pital and treated with every courtesy, 
and I shall never cease to be grateful 
for the kindness of the Russian doctor 
and his lovely wife, who spoke French 
and interpreted for me. After the agony 
I had suffered at the hands of the 
surgeon on Ararat, his gentle touch and 
sympathy were greatly appreciated. I 
regret having lost their names. 

Only military telegrams could go 
through, so the doctor very kindly tele- 
graphed the American Consul, Mr. Wil- 
loughby Smith, in Tiflis, to secure me a 
bed and the best surgical attention in 
Tiflis, 

When I arrived in the military am- 
bulance train, I found an automobile 
awaiting me and was taken at once to 
the city hospital, where I had the best 
of care. In spite of the efforts of several 
physicians, my fever and dysentery con- 
tinued, and I suffered agony twenty 
times a day. I was unable to take 
nourishment for four days and was a 
mere skeleton, spanning my biceps with 
my thumb and forefinger, and the calf of 
my leg with thumb and second finger, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


The doctors became discouraged at 
the lack of results from their remedies, 
and told the nurses they need not in- 
sist on my taking them if they dis- 
tressed me, as I was too far gone to be 
helped. They had told my sister that 
I might die at any day and she would 
better be prepared for it. 


My pocket Bible (American Revised 
Version) was one of the five things we 
had saved. At my request it was 
brought to me, and before opening it 
I prayed that God would guide me to 
the message He wished me to have. Al- 
most too weak to lift the little book, I 
let it fall open on my chest and putting 
my finger on it turned it up to see the 
message. I found I had put my finger 
on the eighth verse of the twenty-eighth 
chapter of Acts, and read: “And it was 
so, that the father of Publius lay sick 
of a fever and dysentery: unto whom 
Paul entered in, and prayed, and laying 
his hands on him healed him.” 

I did not know that the word “dysen- 
tery” was in the English translation of 
the Scriptures. I said to myself, “What 
does this mean? I asked God to guide 
me to the message He wanted me to 
have and must believe that He has done 
so.” Did it mean that He wanted me to 
claim my healing from Him? I replied, 
“Lord, I can’t; I am too weak; I haven't 
faith to lay hold.” 


The answer came to me as clearly 
and distinctly as if some one spoke, “It 
is not your faith, but the faith of Jesus 
Christ.” Like a flash came the picture 
of the seminary room when I was 
studying Greek under Professor Wil- 
liam Max Muller, and came upon that 
phrase, “The faith of Jesus Christ,” 
which Professor Muller said could only 
be translated that way. I did not re- 
member whether it was Romans 3:22, 
or Galatians 2:20 (I think the thought 
occurs in both), but it was so clear to 
me that I replied, “Then, Lord Jesus, 
Thou must do it all. The faith must be 
Thine, and the works Thine. I can do 
nothing. I leave it to Thee.” 

A few minutes later a severe spasm 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


of pain made me want to call the nurse; 
but I said to myself, “You said you 
would leave it to Jesus. Why don't 
you?” I didn’t call the nurse. Nor did 
I need another dose of medicine. 

From that hour I was healed. Ap- 
petite returned, and I regained seventy- 
eight pounds in a strange land among 
a people of strange tongue. God knew 
all about an individual and spoke to him 
in the twentieth century. Jesus Christ, 
the same yesterday, and to-day, and for- 
ever, wrought as He did on the shores 
of Galilee, and fulfilled His promise, “Lo, 
I am with you all the days even unto the 
end of the age.”’—Rev. Clarence D. 
Usher, M. D., in Sunday School Times, 
Oct. 21, 1910. 


—— 419 —— 


NO THANKS TO BENEFACTOR. 


I will tell you a story about a gentle- 
man in Detroit who saved the life of a 
little girl, The gentleman told me the 
story himself one morning at his break- 
fast-table. 

About nine years ago he saw one day 
a horse running away, with only a little 
gir! in the wagon. In a way which it 
would take too long to tell he stopped 
the horse, and thus saved the child’s life; 
but in doing so was kicked by the horse 
so badly that they thought him dead. 

For days he lay like a dead man, with- 
out speaking, hardly breathing. And 
what do you think were the first words 
he said? They were these: “Is the 
little girl safe?” 

And then he said, “Bring her to me; 
I want to see her.” 

“We don’t know where she is.” 

“What!” he said, “don’t know where 
she is? Hasn’t she been here to thank 
me for saving her life?” 

“No. Her father came, and they 
drove way, and we have never seen 
them. Perhaps they are afraid you will 
make them pay.” 

“Oh, no,” said Mr. B., “I don’t want 
their money; only I would give any- 
thing to see that little girl.” 

Nine years have now passed away, 


ANECDOTES. 220 
and Mr. B, has been suffering ever since. 
He has never been well; and all because 
he saved that child’s life. He told me, 
with a great deal of feeling, that he still 
had the strongest desire to see her. He 
could scarcely keep the tears from his 
eyes as he spoke of her. “Oh!” said he, 
“it seems so strange that she never 
even in all these years thanked me for 
what I did for her. It must be she lives 
somewhere not far from here, and knows 
where I live.” 

Though your sins helped to crucify 
the loving Saviour, still you need not 
fear to go and thank Him; you will 
find Him far more anxious to meet you 
than the gentleman in Detroit was to see 
the little girl; for his words are, “Him 
that cometh unto Me I will in no wise 
cast out.”’—Rev. E. Payson Hammond. 


i450 
LOVE’S ACCENT. 


Talmage tells a story of a boy who, 
having left home to seek a fortune, 
soon found himself in needy circum- 
stances. Then he wrote his father this 
appeal: “Dear Father—I am sick and 
lonely, without one single cent. Send 
me some money quick.—Your son, 
John.” Now the father was illiterate 
and could not read, so he went to a 
great strapping butcher, and asked him 
to read the letter. The butcher had a 
gruff way of reading, and a loud voice. 
When he had finished reading John’s 
letter the father was angry, and declared 
he would not send a penny, even if the 
boy starved to death. He had never 
heard such an impudent demand for 
money. On his way home the father 
thought the butcher might have made 
a mistake in reading, and the desire to 
hear the letter read again overcame him. 
A baker, with a Iow voice and plaintiff 
tone, was next asked to read the son’s 
letter. When he concluded, the father 
said, with tears in his eyes, “My poor 
boy! I'll send him all the money he 
wants.” The baker had read word for 
word the letter as it was read by the 
butcher; the only difference was in the 
tone of his voice.—Selected. 





226 


——— 421 —— 
AN UNSELFISH INVENTOR. 


Many dairymen in America use the 
milk-test machine. It has been called 
“an implacable promoter of honesty.” 
Before it was invented, poor milk and 
rich milk, honest milk and adulterated 
milk were upon the same level. It is 
simple, inexpensive and accurate, de- 
termining in a few moments the exact 
amount of butter fat in the milk. It 
is used not only by large butter-and- 
cheese-makers, but by the farmer who 
has milk to sell and who is protected 
by it. It was invented by Professor 
Babcock, of the University of Wisconsin. 
He knew its value to farmer and dairy- 
man. He also knew its possibilities of 
fortune for himself. This invention has 
“increased the wealth of nations by 
many millions of dollars and made con- 
tinual new developments possible in but- 
ter-and-cheese making.” All this Pro- 
fessor Babcock knew it would do when 
he announced his discovery, in a little 
bulletin, sixteen years ago, to the farm- 
ers of Wisconsin. But at the bottom of 
that bulletin he added the brief and un- 
selfish sentence, “This test is not pat- 
ented.” With that sentence he cheer- 
fully let a fortune go. He wanted his 
invention to help other people rather 
than make himself rich. 

To-day the State of Wisconsin calls 
this inventor “the first citizen of the 
commonwealth.” A beautiful bronze 
medal was struck in his honor in 1901, 
bearing the substance of a resolution 
passed by the legislature recognizing 
“the great value to this state and to the 
whole world in the inventions of Pro- 
fessor Stephen Moulton Babcock, and 
his unselfish dedication of these inven- 
tions to the public service.” There are 
many millionaires in the United States. 
In fact, there is no great credit in Amer- 
ica in being a millionaire. But a medal 
like that is a finer distinction than any 
fortune. It is a good thing to record it 
before the eyes of American youth, asa 
modern object lesson in the old Bible 
truth that “to serve others is the truest 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


greatness of man.’’—Forward. 
genes 42D mtn 
LIKE JESUS BEST. 


Dr. Wilbur Chapman says a boy who 
had been operated upon by Dr. Lorenz 
said as soon as he came out of the in- 
fluence of the anaesthetic, “It will be a 
long time before my mother hears the 
last of this Doctor.” The operation 
was a success. When the plaster cast 
was taken off a friend came to take him 
home. In doing so, he called the boy’s 
attention to the grandeur of the hos- 
pital, but though the boy admired it, 
he said, “I like the Doctor best.” He 
spoke of the nurses, and though inter- 
ested, he said, “they are nothing com- 
pared to the Doctor.” It was a great 
joy to the mother when she saw the 
boy’s foot entirely cured, but all that 
the boy could say to the mother was, 
“You ought to know the Doctor that 
made me walk.” There is none of us 
but for whom Jesus Christ has done ten 
thousand times more than the doctor 
did on that boy. Perhaps we have not 
yielded ourselves to Him nor spoken of 
Him. It should be now with us as 
with the apostle; we ought “to pre- 
sent our bodies a living sacrifice” to 
Him.—Selected. ( 


rng cares 
NO SACRIFICE FOR CHRIST. 


James Chalmers, of New Guinea, of 
whom Robert Louis Stevenson said, 
“He’s as big as a church,” and who was 
finally clubbed to death and eaten by 
cannibals, declared that “the word ‘sac- 
rifice’ ought never to be used in Christ’s 
service,’ and in a speech in Exeter Hall 
fifteen years before his death, he ex- 
claimed: “Recall the twenty-one years, 
give me back all its experiences, give me 
its shipwrecks, give me its standings in 
the face of death, give it me surrounded 
with savages with spears and clubs, give 
it me back with the spears flying about 
me, with the club knocking me to the 
eround—give it me back, and I will still 
be your missionary.” 


’ 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


pe 424 
A STORY WON THE MOB. 


On one occasion a mob of the inhabit- 
ants of a walled town of India surround- 
ed Dr. Jacob Chamberlain of the Arcot 
Mission and his native assistants and 
threatened them with violence, because 
they had taught of another God than 
theirs. Dr. Chamberlain tells what fol- 
lowed: 

“We had gone to the market place and 
I had endeavored to preach to them of 
Christ and His salvation, but they would 
not hear. They ordered me to leave the 
city at once, but I had declined to leave 
until I had delivered my message. The 
throng was filling the streets. They told 
me if I tried to utter another word I 
should be killed. There was no rescue; 
they would have the city gates closed 
and there should never any news go 
forth of what was done. I must leave 
at once, or I should not leave alive. I 
had seen them tear up the paving stones 
and fill their arms with them to be 
ready, and one was saying to another, 
‘You throw the first stone and I will 
the next!’ 

“By an artifice, I need not stop here 
to detail, I succeeded in getting permis- 
sion to tell them a story before they 
stoned me, and then they might stone 
me if they wished. They were standing 
around me ready to throw the stones 
when I succeeded in getting them to 
let me tell the story first. 

“T told them of the love of the Divine 
Father that had made us of one blood, 
who ‘so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son that whosover 
believeth in Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life.’ I told them of 
that birth in the manger of Bethlehem, 
of the wonderful childhood, of the mar- 
velous life, of those miraculous deeds, 
of the gracious words that He spake. 
I told them the story of the Cross, and 
pictured in the graphic words that the 
Master Himself gave me that day, the 
story of our Saviour nailed upon the 
cioss, for them, for me, for all the 
world, when He cried in agony, ‘My 


227 


God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me!’ 

“When I told them that I saw the 
men go and throw their stones in the 
gutter and come back, and down the 
cheeks of the very men that had been 
clamoring the loudest for my blood I 
saw the tears running and dropping off 
upon the pavement that they had torn 
up. I told them that I had finished my 
story and that they might stone me; 
but no, they did not want to stone me 
now; they did not know what a wonder- 
ful story I had come to tell them.” 


ADS eee 
A GLEAM ACROSS THE WAVE. . 


The Rev. Spencer Compton, an earn- 
est evangelical Episcopal minister at 
Boulegne, France, relates the following 
incident: “During a voyage to India I 
Sat one dark evening in my cabin feel- 
ing thoroughly unwell, as the sea was 
rising fast, and I was but a poor sailor. 
Suddenly the cry of “Man overboard!” 
made me spring to my feet. I heard a 
trampling overhead, but resolved not to 
go on deck, lest I should interfere with 
the crew in their efforts to save the 
poor man. “What can I do?” I asked 
myself, and instantly unhooking my 
lamp I held it near the top of my cabin 
and close to my bull’s eye window, that 
its light might shine on the sea, and as 
near the ship as possible. In a half 
minute’s time I heard the joyful cry, 
“It’s all right; he’s safe,” upon which 
I put my lamp in its place. 

The next day, however, I was told 
that my little lamp was the sole means 
of saving the man’s life. It was only 
by the timely light which shone upon 
him that the knotted rope could be 
thrown so as to reach him. 

Christian worker, never despond, nor 
think there is nothing for you to do 
even in dark and weary days. “Look- 
ing unto Jesus,” lift up your light; let 
it so “shine” “that men may see;” and 
in the bright resurrection morning what 
joy to hear the “Well done!” and to 
know that you have unawares “saved 
some soul from death.”—Selected. 


228 


SAG eet 
OLD RATTLE-BONES. 


Come with me to England. Here is 
a true story: Four horses and a stage 
coach come up to a hotel and the boys 
are on the green playing ball. They 
all lay down the bat and bail to see the 
people get off the coach. One man 
gets down very slowly. He looks pale, 
body all bent over. When he gets 
down from the stage some crutches are 
put under his arms and he looks at a 
house a little way distant and goes along 
very slowly. And the boys ali stand 
and look at him; they don’t know who 
he is, and finally one of them, Freddie, 
cries out, “Go it, old rattle-bones!” 
and then all of them called out, “Go 
it, old rattle-bones! Go it, old rattle- 
bones!” This gentleman (for he was 
a gentleman) turned around and looked 
at them, as much as to say, “Boys, if 
you knew what brought me here you 
wouldn’t call me “old rattle-bones!” 
The boys then went to playing ball 
again and the gentleman went on. When 
he got to the house Mrs. Williamson 
came to the door and said: “Mr. John- 
son, you look ill.” “Yes, the doctor says 
I can live but a little while, and I thought 
I must come home and see Freddie be- 
fore I die. I have been suffering for ten 
years, since I saved his life when he 
was a baby.” “Yes, we know all about 
it, Mr. Johnson; my dear Freddie would 
have lost his life if it had not been for 
you.” 

“Where is he?” 

“He is playing ball, I will send for 
him.” 

She invited Mr. Johnson in, and did 
everything she could for him. 

But I want to go back a little. Ten 
years before a baby carriage started out 
from that house and Mrs. Williamson 
said to the servant, “Take good care of 
the little boy, Bessie; you know he is 
our only child.” Away went Bessie 
along the bank of the river. She acci- 
dentally dropped her handkerchief, and 
as she turned round to pick it up let go 
of the perambulator, and it being on a 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


little incline, ran down the bank and 
the baby was thrown into the water. 
Bessie gave a shriek, which attracted 
the attention of Mr. Johnson, who was 
coming along, and as he was a great 
swimmer he plunged into the water, 
and after a good deal of difficulty he 
brought Freddie to shore. It was a 
cool day and Mr. Johnson caught a 
dreadful cold, chronic rheumatism came 
on and the doctors told him he had bet- 
ter go to the south of France. He did 
not get any better, and the doctors there 
told him he would have to die and if he 
had any matters to attend to he had 
better do so at once. He said: “I want 
to see that boy, Freddie, who caused 
ine all this pain; I want to hear him 
thank me for all the sufferings I have 
endured.” So he came from France 
across the English Channel to that town 
and Freddie was the boy who called 
him “old rattle-bones.” He was the 
one when he got off the stage to call 
out “Go it, old rattle-bones!” When 
he asked for Freddie, Mrs. Williamson 
said, “I will send for him. Bessie, tell 
Freddie a gentleman wants to see him; 
tell him Mr. Johnson has come.” 

Bessie went out and called him, 
“Come home, Freddie, Mr. Johnson has 
come.” 

Freddie began to think, “It must have 
been Mr. Johnson that I called old rat- 
tle-bones; I don’t want to see him.” 

He felt just as Adam did when he 
disobeyed God. Freddie did not start 
to run home at all. The servant went 
into the house. 

“Where is Freddie? Did you tell him 
to come home?” 

“Yes, mum.” 

“Why didn’t he come?” 

“T don’t know, mum.” 

“Didn’t he start to come home?” 

“No, mum.” 


She didn’t know he had called Mr. 
Johnson “old rattle-bones.” 

“Go and get him.” 

Bessie went to the door and there 
was Freddie coming up the steps as 
though he had leaden boots on. She 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


didn’t know what the matter was, he 
came up the steps so slowly. Bessie 
said, “Why don’t you hurry? Go and 
wash your face and hands. A gentle- 
man in the parlor wants to see you.” 

Freddie didn’t hurry a bit. He was 
ashamed to see the man who had nearly 
died to save him, and whom he had in- 
sulted. After a long time he went into 
the parlor and began to cry. His 
mother said, “Freddie, what are you 
crying about? I thought you would be 
glad to see Mr. Johnson. You have heard 
us tell how he saved your life when you 
were a baby, and we thought you would 
be so glad to see him.” 

But Freddie cried the more. 

“Why, what is the matter, Freddie?” 

Mr. Johnson knew what the matter 
was. It was Freddie who had called him 
the name. Freddie said, “Oh, mother, it 
was I who called out, ‘Go it, old rattle- 
bones!’ when he got off the stage. I 
am so ashamed. Mr. Johnson, will you 
forgive me?” 

Jesus loved us and gave Himself for 
us. Have you gone to Jesus and thanked 
Him? Have you really come to Jesus 
and given yourself to Him?—Rev. E. 
Payson Hammond. 


aay ad 
“THE BOOK OF HEAVEN.” 


Rev. Egerton R. Young, the mission- 
ary to the Indians in the far northern 
wilderness of British America, tells in 
one of his addresses, this touching story: 

“Often have I been made ashamed 
of the littleness of my love by the de- 
votion of these Indians, and by their 
love for the Bible. Let me give you 
an incident. One of our Indians with 
his son came away down from the dis- 
tant hunting-grounds to fish on the 
shores of our great lakes. This man 
and his son came down to fish, and 
they made splendid fisheries, put up 
the white fish on a staging where the 
foxes and wolves could not reach them, 
and one night the father said: ‘My son, 
we leave to-morrow morning early; 
put the book of heaven in your pack; 


ANECDOTES. 


we go back one hundred and forty miles 
to our distant hunting-ground to join 
the mother and the others in the wig- 
wam-home.’ So the young man put 
his Bible in his pack that they might 
take it home. Later on, along came an 
uncle and said to the young man: 
‘Nephew, lend me the book of heaven 
that I may read a little; I have loaned 
mine. So the pack was opened and 
the Bible was taken out, and the man 
read for a time and then threw the Bible 
back among the blankets and went out. 


“The next morning the father and 
son started very early on their home- 
ward journey. They strapped on their 
snowshoes and walked seventy miles, 
dug a hole in the snow at night, where 
they cooked rabbits, and had prayers 
and lay down and siept. The next 
morning, bright and early, after prayers, 
they pushed on and made seventy miles 
more and reached home. That night 
the father said to his son: ‘Give me 
the book of heaven, that the mother 
and the rest may read the word and 
have prayers.’ As the son opened the 
pack, he said: ‘Uncle asked for the 
bock two nights ago and it was not put 
back.” The father was disappointed, 
but said little. The next morning he 
rose early, put a few cooked rabbits in 
his pack and away he started. He 
walked that day seventy miles and 
reached the camp where he and his son 
had stopped two nights before. The 
next day he had made the other seventy 
miles and reached the lake and found 
his Bible in his brother’s wigwam. The 
next morning he started again and, 
walking in the two days one hundred 
and forty miles, was back at home once 
more. That Indian walked on snow- 
shoes two hundred and eighty miles 
through the wild forest of the North- 
west to regain his copy of the word of 
God. Could we do that much to regain 
our Bibles? Oh, the power of the gospel! 
It can go down very low and reach men 
deeply sunken in sin, and can save them 
grandly, and make them devout students 
and great lovers of the blessed Book!” 


229 


Binsiay TR 


THE DANGER OF EVIL 
ASSOCIATIONS. 

St. Augustine, in speaking of his 
very intimate friend Alypius, who oc- 
cupies a large part of the story of his 
early life, its yearnings and struggles, 
tells us that this young man had gone 
before him to study law at Rome, and 
was there carried away with excessive 
eagerness to the combats of the gladia- 
tors. “For,” to quote the Confessions, 
“being utterly averse from, and de- 
testing such spectacles, he one day met 
by chance certain of his acquaintances 
and fellow students coming from din- 
ner, who with a familiar violence haled 
him, refusing and resisting, into the 
amphitheater, during the progress of 
those deadly entertainments. Again 
and again did he protest, ‘Though you 
drag my body there, and there set me 
down, you cannot force me to turn eyes 
or mind upon those horrors. I shall 
then be absent while I am present, and 
so shall overcome both you and them.’ 
They, hearing this, bore him on never- 
theless, desirous perhaps to try that 
very thing, whether he could do as he 
pretended. 

“When they had arrived and had 
taken their places as they could, the 
whole place kindled with the savage 
pastime. But he, closing the passages 
of his eyes, forbade his mind to range 
abroad,—and would that he had stopped 
his ears also! For in the fight when 
one fell, a mighty cry of the whole 
people striking him strongly, overcome 
by curiosity, and prepared as it were, 
to despisé and rise superior to the scene 
whatever it might be, even when dis- 
closed to him, he cpened his eyes, and 
was at once stricken with a deeper 
wound in his soul than was the other in 
his body, and he fell more miserably 
than he on whose fall that mighty noise 
was raised . . . For as soon as he saw 
that blood he therewith drank in sav- 
ageness, nor turned he away, but fixed 
his eyes upon it, frenzied unawares, and 
was delighted with the wicked fight, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. . 


intoxicated with the bloody pastime. 
Why say more? He beheld, he shout- 
ed, he caught fire; he carried thence 
with him the madness which should 
goad him to return, not with them only 
who had first drawn him thither, but 
even before them,—yea, and to draw 
in Others.’ How evidently genuine 
a narrative? How true to our common 
nature! Have we not read precisely 
like accounts of the experience of our 
own countrymen who have been enticed 
to witness the scenes of a Spanish bull- 
fight?-—Rev. Charles Mirivale, D. D., 
Dean of Ely. 
—— 429 —— 


OLD TESTAMENT POWER. 


It is said that the late Charles Reade, 
of England, the eminent novelist, was 
led to study the Old Testament by a re- 
mark of the late, famous Matthew Ar- 
nold, the remark being, according to a 
writer in the “Andover Review,” in 
these words: “The old Bible is getting 
to be to us literary men of England a 
sealed book. We may think we know 
it. We were taught it at home. We 
hear it read in church. Perhaps we can 
quote some verse, or even passage; but 
we really know very little of it. I wish, 
Reade, that you would take up the Old 
Testament and go through it as though 
every page of it were new to you—as 
though you had never read a line of it 
before. I think it will astonish you.” 

Mr. Reade did so. He entered upon 
the task with such zeal as characterized 
his other work. The result was he not 
only became astonished at his discov- 
eries, but the study led to his conver- 
sion. He opened his heart to the truths 
and lessons of the Old Testament, and 
found that they were full of a mighty, 
convincing power, before which he hum- 
bly bowed, and by which he was 
brought into the kingdom of which the 


prophets foretold with graphic interest 


and eloquence. And there are many 
others today, who if they would devout- 
ly search those ancient Scriptures, 
would find them the power of God, “even 
unto salvation.”—-C. H. Wetherbe. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


—— 430 —— 
SOLDIERS AND ALCOHOL. 


At a temperance meeting held some 
years since, in the State of Alabama, 
Col. Lehamowski, once a Polish count, 
and who served many years in Bona- 
parte’s armies, addressed the meeting. 
He arose before a large audience, tall, 
erect and vigorous, and with the glow 
of health on his face, and said: 

“You see before you a man seventy- 
nine years old. I have fought two 
hundred battles, have fourteen wounds 
upon my body, have lived thirty days 
on horse flesh, with the bark of trees 
for bread, snow and ice for drink, the 
canopy of heaven for my covering, 
without stockings or shoes on my feet, 
and with only a few rags to cover my 
body. In Egypt I have marched for 
days with the burning sun upon my 
naked head, feet blistered in the hot 
sand, and with my eyes, my nostrils 
and my mouth filled with dust, and 
thirst so tormenting that I have torn 
open the veins of my arms, and sucked 
my own blood. Do you ask how I 
could survive all these horrors? I an- 
Swer, next to the kind providence of 
God, I owe my preservation, my health, 
my vigor, my all, to this fact, that I 
never drank a drop of spirituous liquor 
in all my life.” And he added: “Baron 
Larry, chief of the medical department 
of the French army, has stated it as a 
fact that the six thousand survivors who 
safely returned from Egypt were all 
men who abstained wholly from the use 
of ardent spirits.’"—H. L. Hastings. 


ute pce 
PULL OUT THE NAIL HOLE. 


John B. DeMotte, A. M., gives this 
little story of father’s teaching, 

“My boyhood home was not far south 
of the great chain of North American 
Lakes. Our fuel was poles cut from a 
neighboring tamarack swamp. It was 
my business, after they had been brought 
to our yard, to saw them to proper 
length for the stoves. They were long 


231 


and slick and hard to hold. One morn- 
ing, when I was in a hurry to be off 
fishing, they seemed to be especially 
aggravating. Getting the saw fast, I 
jerked about until finally I plunged the 
teeth some distance into one of my feet, 
making an ugly gash. My father saw 
the exhibition of my temper, but said 
nothing until I had finished my work 
and my passion had subsided. Then 
he called me to him. 

“John,” said he, very kindly, “I wish 
you would get the hammer.” 

“Yes. sir.” 

“Now a nail and a piece of pine board.” 

“Here they are.” 

“Will you drive the nail into the 
board?” 

It was done. 

“Please pull it out again.” 

“That’s easy.” 

“Now, John’—and my father’s voice 
dropped to a lower, sadder key—‘pull 
out the nail hole.” 

Ah! boys and girls, every wrong act 
leaves a scar. Even if the board were 
a living tree, yea, a living soul, the scars 
remain. 


sos AGD sees 
A WORTHY CONFESSOR. 


It was a fine reply which Basil, of 
Caesarea, made when the Emperor 
Valens sent by his prefect, endeavoring 
by threats to compel him to receive 
acknowledged Arians into the fellow- 
ship of the Church. The prefect de- 
manded whether he alone when ail 
others obeyed the Emperor, dared to 
wish to have any other religion than 
that of his master. Basil replied that 
he had nothing to be afraid of; posses- 
sions, of which men might deprive him, 
he had none, except his few books and 
his cloak. An exile was no exile for 
him, since he knew the whole earth was 
the Lord’s. If torture was threatened, 
his feeble body would yield to the first 
blows; and as for death, that would only 
bring him nearer to God after whom he 
longed. The prefect gave up the case. 
It was vain to threaten such a man. 


232 


Peay Fee 
NAPOLEON’S OPINION OF 
CHRIST. 


_ When Napoleon was at Saint Helena, 
in the enforced retirement that followed 
his boisterous campaigns, he faced, with 
all the powers of his mighty intellect, 
the problem of the Unaccountable Man. 
Not a few of his devoted friends had been. 
carried away on the flood-tide of infi- 
delity which, at that time, was sweeping 
everything before it. On one occasion, 
when General Bertrand had been speak- 
ing of Jesus as a man of commanding 
genius, Napoleon interrupted him and 
Said: 

“I know men; and I tell you Jesus 
Christ was more than a man. Super- 
ficial minds see a resemblance between 
him and the founders of empires; but 
there is the distance of infinity between 
them. As for me [I recognize those 
great men as beings like myself; they 
have performed their lofty parts, but 
there was nothing to prove them divine. 
They have had foibles which ally them 
with me. It is not so with Christ. 
Everything in Him astonishes me. His 
spirit overawes me; His will confounds 
me; He stands a being by Himself. His 
thoughts and principles are not to be 
explained by human organization or 
the nature of things. His birth and 
the history of His life, the profundity of 
His doctrine which grapples with the 
mightiest difficulties and solves them; 
His gospel, His kingdom, His march 
across the ages; these are too deep a 
mystery for me! They plunge me into 
reveries from which I find no escape. 
The nearer I approach Him, the more I 
perceive that everything is above me. 

“Who will presume to lift his voice 
against an intrepid voyager who re- 
counts the marvels of lands which he 
alone has had the boldness to visit? 
Christ is that voyager. I search in vain 
through history to find his peer. He 
died an object of contempt, and left a 
Gospel which has been called ‘the fool- 
ishness of cross. What a mysteri- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES Fae 


ous symbol! And what a tempest it 
provoked! On the one side all the 
furies; on the other gentleness and in- 
finite resignation. And with what re- 
sult? You speak of Caesar and Alex- 
ander, of their conquests and the en- 
thusiasm which they enkindled in the 
hearts of their soldiers; but can you 
conceive of a dead man making con- 
quests with an army devoted to his 
memory? Can you conceive of Caesar 
from the depth of his mausoleum 
watching over the destinies of Rome? 
Yet such is the history of the Christian 
invasion and the conquest of the world. 
Such is the power of the Christian’s 
God! 

“We have founded empires, Caesar 
and Alexander and Charlemagne and I; 
we have founded empires upon force; 
but Christ has founded an empire on — 
love. And at this hour, millions would 
die for him. What a proof of his divin- 
ity! Now that I am at Saint Helena, 
chained upon this rock, where are my 
friends? My life once shone with a 
royal brilliance; but disaster overtook 
me and the gold became dim. Behold 
the destiny of him whom the world 
calls Napoleon the Great! What an 
abyss between my misery and the eter- 
nal reign of Christ!” 

For a moment the exiled Emperor 
was silent and then, with a broken voice, 
he added, “My friends, if you do not 
perceive that Jesus, Christ is God, I did 
wrong to place you in command of my 
army. ’—David James Burrell, D. D. 


Patactlag FY 
CARRIE WEBB’S RESTORATION. 


Miss Carrie C. Webb, who believes 
that she experienced the faith-cure re- 
cently while sojourning at Northport, 
L. I., has returned to her home, 418 
Gold Street, Brooklyn, and many friends 
and neighbors have called to see her and 
hear her remarkable story. She is twen- 
ty-three years old and of slender form. 
She had been a teacher in the Hanson 
Place Baptist Church for several years, 
and her father is a deacon in the Bed- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ford Avenue Baptist Church, whose 
venerable pastor, the Rev. Dr. Hutch- 
ings, with many members oi his congre- 
gation, are firm believers in the efficacy 
of prayer in removing disease. Two 
months ago Miss Webb went to spend 
the summer at her brother’s house at 
Northport, and her condition, physical- 
ly and mentally, was such that her 
friends never expected to see her come 
back alive. She has, however, returned 
with her mind bright and clear, and her 
health apparently fully restored. This 
is Miss Webb’s explanation of how the 
change was brought about: 


“I had been declining in health for 
nearly seven years, suffering constantly 
from bronchitis and a severe cough. My 
mind became affected, and I had strange 
and uncontrollable fancies, and became 
morbid and despondent. I was at last 
attacked with neuralgia, and ofen prayed 
that I might die, as I became a burden to 
my family. One day, soon after I arrived 
at Northport, and while I was lying on a 
lounge in the library, at my brother’s 
house, my eye lighted on a book on the 
faith-cure. I read it. That same after- 
noon my brother asked me if I had ever 
thought of faith-cure, and I told him 
about the book incident, adding that I 
had never thought of it in connection 
with myself. I said I did not think I had 
sufficient faith to receive such a bless- 
ing. He told me to think over and pray 
about the matter; and three days after 
I went to him and told him I was ready 
to be anointed. My brother sent for the 
Presbyterian minister of the village, and 
when he arrived we went into the 
library. The service was very impress- 
ive, and I wept all the time it was going 
on, and when he was pouring oil on my 
head. I did not feel any better the next 
day, but rather worse. 


“Just one week after the anointing I 
awoke in unusual pain and prayed to 
God to let me die. Then I suddenly 
thought it would be better for me to pray 
for health; and I prayed and cried for 
three hours. Finally, when I arose and 
stood erect, I felt a sensation of health 


233 


and strength I had not known for seven 
long years. I realized that I was well 
again and that my prayer had been an- 
swered. Not only had my pains all van- 
ished but the cloud also disappeared 
from my mind. The cure was genuine 
and complete. I have not had a pain or 
ache since that morning of prolonged 
prayer.”—~New York Sun. 


435 
HE CHOOSES THE WEAK. 


A touching story is told in connection 
with the work of the Countess of Hunt- 
ingdon among the colliers in the Engiish 
Black Country. Finding that many of 
these poor miners had never heard the 
name of God or of Christ, she sent out 
preachers to hold meetings among them 
in the open air. Whitefield, Venn, the 
Wesleys were among her helpers. 

In a cabin on her estate there was a 
crippled blind girl, named Eliza Poulard, 
who heard of this great work. She was 
carried to the castle, and asked to see 
Lady Huntingdon. 

“Can I help?” she inquired, humbly. 
“IT never have done anything for God.” 

The servants would have driven her 
away, but the countess interfered. “She 
is lame and blind, and scared at her own 
voice,” they said. 

“God calls His own messengers,” re- 
plied the countess. “Carry her to the 
meeting to-night at the mines.” 

“Now,” says the old chronicler, 
“Fliza, in her solitude, had learned many 
hymns, and her voice was of that tone 
that it would wring the heart of a beast. 
When she sang of Christ upon the cross, 
the women cried out and the men wept 
sore. No words of the preachers were as 
powerful as the song of the poor cripple, 
lying on her pallet. They carried her 
from one place to another, and many 
people were converted by her.” 

It is said that when Lady Huntingdon 
told her of the souls she had influenced 
for good, her poor ugly face grew beauti- 
ful as an angel’s. 

“Who would have thought he would 
have chosen me?” she said.—Sel. 








234 


wm 436 —-— 
ON JOHN BROWN’S BODY. 

There is no more interesting man in 
our history than plain old John Brown, 
whose “body lies a-moulding in the 
grave.” His son John tells a story of his 
own boyhood which shows the strange 
character of the grim yet tender father. 

He says he was first put to the tan- 
ning business, and for three years his 
chief duty was to attend to the grind- 
ing of bark with a blind horse. Boy- 
like, he took spells of play when his 
father was absent, and frequently for- 
got to supply the machine with the nec- 
essary bark. 

“But the creaking of the hungry mill 
would betray my neglect, and then 
father, hearing this from below, would 
come up and stealthily pounce upon me 
while at a window looking upon outside 
attractions. He finally grew tired of 
these frequent slight admonitions for 
my laziness and other shortcomings, 
and concluded to adopt with me a sort 
of book account something like this: 
John, Dr. 

For disobeying mother.... 8 lashes 

For unfaithfulness at work 3 “ 

For telling .a lie. 52. .42.. Ee 

“This account he showed me from 
time to time. On a certain Sunday 
morning he invited me to accompany 
him from the house to the tannery, say- 
ing that he concluded that it was time 
for a settlement. He went into the up- 
per or finishing room, and after a long 
and tearful talk over my faults he 
again showed me my account, which 
exhibited a fearful footing up of debits. 
I had no credits or offsets, and was, 
of course, a bankrupt. I then paid about 
one-third of the debt, reckoned in 
strokes from a nicely prepared blue- 
beech switch, laid on ‘masterly.’ 
Then, to my utter astonishment, father 
stripped off his shirt and, seating him- 
self on a block, gave me the whip and 
bade me ‘lay it on’ to his bare back. I 
dared not refuse to obey, but at first I 
did not strike hard. ‘Harder,’ he said, 
‘harder! harder!’ until he received the 
balance of the account. Small drops of 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


blood showed on his back where the tip 
end of the tingling beech cut through. 
Thus ended the account and the settle- 
ment.”—Selected. 


smmame 437 —— 
THE EVIDENCE OF PROPHECY. 


A colonel in the Turkish army once 
asked Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, in Constanti- 
nople, for a proof that the Bible is the 
word of God. Dr. Hamlin did not imme- 
diately answer; but, learning that the 
colonel was a traveling man, he said to 
him: “Have you ever been in Bab- 
ylon?” “Yes,” replied the colonel, “and 
I will tell you a curious incident. The 
ruins of Babylon abound in game; and 
once, engaging a skeikh with his fol- 
lowers, I arrived among the ruins for a 
week’s shooting. At sundown the 
Arabs, to my amazement, began to 
strike their tents. I went to the skeikh 
and protested most strongly. I was 
paying him handsomely, but I now of- 
fered to double the amount; but nothing 
I could say had any effect. ‘It is not 
safe,’ said the sheikh. ‘No mortal flesh 
dare stay here after sunset. Ghosts and 
ghouls come out of the holes and cav- 
erns after dark, and whomsoever they 
capture becomes one of themselves. No 
Arab has ever seen the sun go down on 
Babylon.’ ” 

Dr. Hamlin took out his Bible and 
read from the thirteenth of Isaiah: 
“And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, 
the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall 
be as when God overthrew Sodom and 
Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, 
neither shall it be dwelt in from genera- 
tion to generation; neither shall the 
Arabian pitch tent there, . but 
wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, 
eon and wolves shall cry in their 
castles, and jackals in the pleasant pal- 
aces.” (Isaiah, 13:19.) “That is his- 
tory you have been reading,” said the 
Turk. “No,” said Dr. Hamlin, “it is 
prophecy. Those words were written 
when Babylon was in all her glory; and 
you know what Babylon is today.” The 
colonel was silent, and they never met 
again.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


we ed ggie 
WHAT THE BIBLE CAN DO. 


The Bible is a book you can recom- 
mend, it is really a wonderful book, and 
has accomplished great things, and is 
still working miracles in the lives of 
those who read it. Here are some iacts 
of what it did in a prison, 

There was in one of the cells a man 
who had been five times convicted of 
burglary. He was most troublesome, 
and the prison punishment and the 
chaplain’s warnings and persuasions 


seemed to have no effect whatever on 


his hardened conscience. On one occa- 
sion the chaplain was going round the 
cells, and when he came to this one he 
was wondering what he would say; 
opening the door he greeted him by 
name and in a cheery tone said: “T’ll 
tell you what is the matter with you— 
you want making new inside.” 

The remark seemed to strike the 
prisoner as a good joke, and he answer- 
ed: “Well, governor, I think you are 
about right.” The chaplain was rather 
surprised at this answer, and asked him 
if he knew how it could be done. “Not 
likely,” he replied. The chaplain said, 
“But yeu could. Listen to this,” and he 
read to him that verse in Ezekiel 36: “A 
new heart also will I give you, and a 
new spirit will I put within you; and I 
will take away the stony heart out of 
your fiesh.” 

The prisoner admitted that that would 
be making new inside, but that it was 
not possible for him, ‘‘You are wrong, 
my lad,” answered the chaplain, and 
then told him that he knew men who 
had been so changed, and reminded him 
that the words were God’s words. Then 
he handed him his own Bible, and turn- 
ing down the leaf at the third chapter 
of John’s Gospel, left it with him to read 
for himself. 

Three days later he saw the man 
again, and was struck with the change 
in his face and manner. “What is it?” 
he said. The prisoner replied, “What 
is it? It is the Book!” Then he told 
how he had read the verses over and 


ANECDOTES 230 
over, and every time they seemed to be 
more wonderful than before. Then 
thera came back to him recollections of 
what he had heard when he was a boy, 
and his bitter, hard heart was broken, 
and with prayers and tears he cried for 
mercy, and soon found forgiveness 
through the blood of ‘Christ, 

Now for the change—the harvest of 
the little seed. Whereas he had been a 
hopeless case, and a constant anxiety to 
the officials, now he was willing to do 
anything for anybody. One day he re- 
marked: “I’m glad my sentence is a 
long one, because the prison is the hap- 
piest place I have found on earth.” 

“Is not my word like as a fire? saith 
the Lord; and like a hammer that break- 
eth the rock in pieces?” Jer. 23:29.— 
Selected. 


ea oe 
CALM IN THE STORM. 


A short time since, I took ship at 
Providence, Rhode Island, at evening 
tide. The steamer carried over a thou- 
sand souls. 

As we moved down the river and out 
into the deep, joy, animation and music 
filled that gliding palace, while pyramids 
of electric lamps poured a flood of golden 
light upon us in the cabin. 

I moved out upon the deck, and all 
was dark. Great angry billows rolled 
tempestuously about us, while rushing 
winds tore their way over the hurricane 
deck. 

It was a wild storm without. 

It was all peace and joy within. 

Strange phenomenon! Why, amidst 
such a storm, should there be such a 
calm? 

Ah! something weird was playing 
with the hearts of men. 

It held us mentally, as it were, in a 
Haven of Calms, landlocked from a rag- 
ing sea of fear. 

There was supreme faith in an in- 
visible pilot at the wheel. 

Something above reason saw some- 
thing beyond the range of vision, “as 
seeing Him who is invisible,” and we 
were at rest.—S. L. Mershon. 


236 ILLUSTRATIVE 


comes 4.4.0) mmmmne 
THE WALL OF FAITH. 


The following instance of God’s care 
of those who put their trust in him is 
from an old writer on the Providence of 
God. 

In a small cottage on the southern 
shores of the Baltic lived many years 
ago a pious widow named Bertha 
Schmidt, with her son Karl and his bride. 
A pretty picture in summer was that 
little dwelling, peering out from the ema 
bowering vines. One morning brought 
sad news to that cottage home. A hos- 
tile army was approaching the city of 
Stralsund, and might be looked for at 
any hour. In every house there was 
gloom, The day passed in dreadful sus- 
pense, and night closed in over the 
watching city. 

As night deepened there came on a 
terrific storm of snow and wind, which 
made the scene still more desolate and 
fearful. But how is it within the wid- 
ow’s cottage? Karl had for a while 
busied himself with barricading the 
doors and windows, so as to offer some 
obstruction to the soldiery, and had 
done the best he could to defend his 
mother and his bride. Then he sank 
down into gloomy silence, while his 
young wife sat by him pale and tremb- 
ling; but the aged widow sat with her 
eyes fastened upon her Bible. She 
raised her eyes, and with a bright coun- 
tenance, she repeated these lines: 

“Round us a wall our God shall 
rear, 

And our proud foes shall quail 
with fear!” 

“What! dear mother,” replied Karl, 
“is your faith as strong as that? Do 
you really expect God will build a wall 
round our poor hut, strong and high 
enough to keep out an army?” 

“Has not my son read,” replied the 
mother, “that not a sparrow falls to the 
ground without our Father?” 

Karl made no reply, and the little 
family sank again into silence. Just at 
midnight there was a lull in the storm, 


ANECDOTES 


and they heard the great clock striking 
the hour of twelve. At the same mo- 
ment, the faint sound of martial music 
caught their watchful ears, The fatal 
time had apparently come, They drew 
closer together, and as the aged mother 
returned the pressure of her son’s hand, 
she again repeated: 

“Round us a wall our God shall 

rear, 
And our proud foes shall quail with 
fear!” 

The music drew nearer, mingled with 
a confused sound of trampling and 
shouting. Soon shrieks were heard, and 
the crackling of flames told that the 
work of destruction was going on, But no 
hostile foot invaded the widow’s dwell- 
ing; it stood quiet and unharmed amid 
the uproar, as if angels were encamping 
round it, At length the tumult died 
away—the storm ceased—and a death- 
like silence fell upon the scene. After 
waiting several hours, Karl ventured to 
unclose a shutter; but the light came 
dimly through the snow, which was 
heaped to the top of the window! He 
cautiously opened the door, but he was 
obliged to cut his way. He stood silent 
with astonishment and awe at the sight 
before him. Huge drifts of snow had 
completely encircled the cottage, and 
made it in appearance a mere mound of 
snow, They had indeed been hidden by 
“a wall,” and had dwelt safely in the 
pavilion of the Most High. Karl led his 
aged mother out to behold her “wall of 
faith.” The pious widow wept as she 
looked up to heaven, and gently ex- 
claimed: 

“Faithful is He who hath promised; 
He also hath done it.” 


BN CY int 


THE WORK OF ONE CONVERT. 


We should be, each one of us, mis- 
sionaries of the truth of the blessed gos- 
pel that we profess to enjoy in our own 
personal experiences, The progress of 
the Kingdom of God to-day, in the 
world, as it was in New Testament 
times, is dependent upon the personal 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


testimony and personal work of every 
individual who professes to be a dis- 
ciple of Jesus Christ. 

I went to Italy in 1886. Arriving at 
Milan, I was appointed to a district and 
I could not speak the Italian language 
at all, I must learn it. How should I 
learn it? I soon found out that a young 
lady wanted lessons in English, so I 
said I could give her some lessons in 
English if she would teach me Italian. 
We soon agreed and went to work. As 
soon as she could read a little I got 
her an English New Testament and for 
myself an Italian New Testament. Of 
course as we read along, I had to ex- 
plain and preach to her first the Word 
of Truth. Then as I began to write a 
few brief sermons, I had to preach them 
to her first so that she might correct 
the language, and thus the truth came 
into her heart, 

We kept up the acquaintance, She 
rose up from one position to another in 
her profession as teacher in the public 
schools, and finally became the direct- 
ress of the Normal College in the city 
of Milan, and she had no less than seven 
hundred young ladies under her care, 
preparing to be public school teachers 
in Italy. Thus she was exerting a 
tremendous influence, and that seed of 
truth which I dropped into her heart 
was exerting its influence in the hearts 
of hundreds in her school. 


The Jesuits became alarmed and got 
after her. They made trouble for her 
and she was suspended for awhile, but 
she took up the cudgel in the public 
press and fought her case through and 
appealed to the Counsel of State and 
was reinstated in her position in that 
great institution in the city of Milan. 

It is just this. When we are work- 
ing for that single man or single wom- 
an, we do not know where our influence 
will end. Only let us do our duty and 
God will take care of the rest. There 
are enough here in this room to-day, if 
filled by the Spirit of the Master, to go 
into this great city and do wonders in 
His name—‘“For greater things than 


237, 


these shall ye do because I go to my 
Father.”—Rev. William Burt, D. D. 


SS aaa heres 
AN ANSWERED PRAYER. 


A well-known physician connected 
with the Chicago Foundling’s Home is 
authority for the following account of 
ail answered prayer, This Home, which 
is one of the largest of its kind in the 
Middie West, was founded more than a 
quarter of a century ago on faith that 
the Lord in answer to prayer would pro- 
vide for its needs, It has been con- 
ducted ever since on this basis. Its 
large building and its ever-increasing 
work is sufficient testimony that the ex- 
péctations of its founders have been ful- 
filled, says Orin Edson Crooker, in S. S. 
Times. 


In its early days the Home occupied a 
rented building upon which the rent had 
become $650 in arrears. The owner 
politely but firmly refused to extend 
further credit beyond a certain date. 

“The Lord will provide before that 
time,” said those in charge. “We will 
all pray for money to carry the Home 
through the crisis.” 

The days passed until only one re- 
mained, but the $650 had not yet been 
provided. 

“We will pray that it may come in 
to-morrow morning’s mail,” the devoted 
workers said as they redoubled their 
efforts, 

Next morning the postman came, but 
brought no communication containing 
money. When only an hour or two re- 
mained a special messenger called at 
the door with a letter. 

“A year ago,” it read, “I was elected 
to a certain public office which I did not 
want and which I have filled against my 
will, I have just received compensation 
for my labors, and am glad to turn it 
over to your institution to use as you 
think best.” 

The check was for $650. It came 
from Carter H. Harrison, Sr., the father 
of ex-Mayor Harrison of Chicago. 


238 


—— 443 —-— 

DELIVERED FROM THE FIRE. 

The Rev. Mr. Fletcher, the pious 
vicar of Madely, England, relates that 
going into the pulpit one Sabbath morn 
ing, he could recollect no part of his 
sermon, not even the text. Feeling ex- 
ceedingly perplexed in his mind, and 
not willing to dismiss the people without 
Saying anything, he thought that he 
would endeavor to make a few remarks 
upon the morning’s lesson, which was 
respecting the three worthies who were 
cast into the furnace of fire. Finding 
uncommon and unexpected enlargement 
of spirit in so doing, he announced to 
the congregation at the close that if 
there was any person present to whom 
those remarks more particularly applied, 
he desired that they would call upon 
him, in the course of the week. On 
Wednesday a woman called and in- 
formed him that she had been under se- 
rious impressions for some time; but 
that her husband, who was a butcher, 
constantly opposed her and forbade her 
attending any of the religious meetings, 
even at the parish church, on Sunday; 
that on the last Sabbath morning he told 
her that if she should presume to go to 
church, he would build up a great fire 
in the oven, and throw her into it, as 
soon as she came home. But she re- 
solved to go, and, says she, “Sir, while 
you were speaking of the three young 
men who were thrown into the fiery fur- 
nace, because they would not sin against 
Cod, I thought it was just my case, 
and it pleased the Lord then and there 
to set my soul at liberty. I went home 
with a light heart, trusting that the 
Lord would be with me. When I came 
near the: house I saw the flames issuing 
from the oven, and knowing what a man 
my husband was, I expected to be im- 
mediately thrown into it. But what 
was My amazement upon opening the 
door, instead of being thrown into the 
oven, to find my husband upon his knees 
crying for mercy.” Says Mr. Fletcher, 
“I then knew why I had forgotten my 
sermon, and was led to speak upon 
something else.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


SUBUE/ 0 U Wolevaaae 
HOW TO CONTROL YOUR 
TEMPER. 


[here occurs to me the image of a 
visitor who called one evening, and who 
wished to know what he was to do in 
order to control and suppress an un- 
governable temper. For years it had 
tortured him past all bearing, and, 
what was worse, for years it had been a 
source of pain and discomfort in his 
home. When his anger was kindled, 
he was by his own confession a terror 
to wife and children, and, seeing that 
he had recently become a Christian, he 
felt acutely the stain such actions fixed 
on garments that should have been un- 
spotted by the world. “What must I 
do? I can’t go on in this way, and yet 
though I feel it is wrong I can’t help 
myself.” 

The first suggestion I ventured was 
based on the regard he had expressed 
for his pastor. “What would be the 
effect,” said I, “on you, if I were to 
appear at the moment the storm was 
about to burst? Think!” 


He thought and then said, “It 
wouldn’t burst. I should stop it.” 
“Well, then, try this plas. Force 


yourself at the moment of peril into the 
conscious presence of God, and say as 
you feel the uprising passion, ‘O God, 
make me master of myself.’ Pray that 
prayer; and pray, morning by morning, 
that you may so pray in your time of 
need; and in due season you will ob- 
tain the perfect mastery of your- 
self you seek.” He promised. I watched. 
He prayed. He conquered; once, twice, 
thrice, and then failed; but he renewed 
the attempt, and triumphed again, and 
years afterward I knew him as one of 
the most serene of men; and when he 
died no phase of his character stood out 
more distinctively than his perfect self- 
control, and no fact in his life was re- 
membered with deeper gratitude by his 
bereaved wife than that memorable vice 
tory won by prayer in the early days 
of his discipleship to the Lord Jesus.— 
Rev. F. Clifford, D. D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ROSEY a veal 
THE BLIND MAN’S TESTIMONY. 


In 1885 I preached one Sabbath at 
Summerset, N. Y., and was entertained 
at the home of Mr. Arnold, an elder of 
the church, who related the following 
interesting incident. 

Among his acquaintances was a blind 
man whose blindness was the result of 
cataract. 

He was very poor, yet managed to pro- 
vide for his family (in whom were sev- 
eral children that he had never looked 
upon) by traveling about the country 
led by the hand of his boy, selling ex- 
tracts and essences. 


By some means, he heard of the skill 
of Dr. Ryder, an eminent occulist of 
Rochester, N, Y. So he went to 
Rochester to consult the doctor regard- 
ing his eyes. He said, “Doctor, I have 
heard of your skill in treating the blind. 
But I am a poor man and can’t see how 
I can pay you for it, yet I am so anxious 
to see again, and I thought perhaps you 
might help me.” 

After examining his eyes, the doctor 
told him that he could restore his sight. 
And said to him, “I can bestow a great 
benefit upon you, and you, although a 
poor man, can do much for me. I will 
operate upon your eyes, and treat them 
until they are well; and all I ask of you 
in return is to tell people who did it.” 

It is needless to say that the blind 
man gladly consented to the arrange- 
ment. The operation was highly suc- 
cessful; and the joy of the man in being 
permitted to see again is more easily 
imagined than described. 

One day Mr. Arnold saw some one 
coming who resembled the blind man. 
But noticing that he had no one to lead 
him, and not having heard of his re- 
covering his sight, he did not know 
what to make of it. Presently the man 
came up, and, with radiant face, told 
how he had received his sight, We need 
not say that he highly praised the kind- 
ness and skill of Dr. Ryder.. 


ANECDOTES 239 

Mr. Arnold’s aged father who also 
was blind from cataract, listened with 
eager interest to the testimony of the 
man who had been blind. Faith came 
by hearing; and he would not rest sat- 
isfied until Dr. Ryder was called to op- 
erate upon his eyes also. 

Does not this incident illustrate how 
the Great Physician deals with those 
who apply to him for relief? 

He heals us of the fatal malady of sin, 
and gives us spiritual eye-sight; and all 
he asks in return is, that we glorify him 
by telling what great things he hath 
done for us. 

Surely gratitude to our Deliverer will 
make us glad to recommend him to 
others, And they, hearing what the 
Lord has done for us, will not rest sat- 
isfied until they also have come to him. 

Let us then, “sing forth the honor of 
his name, and make his praise glorious.” 
And others, hearing, will believe, and 
they too will “taste and see that the 
Lord is good.”—Rev. Henry H. Tyndall. 


Sea AG eres 
HIS RECOMMENDATION, 


The newspapers some years ago re- 
lated the following anecdote of Stephen 
Girard, the Philadelphia Philanthropist. 
One Saturday he ordered all his clerks 
to come on the morrow to his wharf to 
help unload a newly arrived ship. One 
young man replied quietly: “Mr. Girard, 
I can’t work on the Sabbath.” “You 
know the rules.” “Yes, I know. I have 
a mother to support, but I can’t work 
on Sabbaths.” ‘Well, step up to the 
desk, and the cashier will settle with 
you.” For three weeks the young man 
could find no work; but one day a bank- 
er came to Girard to ask if he could 
recommend a man for cashier in a new 
bank. This discharged young man was 
at once named as a suitable person. 
“But,” said the banker, “you discharged 
him.” “Yes, because he would not work 
on Sabbaths. A man who would lose 
his place for conscience’ sake would 
make a trustworthy cashier.” And he 
was appointed.—Frank E, Adams. 


240 


LANGE EB RE LSS 
A CONVERTED INFIDEL. 


If you had been in Toledo a few years 
ago and stood in the basement of the 
United Brethren Church you would have 
witnessed a strange scene. You would 
have seen an old man in his seventy- 
third year, with no other witness but 
God and the janitor consigning his books 
to the flames of the furnace. It was an 
infidel library, the accumulation of years 
and from every quarter of the earth, and 
the old white-haired man was the once 
infidel Marshall Waggoner, who had as- 
sailed the Christ-faith all the way from 
youth to tottering old age; but whose 
heart God had touched and whose eyes 
God had opened. It did seem that all 
hope was taken away but God gloriously 
saved him. His Christian wife—God 
bless the faithful woman who keeps her 
trust in Christ in spite of all the ridicule 
and indifference of an unbelieving hus- 
band. She was true to the end, and on 
dying bed she asked him to accept her 
Saviour. 

The spirit of his departed wife never 
left him. He fought against it but no 
use. He said he walked the floor at 
times like a maniac, At last he stood 
face to face with the real issue, the 
Waterloo of many a lost soul, the thing 
that’s keeping many of you away from 
God, no matter what your peculiar diffi- 
culty may be. It was simply whether 
or no he could face the world. If at 
such a late hour he should renounce his 
infidelity and become a Christian man. 
He looked himself over from head to 
foot, thought of all the past and said he 
had never been a coward, and while his 
gramaphone, of which he was very fond 
was playing “Rock of Ages Cleft for 
Me,” he crept into the cleft of the riven 
rock and the great God who saves to 
the uttermost touched him and you 
could have gone to that little church 
until recently when God called him 
home and you would have found him 
earnestly working for God and weeping 
and praying that men might come to 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


Christ. There’s all the hope in the world 
for you, if you will only get the victory 
over your will.—Rev. P. J. Gilbert. 


ire AsG Sere 
THE KING’S VICTIM. 


The celebrated beauty, Madame Mus- 
ard, the lawful wife of Alfred Musard, 
and mistress of Wm. III., King of Hol- 
land, found the way of the transgressor 
hard. She and her husband bought the 
villa of the Grand Duke of Tuscany on 
Lake Como; also a sumptuous railway 
car, built for the Duc de Morny, by 
which they traveled to their Chateau 
on the Seine. The horses that drew 
their splendid phaeton in Paris were 
valued at 20,000 francs, at least; and the 
elegance of their turnout surpassed any- 
thing seen in the streets of Paris up to 
that time. 

“At the opera the diamonds of Mme. 
Musard and her sumptuous toilets were 
the centre upon which all eyes were 
fixed. The luxury of the couple was 
overwhelming.” 

She was exceedingly beautiful; but 
no one knew it better than herself. She 
used to spend hours before her mirror 
in self admiration. 

The King was so smitten by her 
charms that he used frequently to aban- 
don his kingdom, and visit her a day 
or two atatime. He, it was, who sup- 
plied her with all the luxury in which 
she lived, ) 

She used to say: “When I die, I want 
a have all my diamonds laid out on the 

ed.” 

But God did not permit her to have 
even this slight consolation in her dying 
moments. 

For, “Still in the prime of mature 
beauty, Mme, Musard was smitten with 
blindness, at thirty-seven, and died rav- 
ing mad in a private asylum.” 

She died in a straight jacket, cursing 
the king who had accomplished her ruin, 

Beauty of face, without beauty of 
soul, is dangerous. Too often it proves 
a curse to its possessor, and also a snare 
to others. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


The king who brought her to ruin was 
later called to meet the King of 
Kings, who will “give to every man ac- 
cording as his work shall be.” 

The consequences of sin will, sooner 
or later, overtake every sinner, be he 
prince or beggar.—Rev. H. M. Tyndall. 


Us Vie 


SEND PROVISIONS TO CALEB. 

God has resources at his command 
of which we are sometimes forgetful. 
He once used ravens to supply his ser- 
vant with food. They could be so used 
again if God chose. 

And while God usually provides for 
the needs of his children by what are 
called natural means, yet, at times, he 
is pleased to so depart from this method, 
that the supernatural becomes clearly 
apparent in his providing care. 

He may still speak.to the ear with 
audible voice as he did to the child 
Samuel. 

He may unerringly guide a horse so 
that it will choose its way aright, and 
stop at the door where help is needed. 
We may be sure that God is still abund- 
antly able, as well as willing, to care 
for all those who put their trust in him. 

The following experience, from Golden 
Gleanings by David Heston, ought to 
encourage us to have more confidence 
in God as the hearer and answerer of 
prayer. 

A clergyman residing near Bath, Eng- 
land, awoke one night with an impres- 
sion on his mind: “Send provisions to 
Caleb.” Not knowing any one of that 
name, he settled off again to sleep, but 
not to rest. “Send provisions to Caleb,” 
again sounded in his ear, sleeping or 
waking; and, uneasy in his mind, he ad- 
dressed his wife, inquiring if she knew 
any one of that name. The reply was 
in the negative, and not seeing how to 
help himself in the darkness of night, 
he once more endeavored to compose 
himself to sleep. 

It was, however, in vain. “Send pro- 
visions to Caleb,” continued to haunt 
him, until at last, unable to rest, he rose, 


ANECDOTES 241 


called up his coachman, and descending 
to the larder, filled a hamper with bread, 
meat and other food, telling the man he 
must go and find out where “Caleb” 
lived, in full belief some one of that 
name was in great need. 

“With all my heart, sir,” said the 
man, “if you will tell me where; but 
how in the name of goodness am I to 
find Caleb in the darkness of night, 
with no one about who could help or 
direct me?” 

“It matters not,’ said his master, 
“saddle the horse and start. Take the 
basket, and lay the bridle across the 
horse’s neck; my impression of duty is 
so strong, that I believe, in our ignor- 
ance, the horse will be guided aright.” 

It was snowing fast, and in the piti- 
less night the kind-hearted coachman 
sallied forth on his apparently hopeless 
errand; but it did not turn out so. On 
went the horse, unguided, turning nei- 
ther to the right nor left for some miles, 
when suddenly, coming to a barren 
heath, he turned out off the road, and 
through the deep snow, went across the 
common, where was no beaten track, 
and then stopped suddenly before a 
little hovel, which would have been 
passed unnoticed but for his sudden 
halting. “Does any one named Caleb 
live here?” shouted the coachman; when 
a voice replied, “Yes, indeed, you are 
all right—our prayers are answered!” 
It was found that this poor and aged 
man, living in this lowly abode, had 
been brought very low through sick- 
ness and poverty, and that he and his 
family were none of them able to seek 
help. They had been for some days in 
a most destitute condition; how to make 
their case known they knew not, and 
they had just been praying to their 
Heavenly Father either to send re- 
lief, or enable them to submit to His 
will and die, This circumstance was 
some time after narrated at a meeting, 
when a gentleman rose and said, “That 
is quite true, for I know Caleb, and have 
heard him.speak of this fact as a proof 
that God hears and answers prayers.” 


242 


eo Oita 
THE BIBLE FINDS US. 


I believe the Bible because “it finds 
me.” Those are the words of Coleridge; 
and I make them mine. The Bible 
found me on a memorable day more 
than fifty years ago. It found me per- 
plexed with a boy’s fear of the un- 
known. It calmed my fears and gave 
me the hope that maketh not ashamed. 
It has found me once and again in the 
Vale of Baca and wiped away my tears. 
It has found me and upheld me in 
seasons of weakness and discourage- 
ment. It has found me and never 
failed me. And, when I come to the 
border line between time and eternity 
it shall find me there, and give me a 
rod and staff to lean on. Oh, blessed 
Book! May my right hand forget its 
cunning and my tongue cleave to the 
roof of my mouth if I forget thee! 

The Bible is its own best witness. The 
search-warrant is yours. Christ said, 
“Search the Scriptures.” Search, 
therefore, with a mind open to convic- 
tion, and I am confident you will arrive 
at the same conclusion that has forced 
itself upon me. The Bible is a book to 
live by and to die by. It is worthy to be 
received as an infallible rule of faith and 
practice. It is true and trustworthy 
every way. It is the veritable Word of 
God.—Rev. D. J. Burrell, D. D 


— 451 
IT WORKS WONDERS. 


Some years ago, says the Public 
Leader, a lady, who tells the story her- 
self, went to consult a famous physician 
about her health. She was a woman of 
nervous temperament, whose troubles— 
and she had many—had worried and ex- 
cited her to such a pitch that the strain 
threatened her physical strength and 
even her reason. She gave the doctor 
a list of her symptoms, and answered 
the questions, only to be astonished at 
the brief prescription: “Madam, what 
you need is to read your Bible more.” 

“But doctor,” began the» bewildered 
patient. “Go home and read your Bible 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


an hour a day,” the great man reiterated, 
with kindly authority. Then come back 
to me a month from today.” And he 
bowed her out without possibility of fur- 
ther protest. At first his patient was in- 
clined to be angry. Then she reflected 
that, at least, the prescription was not an 
expensive one, Besides, it certainly had 
been a long time since she had read the 
Bible regularly, she reflected with a pang 
of conscience. Worldly cares had crowd- 
ed out her prayer and Bible study for 
years, and though she would have re- 
sented being called an irreligious woman, 
she had undoubtedly become a most 
careless Christian. She went home and 
set herself conscientiously to try the 
physician’s remedy. In one month she 
went back to his office. “Well,” he said, 
smiling, as he looked at her face, “I 
see you are an obedient patient, and 
have taken my prescription faithfully. 
Do you feel as if you needed any other 
medicine now?” 

“No, doctor, I feel like a different per- 
son. But how did you know this was 
just what I needed?” For answer, the 
famous physician turned to his desk. 
There, worn and marked lay an open 
Bible. “Madam,” he said, with deep 
earnestness, “if I were to omit my daily 
reading of this book I should lose my 
greatest source of strength and skill. I 
never go to an operation without read- 
ing my Bible.” 

“T never attend a distressing case with- 
out finding help in its pages. Your case 
called not for medicine, but for source 
of peace and strength outside your own 
mind, and I showed you my own pre- 
scription, I knew it would cure.” “Yet 
I confess, doctor,” said the patient, “that 
I came very near not taking it.” 

“Very few are willing to try it, I find,” 
said the physician, smiling again. “But 
there are many, many cases in my prac- 
tice where, if tried, it would work won- 
ders.” 

This is a true story. 

The physician has died, but his pre- 
scription remains, It will do no one any 
harm to try it—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


pee a2 ee 
THE WITHIN GREATER THAN 
THE WITHOUT. 


In his “Education and Life,” Doctor 
Baker tells the story of a hero worthy to 
stand among earth’s greatest names. 
Here is the incident as he gives it. 

“A young man had met with mis- 
fortune, accident and disease, and was 
suffering from a third paralytic stroke. 
He had lost the use of his voice, of his 
legs, and of one arm. A friend visited 
him, one day, and asked how he was. 
He reached for his tablet and wrote: 

‘All right, and bigger than anything 
that can happen to me.’ ” 

A man who could make a response 
like that would not be content with 
words. By sheer force of will, hold- 
ing himself to slowly increasing physi- 
cal and mental exercises,: he set about 
recovering the use of his body and final- 
ly actunlly compelled the dormant nerve 
centres to awake and resume their work. 
Later he wrote: 

“The great lesson it taught me is, 
that man is meant to be and ought to 
be stronger than anything that can 
happen to him. Circumstances, fate, 
_ luck, are all outside, and if he cannot 
always change them he can always 
beat them. If I couldn’t have what I 
wanted, I decided to want what I had, 
and that simple philosophy saved me.’” 


instal 1 las 
A CHILD'S QUESTION. 


Rev. E. Payson Hammond relates the 
following incident: 

“When I was passing a house in 
Harrisburgh, a gentleman tapped on 
the window and called me in, saying, 
‘Last Sunday my little boy came from 
one of your children’s meetings and sit- 
ting down looked for a while into the 
open-fire as if something troubled him. 
Finally looking up he asked, ‘Father, 
how old are you?? When I replied, 
“I am fifty-six years old.” He quickly 
answered, ‘Why father, you are most 


243 


as old as grandfather was when he died. 
Don’t you think it is about time for 
you to become a Christian?’ Then 
coming closer to me he laid his head 
on my shoulder and bursting into tears 
he begged of me to kneel down and ask 
God to forgive my sins and make me a 
Christian. 

“His father’s heart was melted and he 
gave himself to Jesus. In closing with 
deep emotion he said, ‘I have heard 
many a sermon, but never a one so ten- 
der as when my son with his heart 
burning with love for Jesus, after ask- 
ing that question, “Father, how old are 
you?” begged me to come to Christ and 
be saved.’ ” 


i ee 
THE MASTER’S HAND, 


A strange instrument hung on an old 
castle wall, so the legend runs, No one 
knew its use. Its strings were broken 
and covered with dust, Those who 
saw it wondered what it was and 
how it had been used. Then, one day, 
a stranger came to the castle gate and 
entered the hall, His eyes saw the ob- 
ject on the wall and, taking it down, 
he reverently brushed the dust from its 
sides and tenderly reset its broken 
strings. Then chords long silent awoke 
beneath his touch, and all hearts were 
strangely thrilled as he played. It was 
the master, long absent, who had return- 
ed to his own. 

It is but a legend, yet its meaning is 
plain. In every human soul there hangs 
a harp, dust-covered, with strings 
broken, while yet the Master’s hand has 
not found it, Is your soul-harp hang- 
ing silent on the wall? Have you learn- 
ed the secret of glad, happy days? 

Open your hearts every morning to 
Christ. Let Him enter and repair the 
strings which sin has broken, and sweep 
them with His skillful fingers, and you 
will go out to sing through all the day. 
Only when the song of Gods love is 
singing in our hearts are we ready for 
the day.—Selected. 


244 


at AREER 
THE WAY UP. 


When the artist Sidney Cooper was 
ninety-five years old he said, “I attrib- 
ute my long life to the merciful care of 
God’s providence; for he was the Father 
of the fatherless boy and has preserved 
him through all his trials and difficulties, 
prosperities, sunshine, and shadow.” 
That other ambitious boys might be 
helped he gave an art school to the city 
of Canterbury, where he spent his earli- 
est days in poverty. 

Once when a boy he was on the 
grounds of Canterbury Cathedral sketch- 
ing the beautiful outlines of the bell-tow- 
er on a slate. A gentleman noticed the 
quality of his work and gave him pencil 
and paper. His lack of a knife brought 
him a friend, as he tells the anecdote: 

“Having no knife, I tried every means 
I could think of to get a point, push- 
ing back the wood from the lead, etc.,; 
but nothing seemed to answer, and I 
was in despair. I was trying one day, 
with poor success, to rub one to a point 
on the stone coping, when a gentleman 
happened to pass by; I asked him if he 
would cut my pencils. 

““O yes’, said he. ‘What are you draw- 
ing?’ 

“I gave the usual answer, ‘The Great 
Church, sir.’ 

“He cut one pencil; I gave him an- 
other, and he cut that; then another, 
and yet another, until he had cut six. 
Then he said he could not stop any 
longer. I found out from one of the 
vergers that he was Mr. Hamilton, who 
taught French at the King’s School, 
and every morning as he passed to the 
school he cut my pencils. Then came 
several days when he did not pass, and 
IT learned that he was ill, to my great 
griefi—more, I fear, for my sake than 
for his; for I could not cut my pencils, 
and could not get on with ‘Bell Harry’ 
on account of breaking so many points. 
At last one day a very serious looking 
man sauntered by with his hands clasp- 
ed behind his back. I could see that 
he was a clergyman of some sort. When 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


he had got a few yards away I gained 
courage and ran after him, calling out. 

“Sir, sir’ 

“He turned round and said, “What, 
my boy?’ 

“*Please sir, have you a knife?’ 

“*Yes, my little man,’ said he, ‘what 
do you want?’ 

“I told him and he cut all my pen- 
cils—twelve—and then, coming up to 
the coping where I was established, he 
looked at my drawing. 

“Very good, my boy,” he said, and 
passed on. 

It was no other than Archbishop 
Manners Sutton who thus aided the 
young artist. His patronage, moreover, 
led to young Cooper being admitted to 
Dr. Pierce’s house, from the windows 
of which he continued his sketches, One 
of the drawings was also bought by the 
archbishop for five pounds. 


The boy worked at his trade of 
coach-painter, eking out his wages by 
drawing pencil sketches for sale to tour- 
ists, until at length his efforts to be an 
artist were rewarded with success. His 
career was long and honorable. The 
Royal Academy honored him with its 
membership and the queen made him 
a Knight of the Victorian order.—The 
Classmate, 


~-——- 456 ——— 
HEROISM OF JACOB KENOLY. 


Jacob Kenoly, a poor black boy, came 
to the Southern Christian Institute for 
training. He was there four years and 
received a two-fold vision. First, a 
vision of obligation. “My Christian 
education is a gift from the Christian 
Woman’s Board of Missions, hence I 
owe it to some one, As I have received 
so must I give.” Second, a vision of 
duty. “I owe this to my people in 
Africa, who have never heard of Christ. 
This became the passion of my soul.” 

For this end he toiled and saved until 
he thought he had money enough to 
pay his passage to Africa. A supposed 
missionary to one of the islands roomed 
with Jacob on the way and won his con- 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


fidence, but when he left the vessel he 
carried with him all of Jacob’s earthly 
belongings, Jacob Kenoly landed in 
Monrovia, Liberia, July 26, 1905, with- 
out money, without clothes, excepting 
the one working suit, without books, 
not even a Bible left him. All he had 
left was his education and trade, and 
the truths of the Bible in memory, and 
God’s love for men in his heart. 

Near his hut on the mountain side 
was a cave. Here Jacob lived a year. 
Six months he taught and studied. For 
ten weeks he was down with the fever, 
but taught the wild boy who waited on 
him, For four months he, with his 
twenty boys, cleared the land and 
raised a crop which surprised the na- 
tives. 

At last, broken in health, he was com- 
pelled to abandon his hut in the wilder- 
ness and come back to the coast. He 
came to a settlement of American Li- 
berians, the descendants of those col- 
onized from the United States in 1822. 
Here he rented a building and repaired 
it with his own hands, made desks and 
seats and has gathered a school of over 
fifty students. 

At last Jacob is getting recognition. 
The Government of Liberia offered him 
fifty acres of land for his school, Chris- 
tian friends have sent him a little money 
from time to time. His scholars are 
writing letters of thanks for his great 
work among them. 

To his former teacher at the Southern 
Christian Institute he writes: “I was 
lonely and prayed with my face toward 
America, and thought of my teachers 
and the beautiful land.” 


During all he has not written one 
word of complaint. He has never asked 
a gift, considering it but honor to sac- 
rifice for Christ, In one letter he says: 
“I want to teach six months, but am 
afraid I will have to stop and pick cofs 
fee, as my clothing will not hold to- 
gether that long.” 

Twice he has had opportunity to 
work his passage back to the United 
States. He has been offered a good 
salary at another mission. Yet he re- 


ANECDOTES 245 
‘mains faithful to his self-appointed 
task.—Caroline Atwater Mason. 


ad yy 
THE WAY INDICATED, 


An open door which no man can shut, 
and a closed door which no man can 
open, are indications of God’s way. Rev. 


One morning at a hotel at Denver 
I enquired of the Lord what I should 
do that day. The answer came to my 
heart: “Write to Marion, and to Mrs. 
Reynolds, and finish your article for the 
Advocate.” I wrote the letters and was 
writing the article when I remembered 
I had promised to call upon a friend the 
next time I was in Denver, and started 
to goto her. But I thought: “I asked 
the Lord what I should do, and He told 
me to write, He could have told me to 
call on Mrs, Silvey if that was what 
He had wanted.” So I obeyed Him and 
went on with my writing, Just as I fin- 
ished Mr. Morrow came in to take me 
to the train. As we entered the depot 
I met the friend on whom I intended to 
call. She and her husband were going 
to a wedding, in the same city and at 
the same hotel where we had meant to 
stop. She invited us to the wedding, and 
we had a long visit together. “I have 
been so busy all day I have not sat down 
a moment,” she said. Then I saw the 
providence, and that my call upon her 
would have been no comfort to either of 
us, and I could say, like one of old, 
“Blessed be the Lord God . which 
led me in the right way.” Gen, 24:48.— 
Mrs. Abbie C. Morrow. 

—— 458 —— 


JENNY LIND’S CONSCIENTIOUS- 
NESS. 

Once, at Stockholm, Jenny Lind was 
requested to sing on the Sabbath, at the 
king’s palace, on the occasion of some 
great festival. She refused; and the king 
called personally upon her—in itself a 
high honor—and, as her sovereign, com- 
manded her attendance. Her reply was 
—‘“‘There is a higher King, sir, to whom 
I owe my first allegiance.” And she re- 
fused to be present.—Selected, 


246 ILLUSTRATIVE 


Semi fee 
UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE. 


A word fitly spoken is like apples of 
gold in pictures of  silver.—Prov. 
XXV. : II. 

The marginal reading is very beauti- 
ful: “A word spoken upon his wheels.” 
How much this suggests to the mind. 
You have heard of the little village 
maiden in Scotland who was so simply 
devoted to God and her humble work 
that her minister, Leigh Richmond, 
wrote a tract about her and called it 
the Dairyman’s Daughter, 

A few years later, a noble son of an 
aristocratic family, who was fast going 
to wreck through dissipation, got hold 
of this tract and read it one night in his 
room. It broke his heart completely 
and brought him to Christ. This was 
William Wilberforce, a name of love 
known all over the world. There were 
three steps in this: There was first the 
village maiden, next the humble pastor, 
and then William Wilberforce. He soon 
after wrote an account of his conversion, 
and it came into the hands of another 
minister, who was half asleep himse]f 
and whose people were wholly so. He 
read the tract that had aroused Wilber- 
force, and it struck fire in him and com- 
pletely woke him up, and be became the 
great Thomas Chalmers, who stirred 
up the clergy of Scotland to arise and 
strike off the fetters that were on them, 
and they organized the Free Church of 
Scotland, which has since been sending 
light all over the world. It was a little 
word, but how it went. It was truly on 
wheels. It was a living word that God 
inspired, and it is traveling yet. 

When that simple maiden gets home 
in heaven what a grand reception there 
will be for her! I know there are very 
many who will be glad to shake hands 
with her and say, “Thank God for you.” 
That is the meaning of this text. A word 
on wheels will never stop. 

The invitation you give out to night, 
the quieting word you speak to some 
anxious soul, the comfort you give to 


ANECDOTES 


some trembling heart,—God hangs them 
on the wall in beautiful frames. They 
are fruits that you will yet feed upon, 
apples which will recompense you here- 
after. You will find them again as 
pictures on the holy walls, gold which 
shall be holy treasure, apples on the 
holy table. They are on wheels of liv= 
ing power and they will go on forever. 
—Rev. A, B. Simpson. 


a AG ee 
GOLD MINE FOR WHISKEY. 


Some of the richest gold mines in 
America are in the neighborhood of 
Cripple Creek, Colorado, from which it 
is estimated that gold has been taken 
worth over $150,000,000. Nearly the 
whole of the land in which the best pay- 
ing mines are situated was once owned 
by a man named Bob Womack, who is 
now sixty years of age, poverty-stricken, 
and lying waiting for death in a charit- 
able institution at Colorado Springs. 
From a child Bob literally took no 
thought for to-morrow, but developed 
early in life a recklessness and a liking 
for drink that ultimately caused his ruin. 
He had a notion that gold was to be 
found on his farm but was not believed. 
Before long practically all his farm was 
mortgaged, and had passed out of his 
hands. At last one hill was left, which 
he was certain contained gold that he 
declared he would, stick to under all cir- 
cumstances. But, driven crazy by the 
thirst for whiskey, and being without 
money, he went to a saloon and begged 
for a drink. It was refused him, and the 
half-insane man staggered from saloon 
to saloon pleading for whiskey. Finally, 
he found a man who said he would sell 
him whiskey for Womack’s Hill. An 
exchange was made, the land passing 
from the owner to the saloon keeper for 
a bottle of whiskey, The hill obtained 
for a bottle of whiskey was soon known 
all over the whole country, and on its 
banks was built a city called Cripple 
Creek. Strong drink is indeed a mocker. 
—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


4G] eco 
WE GET WHAT WE GIVE. 


There is nothing more mysterious 
about the spiritual realm than about the 
natural realm. Both are God’s realms 
and are controlled and governed by His 
universal laws. When Louis Agassiz 
was ten years old his mother took him 
to Grindelwald. He had never heard 
of the famous Echo Valley and the 
mother explained to him that yonder 
in the mountains there dwelt a boy who 
would answer him when he spoke. So 
Agassiz cried out and there came the 
answering echo, Then he called, “Who 
are you?” and the answer catne back, 
“Who are you?” With tears in his eyes 
the little fellow turned to his mother 
and said, “I don’t think that’s a very 
nice kind of a boy.” And then his 
mother explained that the mountain boy 
answered in just the same way he was 
addressed. “Tell him something nice,” 
she said, “and you will find him answer- 
ing you in the same spirit.” So Agassiz 
called out again, “Come, and I will 
show you my treasures,” and the echo 
came back, “Come, and I will show 
you my treasures,” and Agassiz found, 
as his mother had said, that the answer 
of the mountain boy was invariably the 
same in kind as the words that went 
forth from him. 

This simple story illustrates most 
truly the exact working of the law in 
every realm of life. If as you confront 
life the cry goes up from your heart, 
“Life is hard, Life is cruel, Life is un- 
satisfying,” invariably the answer comes 
back to you from Life, “Life is hard, 
Life is cruel, Life is unsatisfying.” Or 
if your attitude toward life finds expres- 
sion in the words, “Life is good, Life is 
sweet, Life is satisfying,’ the answer 
of Life is that Life is good, is sweet, 
is satisfying. Life is what we make it. 
We get from Life what we give to it. 
As you face your fellows, if your secret 
thought is, “I distrust you, I am sus- 
picious of you, I have nothing in com- 
mon with you, you are not my brother,” 


ANECDOTES. 247 
the answering thought invariably comes 
back to you from your fellows, “I dis- 
trust you, I am suspicious of you—you 
are not my brother.” But let the cry 
of your soul be, “I believe in you, I 
sympathize with you, I love you,” and 
your fellows answer you in kind, “I be- 
lieve in you, I sympathize with you, I 
Jove you.” We get from others, in the 
long run, just what we give.—Rev. J. H. 
Randall, D. D. 


nV inane 
CAREY’S PERSEVERANCE. 


One hundred years ago there was an 
English lad named Carey who was never 
discouraged. He would do what he set 
out to do, no matter what the diffi- 
culties. He tried to climb a tree; he 
fell, and limped away, Next day he 
tried that tree again, and climbed to the 
top. It was his day of testing. 

A few years later that lad became a 
missionary. After arduous labor he had 
translated the Bible into the native 
tongue. The type was ready, the print- 
ing machine installed. Then, before a 
single copy was printed, fire destroyed 
both translation and printing outfit. 

But Carey, the lad, had climbed trees 
in spite of repeated falls. And Carey, 
the man, undaunted, began at the begin- 
ning once more, and in two months the 
work of translation was under full head- 
way. He had run with the footmen and 
had not been weary; so he was able, 
when need arose, to contend with horses. 

Is it plain? Inability to endure the 
small discouragements of life, failure to 
meet the trivial responsibilities of to- 
day, unfit a man for larger responsibili- 
ties and patient endurance in later 
years; and he who stands the test put 
upon him in the smaller things of life 
is thereby fitted to encounter problems 
and cares which await him as he grows 
older. 

To-day is our testing time. What does 
it foretell? Are we weary as we run 
with the footmen? Then what of the 
days when we contend with horses?— 
Selected. 


248 


Seay Yer 
MARY JONES’ BIBLE. 


In the year 1802, Thomas Charles, 
of Bala, a minister of the established 
church, who labored in connection with 
the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, and 
was accustomed to travel far and near 
preaching the Gospel of Christ, met a 
young girl named Mary Jones, who at- 
tended upon his ministry, and inquired 
of her if she could repeat last Sunday’s 
text. She hesitated, and when pressed 
to answer him, she burst into tears and 
said: 

“The weather, sir, has been so bad 
that I could not get to read the Bible.” 

He learned in conversation with her, 
that she was accustomed to travel seven 
miles to find a Bible in which she could 
read and look out the text from which 
the minister had preached. That week 
the rain had prevented her from making 
this journey, 

Mr. Charles, touched by this evidence 
of the pressing need of Bibles, soon 
came to London to see what could be 
done about providing Bibles for the 
Welsh. On the 6th of December, 1802, 
he met a committee of the Religious 
Tract Society and told the story of the 
need of Welsh Bibles, the failure to ob- 
tain them through other channels, and 
begged that some new and extraordi- 
nary means might be adopted to accom- 
plish the object. A conversation of 
some length occurred. It was found 
that the want was not confined to Wales, 
and after discussing the matter, a min- 
ister named Joseph Hughes suggested, 
“Surely a society might be formed for 
the purpose. And if for Wales, why 
not for the world?” 

The matter was canvassed. They met 
again May 12, 1803. Among other in- 
stances, illustrating the need of Bibles, 
another minister, Mr. Knight, related 
that a man in Novia Scotia had traveled 
sixty miles over the snow to obtain a 
Bible. 

On the 7th of May, 1804, some three 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


hundred gentlemen met at the London 
Tavern, and then and there organized 
the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
On the third of September they voted 
to issue a number of stereotyped Bibles 
and Testaments, and among them 
twenty thousand Welsh Bibles and five 
thousand Welsh Testaments, In Sep- 
tember, 1805, the first stereotyped edi- 
tion of the New Testament was printed, 
and the first part of the Bible ever pub- 
lished for the British and Foreign Bible 
Society was issued from the University 
Press at Cambridge. Other editions fol- 
lowed in rapid succession. In July, 
1806, the Welsh Bibles were finished 
and started for Wales. “When the ar- 
rival of the cart was announced which 
carried the first sacred load, the Welsh 
peasants went out in crowds to meet it, 
and welcomed it as the Israelites did 
the ark of old, and drew it into the 
town, and bore off every copy as rapidly 
as they could be dispersed.” 

Other loads of Bibles followed, and 
among them was one for little Mary 
Jones, so that she could read the min- 
ister’s text without travelling seven 
miles over the country to find a Bible. 
Since that time there has been no dif- 
ficulty in obtaining Bibles for Wales, 
and during the eighty-one years of the 
existence of that Society, upward of one 
hundred million copies of the Scriptures 
in hundreds of languages or dialects 
have been sent forth to the world. At 
the present time, from that one Society 
there are sent out about thirty thousand 
copies of the Scriptures each week, or 
some five thousand copies every day. 
And the moving spring which started 
all this mighty machinery was the tears 
of Mary Jones, who wept because the 
stormy weather had kept her from going 
seven miles on foot to read thé Bible. 

The Word of the Lord was precious 
in those days, and we may be sure that 
little Mary Jones prized her Bible, It 
has been preserved, and now after so 
many years that very book has been 
brought back and is kept among the 
cherished treasures of the British and 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Foreign Bible Society. On the blank 
leaf is a simple record written as fol- 
lows: 

“Born 16th December, 1784.” 

“I have bought this in the 16th year 
of my age. I am the daughter of John 
Jones and Mary Jones his wife: The 
Lord may give me grace. Amen.”— 
Selected. 


osu Wea 


A PURCHASED LIFE. 
During the Reign of Terror in France 


—between June, 1793, and June, 1794—a > 


young man, by the name of Loizerolles, 
was brought before the Revolutionary 
‘Tribunal and condemned to death. His 
father, a venerable, white-haired old man, 
would not allow himself to be separated 
from his son, but accompanied him to 
prison. On the day appointed for his ex- 
ecution the young man, exhausted by the 
strain upon his nerves, fell asleep in his 
dungeon, and the father kept watch, be- 
side him. Shortly afterwards the jailor, 
in company with some soldiers, present- 
ed himself at the door, holding in his 
hand a paper containing a list of the un- 
happy persons who were that day to suf- 
fer death. 

Coming up to the unfortunate con- 
demned ones, he called out the names 
from his list, ticking them off with a 
pencil as they answered. But when he 
came to the name of “Loizerolles,” no 
one rose to reply to it. A sudden 
thought took possession of the breast of 
the aged father, and he replied to the call 
when it was made the second time, 

He joined the ranks of the condemned, 
who were setting out on the sad journey 
to the scaffold. He did not dare to em- 
brace his son, for fear of awakening him, 
and arousing the suspicion of the guards, 
but in a low voice addressing his com- 
panions in captivity, who were looking 
at him with tearful eyes, he said, ““When 
he awakes, I conjure you to calm him, 
and prevent any imprudent despair of 
his from rendering my sacrifice useless. 
I have the right to be obeyed. Tell him 


249 


I forbid him to endanger the life which 
I have a second time given him.” He 
then went out with the crowd of doomed 
men, and laying his head upon the scaf- 
fold, murmured these words: “Lord 
watch over and protect my son.” 

Had he not a claim that the son whose 
life he had purchased by the sacrifice of 
his own should make good use of it? 
That is Christ’s claim on every Christian. 
It is “the reasonable service,” incumbent 
on every one who lives because of the 
death of Him who gave “his life a ran- 
som for many.” Matt. 20:28.—Selected. 


ala A iil 


UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE 
FOR EVIL. 


Writing to a brother minister, Jan- 
uary 14th, 1914, the Rev. Aguilla Webb 
of Louisville, Kentucky, in the course of 
his letter says: 

“I was hurt on the 7th of March. I 
was in the train coming from Cincinnati 
to Louisville, when a boy threw a rock 
and hit me on the left side of my head 


just above the temple. This blow blind- 


ed my left eye, and partly paralyzed my 
left side. I was out of my pulpit for 
six months.” 

The boy who threw that stone had 
no special spite against the minister. 
But absence of malice did not lessen 
the injury. Probably the boy to this 
day has no idea of the harm he did. But 
sins of ignorance are to be condemned. 


The devil used that boy in a minute’s 
time to silence the preaching of the gos- 
pel for six months and perhaps to crip- 
ple the preacher for life. The boy was 
willing to sin, and “one sinner destroy- 
eth much good.’’ Eccles, 9:18. God 
alone can measure the result of that one 
wrong act, 

The boy at least knew what he did 
to be wrong; and in John 3:20 we read, 
“Tf our heart condemn us, God is great- 
er than our heart and knoweth all 
things.” God knows the evil conse- 
quences of every sin, and He will judge 
unrepentant sinners according to their 
deeds.—Rev. Henry M, Tyndall. 


250 
— 466 —— 


REVIVAL INCIDENTS. 


One day there was sent up to my 
room a card announcing the presence 
in the hotel office of a gentleman whose 
name was not familiar to me. When I 
met him, he introduced himself as Mr. 
M. He told me that his wife was a 
former member of my church, When 
I asked him about his own church con- 
nection, he said, with a good deal of 
bitterness, “I have no use for such 
things, and I am, myself, an infidel.” 
He then began to speak so blasphemous- 
ly of God that I told him he must either 
cease such conversation or leave the 
hotel, He then apologized and said that 
he was on his way to pawn his over- 
coat to secure money enough to fill a 
prescription which the doctor had given 
him for his son, who was supposed to 
be dying. I offered him the money, 
which he would not take, and with an 
apology for his conversation, in which 
he explained that his concern had almost 
made him lose control of himself, he 
went away. 

The following Friday I was speak 
ing to men in a great assembly, when I 
saw this man hand a slip of paper to 
one of the ushers, When I opened it, 
it read as follows: “Will you please 
pray for a boy who is dying? This re- 
quest is sent by a believing mother and 
carried by an unbelieving father.” The 
boy had pleura-pneumonia in its worst 
form. The doctors called this morn- 
ing and announced that his case was 
hopeless. “No human power,” he ha¢ 
said, “can save the boy, so far as I can 
see.’ 

At twenty-five minutes to one o’clock, 
in the public meeting, I called upon 
Major Cole to pray, and such a prayer 
I had never before heard, It seemed 
to open the heavens and to bring down 
upon us a flood of glory. He asked 
God to raise the boy from his deathbed 
that he might save the father, And 
this is what came as aresult: Between 
half past twelve and one o’clock the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


condition of the boy suddenly and mir- 
aculously changed. Before the day 
was past, he was out of danger. In an 
incredibly short space of time he was 
moving about the house, and soon was 
in the city at his business, 

I know the father and have met the 
mother of this boy. They have ever 
since been my personal friends. In- 
stantly the father was driven to his 
knees, and in the process of time was 
brought to see Christ as his Saviour. 
I saw him stand before a great assem- 
bly of Christians, and say: “God has 
led me from the darkness of infidelity 
to the brightness of faith, and I do now 
accept Jesus Christ as my personal 
Saviour. He raised my boy literally 
from death and I cannot but believe in 
Him.”—J. Wilbur Chapman, D, D. 


467 —— 
IN THE MAELSTROM OF SIN. 


Accompanied by ten Canadians, Mr. 
Ogden was once making the descent of 
the Columbia River. When at last they 
reached the rapids, his companions, to 
escape the labor of carrying the boat 
and baggage around, signified their in- 
tention of shooting the rapids. Conse- 
quently Mr, Ogden landed and pursued 
a narrow path far up the rocky ledge 
bordering the river. As he watched the 
boat, he saw it shoot forward like an 
arrow as it cleared the first part of the 
rapids, Suddenly it stopped. He saw the 
brawny arms of the Canadians vigorous- 
ly ply the oars. The course of the boat 
seemed now uncertain. Finally, in spite 
of the united efforts of the boatmen, 
he saw the boat gradually sweep a broad 
curve. Faster and faster, human effort 
was unavailing, the boat went round, 
and round, the circle growing smaller, 
and smaller, till reaching the centre, it 
was suddenly swallowed up. 

Just so is it with the backslider. He 
tries to shoot the rapids of worldliness 
but is eventually engulfed by the mael- 
strom of sin and sinks to endless ruin.— 
Rev. Henry M. Tyndall, 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


ae gal 
THE CURE OF BAD TEMPER. 


I was more than 50 years old before 
I had any idea that God could change 
my temper. I was brought up that 
IBY be bio ht gle g 
You will all be reading, I suppose, 
about Samuel M. Hopkins, who is the 
head of the Hopkins system of theology, 
whom Mrs, Stowe tells about. He was 
a man of violent temper, and he had a 
brother-in-law who was an infidel and 
lawyer—I don’t mean to say that they 
always go together. 
to stir up Hopkins and make him com- 
mit some sin, and then he would glory 
over it. One night he went over to 
have some transaction in the transfer of 
some property, and his brother-in-law 
made the transaction as exasperating as 
possible. After a while, Hopkins, crazy 
with impatience, just slammed the door 
and went home. The man turned to 
his wife and remarked, “Maria, that 
man is a professing Christian. I make 
no professions like that, but I be- 
have a great deal better.’ Hopkins 
went home and said. “What have I 
done? I have failed again, and brought 
contempt upon the name of the Lord.” 
He spent the night in prayer and said, 
“Lord, there is to be an end of this.” 
“Faithful is he that calleth you who 
also will do it.” “Lord, I am going 
to trust you for the rest of my life, never 
to lose my temper.” He never did, He 
was never known to speak above a cons 
versational tone, even under provocation, 
from that time on. And they used to 
say' of him in his old age, “If I had such 
a natural disposition as Dr. Hopkins I 
could be a good man, too.” As soon as 
it was light he went to his brother-in- 
law’s house, rang him up, to ask his for- 
giveness. When he left, his brother-in- 
law turned to his wife and said, “He has 
got something that I don’t known any- 
thing about. He has got a spirit that 
I know nothing about, and I think I had 
better seek that spirit where he has got 
it.’ And in five minutes they were on 
their knees before God, and he found 


He used to love | 


ANECDOTES 251 


Christ, and he became a minister of the 
gospel himself.—Rev. Dr. A. T. Pierson. 


———- 469 ——— 
JACOB HODGE’S CONVERSION, 


Years ago, the pastor of the Presby- 
terian Church, in Canandaigua, N. Y., 
was preaching the funeral sermon of a 
colored man, a member of his church. 
During the discourse, pointing to the 
coffin, he exclaimed, ‘There lies the 
right hand of my power in the work of 
the Lord in Canandaigua!” 


The deceased had been eminent for 
his zeal and love for Christ; and his un- 
tiring efforts, continued for many years, 
contributed greatly to the upbuilding 
of the kingdom of the Redeemer. Yet 
that man came from the Staté Prison 
at Auburn. He was a murderer, He 
had been used as a tool by several other 
persons. The crime was committed in 
Orange County, N. Y. Two men anda 
woman were hanged, and this colored 
man, Jacob Hodge, was sentenced to 
Auburn Prison for life. 

While in prison he was wrought upon 
by the Spirit of God, and powerfully 
convicted of his sins. After seeking the 
Lord for six months, so earnestly that 
he often forgot to eat the supper placed 
in his cell, he at last was able to rejoice 
in the pardoning mercy of God. The 
change in him was so wonderful, and 
so apparent to all, that sometime after 
his conversion, through the petitioning 
of the faculty and students of Auburn 
Theological Seminary, the Governor 
pardoned him. 

He had been forgiven much and he 
loved much. After his release, he re- 
moved to Canandaigua and lived a most 
devoted Christian life. As to his useful- 
ness the words of his pastor, which we 
have quoted, are sufficient evidence. 

In 1886, the writer heard Rev. Mr. 
Stowe of Canandaigua relate the facts 
above, and he was so impressed by the 
account as an illustration of the power 
of the grace of God that he made note 
of the same.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


252 


a gL) eee 
THE PRAYER OF FAITH. 


A pious man in the western part of 
this state was sick with consumption. 
Hie was a poor man, and sick for years. 
An unconverted merchant in the place 
had a kind heart and used to send him 
now and then something for his com- 
iort, or tor his family, He felt grate- 
ful for the kindness, but could make no 
return, as he wanted to. At length he 
determined that the best return he could 
make would be to pray for his salva- 
tion; he began to pray, his soul kindled, 
he got hold of God. There was no re- 
vival there, but by and by, to the as- 
tonishment of everybody, this merchant 
came right out on the Lord’s side. The 
fire kindled all over the place, and a 
powerful revival followed, and multi- 
tudes were converted, 


This poor man lingered in this way 
for several years, and died. After his 
death, I visited the place, and his widow 
put into my hands his diary. Among 
other things, he says in his diary: “I 
aim acquainted with about thirty minis- 
ters and churches.” He then goes on 
to set apart certain hours in the day 
and week to pray for each of these min- 
isters and churches, and also certain 
seasons for praying for the different 
missionary stations. Then followed, un- 
der different dates, such facts as these: 
“To-day,” naming the date, “I have 
been enabled to offer what I call a pray- 
er of faith for the outpouring of the 
Spirit on church, and I trust in 
God there will soon be a revival there.” 
Under another date, “I have to-day 
been able to offer what I call the prayer 
of faith for such a church, and there will 
soon be a revival there.” Thus had he 
gone over a great number of churches 
recording the fact that he had prayed 
for them in faith that a revival might 
soon prevail among them. Of the mis- 
sionary stations, if I recollect right, he 
mentioned in particular the mission at 
Ceylon. I believe the last place men- 
tioned in his diary, for which he offered 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the prayer of faith, was the place in 
which he lived. Not long atter noting 
these facts in his diary, the revival com~- 
menced, and went over the region of 
country, nearly, I believe, if not quite, 
in the order in which they had been 
mentioned in his diary; and in due time 
news came from Ceylon that there was 
a revival of religion there. The revival 
in his own town did not commence till 
after his death. Its commencement was 
at the time when his widow put in my 
hands the document to which I referred. 
She told me that he was so exercised 
in prayer during his sickness that she 
often feared that he would pray him- 
self to death. The revival was exceed- 
ingly great and powerful in all the re- 
gion; and the fact that it was about 
to prevail had not been hidden from this 
servant of the Lord,. According to His 
word, the secret of the Lord is with 
them that fear Him. Thus this man, 
too feeble in his body to go outside of 
his house, was yet more useful to the 
world and the church of God than all 
the heartless professors of the country. 
Standing between God and the desola- 
tions of Zion, and pouring out his heart 
in believing prayer, as a prince he had 
power with God, and prevailed.—Charles 
G. Finney. 


SESE 15 eee 


HAS YOUR VERSE CHANGED? 


A writer in the Alliance Weekly tells 
the following story of how a little child 
was used to lead a mother back into the 
light, 

A poor woman in one of Mr. Whittle’s 
meetings in Glasgow was brought into 
light by a little verse in the fifth chap- 
ter of John, “Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, he that heareth My word, and be- 
lieveth on Him that sent Me, hath ever- 
lasting life, and shall not come into con- 
demnation; but is passed from death 
unto life.” 

The evangelist gave her the verse, 
written on a little card and sent her 
home rejoicing, with her little son. They 
both went to bed that night, happy as 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


angels. But in the morning she came 
down to breakfast gloomy as ever, her 
face all clouded and her heart utterly 
discouraged. She had had a night of 
conflicts, doubts and fears, and when 
her little boy asked what was the mat- 
ter, she could only burst into tears and 
say, “Oh, it is all gone. I thought I 
was saved, but I feel just as bad as 
ever.” 

The little fellow looked bewildered 
and said, “Why, mother, has your verse 
changed? I will go and see.” He ran to 
the table and got her Bible with the lit- 
tle card in it, and turned it up and read, 
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that 
heareth My Word, and believeth on Him 
that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation; but 
is passed from death unto life.” 

“Why, mother,” he said, “it is not 
changed a bit. It is just,the same as it 
was last night; it is all right.” And 
the mother looked with a smile at the 
little preacher whose simple trust was 
used of God to save her; and taking 
him in her arms, she thanked God that 
her precious verse was still the same, 
and her peace as unchanged as the ever- 
lasting Word of God. Is this what the 
apostle means? We are justified, now 
let us have and hold fast to the peace. 
It is not merely forgiveness, but it is an 
everlasting decree. Let us walk in the 
strength of it, and never allow the 
shadow of a doubt or fear to cross the 
sunlit sky of our heaven. 


ard yh 
SWIMMING TO CHURCH. 


A little girl named Nyangandi, who 
lived near the Ogowee River, West 
Africa, came one Saturday in her little 
canoe with two bunches of plantains to 
sell to the missionary. 

When she was going away, Mrs Bach- 
elor said to her: “Now you must not 
forget that to-morrow will be the Sab- 
bath day, and you have already promised 
to come every time.” 

“Yes,” she said, “I will surely come 
if I am alive.” 


ANECDOTES. 253 

And she did, But no one knew 
how she got there, until at the close 
of the service she told the girls that in 
the night her canoe had been stolen, and 
none of her friends would lend her one; 
but she had promised to come to church, 
and so she felt she must. How did she 
come? Well, she swam! 

The current was swift, the water deep, 
and the river fully a third of a mile 
wide; but by swimming diagonally she 
succeeded in crossing the river, 

If this little heathen girl, who knew 
so little about the gospel, could take 
so much pains to keep her word, and 
the holy Sabbath day, how much more 
should favored English children (also 
adults) keep the fourth and ninth com- 
mandments ?—Selected. 


fn Ayo 
DESTROYERS OF CHURCHES. 


The case is mournful. Certain min- 
isters are making infidels, Avowed 
atheists are not a tenth as dangerous as 
those preachers who scatter doubt and 


stab at faith. A plain man told us the 


other day that two ministers had de- 
rided him because he thought we should 
pray for rain. A gracious woman be- 
moaned in my presence that a precious 
promise in Isaiah, which had comforted 
her, had been declared by her minister 
to be uninspired. It is a common thing 
to hear working-men excuse their wick- 
edness by the statement that there is 
no hell, “The parson says so.” 


But we need not prolong our mention 
of painful facts. Germany was made 
unbelieving by her preachers, and Eng- 
land is following in her track, Attend- 
ance at places of worship is declining, 
and reverence for holy things is vanish- 
ing; and we solemnly believe this to be 
largely attributable to the skepticism 
which has flashed from the pulpit, and 
spread among the people. Possibly the 
men who uttered the doubt never in- 
tended it to go so far; but none the less 
they have done the ill, and cannot undo 
it. Their own observation ought to 
teach them better—C. H. Spurgeon. 


254 ILLUSTRATIVE 


ny eee 
FAITHFULNESS. 


It is said that the late Josiah Quincy 
was at one time conversing with Daniel 
Webster upon the importance oi doing 
even the smallest thing thoroughly and 
well, when the great man related an in- 
cident concerning a petty insuraiice case 
which was brought to him while a young 
lawyer. The fee promised was only 
twenty dollars. Yet to do his client full 
justice, Webster found he must journey 
to Boston and consult the law library. 
This involved an expense of about the 
amount of his fee, but, after hesitating 
a little, he decided to go to Boston and 
consult the authorities, let the cost be 
what it might. He gained the case. 
Years after this Webster was passing 
through the city of New York, An im- 
portant insurance case was to be tried 
that day, and one of the counsel had 
been suddenly prostrated by illness. 
Money was no object, and Webster was 
asked to name his terms and conduct 
the case. 


“It is preposterous,” he said, “to ex- 
pect me to prepare a legal argument at 
a few hours’ notice.” 

But when they insisted that he should 
look at the papers, he consented. It 
was his old twenty-dollar case over 
again, and having a remarkable mem- 
ory, he had all the authorities in his 
mind, and he took the case and won it. 
The Court knew he had no time for 
preparation, and was astonished at the 
skill with which he handled the case. 

“So, you see,” said Webster, “I was 
handsomely paid, both in fame and 
money: for that journey to Boston;” and 
the moral is that good work is rewarded 
in the end, though, to be sure, one’s 
own approval of self should be reward 
enough. 

Faithfulness in spiritual things corre- 
sponds to thoroughness in material 
things and has its own rewards. 


Faithfulness in little things brings 
rule over great things, Faithfulness in 
the least leads to faithfulness in the 


ANECDOTES 


most. Faithfulness on earth gives a 
place “with Him,” over the earth. Faith- 
fulness unto death wins a crown of life. 
—Selected. 


wy iff 


GOD’S LAW. 


Some time since a visitor at the Ob- 
servatory at Harvard University was 
desiring to look through their great 
telescope. Consulting a book of astro- 
nomical tables, his friend said: “A star 
will pass across the field of vision at 
5:20 o'clock.’ The instrument was ad- 
justed and the visitor, lying upon his 
back, applied his eye to the glass, his 
friend meanwhile standing with a small 
hammer in his hand and with his eye 
fixed on a tall chronometer clock. At 
precisely 5.20 o’clock the observer said: 
“There!” At the same instant his 
friend’s hammer struck the table. The 
exclamation and the hammer stroke 
were absolutely simultaneous, although 
the man at the telescope could not see 
the clock, nor the man with the ham- 
mer the star. It was a wonderful coin- 
cidence—that passage of the star hun- 
dreds of millions of miles away across 
the object glass of that telescope, at the 
instant when the second hand marked 
the hour 5:20 o’clock. 


The wonder seems greater when we 
know that the book in which was the 
predicted position of that distant star 
was published ten years before, the fore- 
cast being based on calculations running 
back a thousand years. In the same 
book were other tables predicting celes- 
tial movements a thousand years still 
in the future—movement which we may 
be assured will prove as certain in fact 
and as exact in time as that which has 
just been noted. So is the law of God, 
and so absolute the obedience of Nature 
to His decree. But the God of Nature 
and the God of grace are one; and His 
relations to redemption are equally def- 
inite, and are sustained by no less power 
than those which bind the universe 
about His feet.—The Pacific. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 476 —— 
A KINGLY ELEVATOR BOY. 


I suppose that the only way for us to 
find out the men among us who dwell 
in the uplands of life, and breathe 
habitually a purer air than that of the 
market place, is to note those, who, 
when the chance comes for a noble 
deed—-great or small—do it, simply and 
naturally, without any preparation. It 
is a real king’s business to be kingly, 
and when the chance comes to him for 
his own work, he does it and goes on 
his way and says nothing about it. 

For example, there was a lean, freckled 
boy who a year or two ago ran the ele- 
vator up and down in an old shackly 
office building in Philadelphia. I often 
went up in it, but certainly I never sus- 
pected “Billy” of any noble quality 
which raised him above other boys, high 
as was Saul among his brethren. 

But one day the old house began to 
shudder and groan to its foundations, 
and then one outer wall after another 
fell amid shouts of dismay from the 
crowds in the streets. And Billy, as 
these walls came crashing down, ran 
his old lift up to the topmost story and 
back again, crowded with terrified men 

and women. He did this nine times. 
_ Only one side of the building was now 
standing. The shaft of the elevator was 
left bare, and swayed to and fro, The 
police tried to drag the boy out of it, 
the mass of spectators yelled with hor- 
ror as he pulled the chain and began to 
rise again over their heads. 

“Ther’s two women up ther yet,” said 
Billy stolidly, and went on up to the 
top facing a horrible death each minute 
and knowing that he faced it. Presently 
through the cloud of dust the lift was 
seen coming jerkily down with three 
figures on it. As it touched the ground 
the whole building fell with a crash. 
The women and boy came out on the 
street unhurt and a roar of triumph arose 
from the mob. 

But it was six o’clock and Billy slip- 
ped quietly away in the dusk and went 


255 


home to his supper. For your real hero 
does not care for the shouts and clapping 
of hands.—Rebecca Harding Davis, in 
The Interior. 


eS pel 
ACCUSED BY CONSCIENCE, 


When a guilty conscience is awaken- 
ed it makes its possessor too miserable 
to live. The Baltimore correspondent 
of The New York Times stated this in- 
cident a few years ago: 

After traveling all over the world in 
a vain effort to still the twinges of con- 
science and avoid a man and a woman 
who he believed were proclaiming him 
everywhere as a murderer, Edward 
Rogers, aged thirty-five years, who killed 
James Hoban in a quarrel in a saloon 
here November 24, 1897, surrendered to 
the police at Erie, Penn., and was 
brought to Baltimore to-day. He con- 
fesses his crime, but declares he never 
saw Hoban before the night he killed 
him. 

Rogers says he left Baltimore that 
night for New Orleans, where he got a 
job on a steamer. He made two trips 
around the Horn to San Francisco, but 
he imagined that a man by the name 
of Barney and a woman whom he calls 
Nellie always confronted him. 

“When on ship,” he said, “it was 
not so bad, but whenever I went ashore 
Barney and Nellie were sure to find 
me out, and every one I met on the 
street seemed to point their fingers at 
me and say. ‘There goes a murderer.’ 
I then shipped aboard the transport 
‘Grant’ and went to Manila. Aboard 
were Gen. Lawton and his family. There 
it was all the same. All were against 
me and seemed to point a finger of 
scorn. Returning to this country Il 
made my way East, but it was the same 
old story. 

“T left my last job at Buffalo, and 
then made my way to Erie. There again 
I encountered Barney and Nellie, and 
knowing that sooner or later I would 


256 


NR ane 
CAPTURING A LAWYER 


A few years since, when a pastor in 
Boston, Mass., I became very much in- 
terested in a young man who was just 
finishing his theological course in the 
Boston University. The young fellow 
was so enthusiastic, so optimistic, so 
bubbling over with faith in God and love 
for men, and so sure that God was 
stronger than the devil, that it was a 
delight to have fellowship with him. 

When his theological course was com- 
pleted, he went to Cincinnati to begin 
his ministry in a plain little chapel in 
one of the suburbs of that city. There 
were few members in his little church, 
and all of them were poor. The out- 
look would have been very unpromising 
to many young college men, but to 
my young friend the difficulties in 
the way only inspired him to greater 
exertion. I shall never forget the first 
letter I had from him after he reached 
the field. It ran like this: 

“My Dear Friend: 

“I am on the ground at last, and am 
beginning to get the lay of the land. 
It seems good after being in school so 
long to feel that at last you are on the 
track and have fair chance at the race. 
I imagine that I feel like a hound that 
has been chafing in his kennel for a long 
time and is, at last loose, with the game 
in sight. The ministry never seemed 
so precious and splendid to me as now, 
and by the help of God I am determined 
to win victory for my Master. I have 
been looking over my field here and am 
strongly impressed that my success in 
getting a strong hold on this commun- 
ity depends on my capturing for the 
Lord the most prominent man there is 
in this part of the city. The most wide- 
ly-known man here, and the man of 
most influence, is Judge——, a distin- 
guished lawyer of Cincinnati, Indeed he 
is the most famous criminal lawyer in 
this part of the country. He has the 
reputation of being a hardened, sinful 
man, and there is not the slightest evi- 
dence to show that he has a thought of 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


becoming a Christian, Yet I feel that I 
must win him, and do it at once. You 
may think I am foolish about this, and I 
am astonished at myself; but after all, 
God is willing to save him as he is to 
save anyone else, and I believe he is as 
willing to help me secure this man’s con- 
version as he was to help Paul and Silas 
with the jailer at Philippi. Anyhow I 
am in for this one thing, day and night, 
and scarcely think of anything else. 

“Pray for me as you never did before; 
for this means everything to me. If God 
gives me this man in answer to my work 
and prayer at the very beginning of my 
ministry, I shall feel that everything is 
possible after that.” 

This letter impressed me deeply. The 
holy audacity of the young fellow almost 
took my breath away, and I waited the 
future development with most prayerful 
interest. 

About ten days later I received a sec- 
ond letter, in which ran these lines: “I 
could stand it no longer, and so have 
been to see Judge . I just opened my 
heart and told him all about it. I told 
him I could hardly sleep or eat on his 
account, but was praying for him all the 
time. Every thing I intended to say 
went out of my head, and I just blun- 
dered on, trying to tell him how much he 
owed the Lord, and what a great chance 
there was for him to change the whole 
community by swinging about and giv- 
ing his heart to Christ. 

“He was the most astonished-looking 
man I ever saw. He looked at me at 
first like you have seen a great St. Ber- 
nard dog look at a young puppy that 
runs to him on the street. Still he was 
not offended, but treated me kindly, and 
I believe that God will give him to me 
yet.” 

This was getting to be interesting. 
What a battle royal it was for a human 
soul. On one side the most successful 
criminal lawyer of the Ohio River Val- 
ley—-a middle-aged man hedged about 
by evil associations and chained by evil 
habits. On the other hand, this ruddy 
young David with his sling, 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


I did not hear from the battlefield 
again for three or four weeks, and I was 
becoming anxious, when one morning I 
reccived a letter which brought me to 
my feet, It began: “ “Thanks be to God 
who gives us the victory through our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Judge-—— sent for 
me to come and pray with him last night. 
He was under deep conviction, and was 
mourning over his sins. He told me he 
had not had a moment’s rest since the 
day I first came to see him and told 
him I was praying for him. I prayed 
over him and cried over him, and I be- 
lieve he is happily converted to the Lord 
Jesus Christ. He will make a public 
confession in the church and he and his 
wife will at once unite with it. Whata 
glorious day that will be for this com- 
munity. My joy is beyond words. I 
never can believe anything too hard for 
God again.” 

Judge—— became a power for good, 
and was influential on many a platform 
in giving his testimony for ‘Christ. I am 
sure you will not be astonished, after 
this incident, to know that this heroic 
youth is one of the most successful evan- 
gelistic missionaries in China; here in 
the populous Hing-hua district, the Rev. 
William N. Brewster has led literally 
hundreds of the natives to the foot of 
the Cross.—Rev. Louis Albert Banks. 


woe 479 
GOOD EXAMPLE HELPS. 


At a communion service held at Camp 
Dix, N. J., on a Sabbath in January, 
1918, the Rev. W. T. Wilcox told the 
following touching story. 

In its application, he reminded the 
soldiers present that they were met to 
honor the sacrifice of Christ; and so 
doing they should expect that others in- 
fluenced by their example would also 
fall in line, and thus the number of His 
followers would go on multiplying. 

“Over in France two American soldiers 
were seated at a little iron table placed 
on the sidewalk, eating a luncheon. 
Glancing into the street, they saw a de- 
crepit old horse dragging an old cart, 


ANECDOTES. 257 
on which there was a coffin draped with 
the French tri-color, Behind the cart 
followed a little old woman, with head 
bowed, a picture of grief. A mother 
was following the body of her soldier 
boy to the grave. She was alone, an 
only mourner. The American soldiers 
arose, took off their hats, and fell in 
behind the little mother, to honor the 
memory and sacrifice of that French 
soldier. Other Americans saw the act 
and joined the silent procession. French 
soldiers, wounded and on leave, limp- 
ed in behind, and soon hundreds were 
following that body to the grave. When 
it was lowered to his last resting place, 
the little mother looked around and saw 
a great company had honored her boy! 
He had not died in vain! People were 
grateful, hearts were tender and respon- 
sive. And she knew that the simple act 
of devotion on the part of the two Am- 
erican soldiers had resulted in this dem- 
onstration. She knelt down beside the 
grave and kissed the hands of the two 
American boys.” 


—— 480 —— 
GO ON WID DAT PRAYER. 


A poor, ignorant old colored man 
who had been a slave came to Miss M. 
Waterbury, a lady missionary among 
the freedmen, and asked to be taught to 
pray. She began to teach him the Lord’s 
prayer, sentence by sentence, explain- 
ing it to his entire satisfaction until she 
came to the one on forgiveness. “What 
dat mean?” said he. “That you must 
forgive everybody or God will not for- 
give you.” “Stop, teacher, can’t do dat,” 
and he went away. After vacation he 
appeared again, saying: “Now go wid 
dat prayer; I dun forgive him, Ole mas- 
sa once gib me five hundred lashes, and 
hit me wid a crowbar, an’ t’row me out 
for dead, and I meet him an’ said: 
‘How’d ye?? Now go on wid that pray- 
er.” It might be well for many another 
besides the colored man to think very 
seriously of those whom they refuse to 
forgive before they go on “wid dat 
prayer.”—Selected, ik 


258 


comme 49] ---— 
EMMA JONES’ SUBSTITUTE. 


In New York State was a teacher who 
had a peculiar way of punishing pupils 
for whispering—he made them stand 
on a block in front of the school, until 
they saw another scholar whisper, when 
they would speak the name of the new 
culprit, who would then have to stand 
on the block. When school closed at 
four o’clock, the one then on the block 
had to be punished for all the rest. 
One afternoon there was a bad boy on 
the block, and it looked as though he 
would have to take the punishment, 
but he had his eyes wide open to find 
somebody whispéring. The last class 
was spelling and a little girl did not 
speak very loud, so the teacher thought 
she spelled a word wrong. He put it 
to the next. 

“That is right,” said the teacher, “go 
up.’ 

The little girl said in a whisper, “I 
spelt it in the same way.” 

“Emma Jones whispered,” said the 
boy on the block, and Emma Jones had 
to stand on the block, and the clock 
struck four. The teacher said he was 
very sorry to punish her, but he could 
not help it as it was a rule of the school. 

He was just ready to strike when a 
big boy jumped up and said, “Will 
you please let me be punished for Emma 
Jones?” 

“Have you whispered?” 

“No, sir; please let me take the pun- 
ishment for her sake.” 

He took the punishment for Emma 
Jones,,and blow after blow was laid 
upon his hands, just the same as though 
he had whispered. 

After school was over, she ran up to 
him, and burst into tears and said, “I 
will thank you just as long as I live.” 

But that was not much compared with 
what Jesus suffered. He let them drive 
nails through His hands and through 
His feet; let them press the crown of 
thorns down into His brow; and yet 
some of you have not thanked Him. If 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


you should die to-day you would not go 
to heaven.—Rev, E. Payson Hammond. 


a 04 
SEEING THE HEATHER BELL. 


It is said that a year or two ago a 
great naturalist went into the Highlands 
of Scotland with his microscope to 
study the depth of color, the delicacy 
of form, the beauty, charm and dainti- 
ness of the little heather bell; and that 
he might see all its glory, he lay down 
with his face in front of the little 
heather bell so that he might see it 
without plucking it; so that he might 
see it with its natural life in it. 

He had adjusted his instrument, and 
was gazing at the heather bell, lost, 
absorbed, revelling in the beauties in 
front of him, when all at once a shadow 
played over the instrument. He thought 
at first that it was a passing cloud, but 
it staid there. Turning around he saw a 
fine specimen of the Highland shepherd. 
Reaching over, he plucked a little 
heather bell and handed it and the mi- 
croscope to the shepherd that he, too, 
might see something of its beauty. 


When the microscope was adjusted 
so that the shepherd might see the little 
heather bell through such an intrument 
for the first time in his life, he looked 
at it a long time, and then the tears 
streamed down his rugged face. He 
handed both microscope and heather bell 
back to the naturalist and said, “I wish 
you had never showed me.” 

“Why,” said the naturalist. 

“Because that rude foot has trodden 
on so many of them. That’s why,” he 
said. 

And when you take the microscope 
of His Word and get a vision of God, of 
Jesus, then you will whip yourself that 
you have lived one moment of any day 
without giving to Him the place that 
He should occupy in your heart and in 
your life. It is this vision that makes 
Jesus so wonderful. O. Holy Spirit, 
open our eyes that we may see!—-Gipsy 
Smith, 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ees agg 


PATIENT PLODDING. 


A little while betore his death, Wil- 
liam Carey said to his son, Eustace, 
“Ii, alter my removal, anyone should 
think it worth while to write my life, 
I will give you a criterion by which you 
may judge of its correctness, If he 
gives me credit for being a plodder he 
will describe me justly. Anything be- 
yond this will be too much. I can plod; 
I can persevere in any definite pursuits 
To this I owe everything.” 


That old pioneer of South Africa, 
Robert Moffat, when interviewing a 
young candidate for work on his field 
was asked by the young man what the 
first qualification was. Moffat replied, 
“Patience.” Thinking thjs a very com- 
mon virtue, the young man requested 
the second qualification, to which Mof- 
fat replied, “Patience.” Seeking to 
evade the point of the old missionary’s 
remarks, and evidently underestimating 
its value, he still asked for a third quali- 
fication, to which the veteran missionary 
is reported to have replied, “Everlast- 
ing patience.’’ 


Patient plodding was the secret by 
which the old pioneers laid the founda- 
tion of missionary service. Shall we be 
considered out of date when we suggest 
that these are still prime qualifications 
for missionary efforts? We like to see 
the dashing energy and the quick intel- 
lect and ready mind, but when we select 
missionaries, we would look most eager- 
ly for some evidence of staying powers. 
We never yet knew a man to fail that 
knew how to plod. The success in the 
older fields came in this way, The vic- 
tory in the new fields, presenting afresh 
the problems of by-gone days, will 
come in the same manner. These strenu- 
ous days with lightning methods have 
furnished no short cut to spiritual re- 
sults, and the need of patience for 
fruition in Christian work still remains. 
Oh, for more patient, plodding mission: 
aries.—Selected., 


259 


i ys 


“HE SET MY FEET UPON A 
ROCK.” 


I remember at Stonehaven, when I 
was minister there, I was swimming 
out in the clear, cool bay, when the 
water got suddenly choppy and my 
strength seemed suddenly to go from 
me, You that are swimmers know the 
sensation. Exhausted, the waves flap- 
ping on your face in repeated blows as 
if to stun you, and beat you back to the 
current that was ready to seize you. No 
one in sight. Wearily on and on; but 
you know you are making little or no 
progress, and the feet and body go 
Geeper and deeper in the water. You 
cannot swim any longer; you have lost 
the power of prostration and progres- 
sion, and you are now erect and merely 
paddling with your hands. 

I had almost given up, when suddenly 
there came to my foot the sensation of 
solidity amid the waves. Oh, what I 
telt as I stood there to recover breath, 
rescued from death! How solid the rock 
felt! How I thanked God that that 
rock had just been placed out in the 
bay for me, and that He had taken my 
sinking feet and fixed them there. That 
is the nearest that I can give to the sen- 
sation of the soul when Christ lays hold 
of you, saves you, and sets your feet on 
the Rock of Ages.—John Robinson. 


—— 485 —— 
NO APOLOGY NEEDED, 


Dr, Pentecost was one day speaking 
with a business man about becoming a 
Christian. Before leaving he began to 
apologize for introducing the subject, 
whereupon the merchant stopping him 
said very earnestly, “Don’t ever apolo- 
gize, Dr. Pentecost, for speaking to a 
mar: on that subject. I’ve been wait- 
ing for twenty years for some one to 
speak with me about my soul.” Most 
people are just as willing to talk on 
that subject. You won’t have to apolo- 
gize for it very often during a lifetime. 


260°. 


nice Reaeene 
ENCOURAGED BY A DREAM 


In the New York Observer, of June 
13th, 1907, Rev. George H. Wallace, who 
has so many times preached in the 
People’s Tabernacle, gives the following 
interesting account of a dream he had 
in his college days: 

Illustrations of faith are not far to 
seek in any and every walk of life. Our 
whole lives in one way or another are 
lives of faith and hope, so much so that 
we fail to make notes of, and so they 
do not impress us and we very soon for- 
get all about them. Once in a while, 
however, some more beautiful and strik- 
ing example of it affects us, so we cher- 
ish it as an aid and inspiration. Such 
an illustration came to me in a dream, 
and I do not recall any that I have heard 
or read that more aptly illustrates the 
nature and help of faith, 

It occurred during my college days. 
Not being born with a gold or any other 
kind of a valuable spoon in my mouth, 
I had worked my way along, with some 
outside help, to and through a college 
course. Several times I was close run 
financially, and then I had recourse to 
what might ‘be called heroic measures, 
to replenish a fast emptying pocketbook. 
I had made up my mind that if I was 
compelled to leave college after the 
years of preparation made and the self- 
denying efforts put forth, it would be 
for good. I would devote my life to 
self and money making. 

It was during one of those anxious 
times when funds were low and the 
future looked dark and discouraging, 
and I had pondered much over the mat- 
ter, that one night I had the following 
dream: 

I was in a deep valley, not very wide, 
but with high and steep sides, so deep 
and perpendicular that it was impos- 
sible to climb them. The valley was 
very rough and uneven, filled with great 
hillocks, huge rocks, ravines and pitfalls. 
There were trees there, some green and 
growing, but most of them burnt and 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES — 


blackened. I was looking for some way 
to get out of my prison house, and on 
top of the level above and beyond. 
But no opening presented itself. To go 
ahead was simply a repetition of what 
I had passed through, and of what 
was now around me. To climb was 
impossible, so rocky and clean-cut were 
the sides, 

While I was anxious over my pre- 
dicament, and thinking out some plan 
that might prove feasible, I looked up 
ingo the heavens. Suddenly out from 
a cloud right over my head began to 
descend a rope, seemingly slowly un- 
wound by invisible hands. .Steadily it 
descended till the end of it was about 
the height of my knees or a little high- 
er. I did not seem afraid, but watched 
the curious action with wondering‘ eyes 
and mind. When it stopped, I began 
to examine it more closely and found, 
to my astonishment, that it was made 
of the finest silk, of every color and 
shade. It was a beautiful piece of work- 
manship, and about two inches in thick- 
ness. On the end was a cross-bar, as 
if designed to hold on by or sit on. I 
pulled on the rope; I tested it with my 
whole weight, but though its upper end 
was in cloud and mystery, it held firm 
and strong. 

Whether a voice spoke to me or 
whether I instinctively placed myself 
on the cross-bar, I do not distinctly re- 
member, but with every confidence, 
and without fear, I sat upon the bar 
and held the rope in my hands, In- 
stantly it began slowly to ascend, and 
when it had risen as high as my cliff 
barriers it swung me over onto them 
and into the middle of a meadow of 
green grass. I alighted from the rope 
and instantly it ascended out of sight. 
I looked around and, separated from me 
only by the width of a roadway, was 
a white wooden building—a church. 
After this I awoke. 

In thinking over the dream, I said to 
myself, that rope symbolizes faith; the 
valley of dreariness and desolation, my 


—_ 


present condition; the deliverance and 
the church are the outcome of it all. 
My hopes and ambition will be gratified. 
My faith was strengthened; I went on 
encouraged; difficulties were overcome 
and I finished my course. Nor was the 
story yet finished. After three years of 
seminary life, my first call and my first 
parish and my first Church fulfilled the 
picture of my dream. The building 
was the same, and in the same position 
in a place in which I had never been, 
in. a church I had never seen. Shall 
we call it coincidence or providence? 

I have had several pastorates since 
then, and a varied experience of disap- 
pointment and sorrow, but in them all 
I have tried to comfort and inspire my- 
self by recalling that strange dream of 
college days. Perhaps this telling of it 


may help and encourage others in pass- - 


ing through troubles and trials, touch- 
ing to their faith in God, and work on; 
by and by they shall be lifted out and 
over them ail and be placed in a place 
of safety and success. 


Ee Ty eee 
HE GAVE HIS LIFE. 


General Averill, who commanded the 
United States Army in Arizona, told 
this striking story. 

While he was there an Indian slew 
a white man, and then made his escape 
to the woods. It was deemed necessary 
to make example of the murderer, in 
order to save other lives. Orders came 
from Washington to demand the mur- 
derer from his tribe and to inform them 
that unless he was delivered on a cer- 
tain day war would be made on the 
whole tribe. The Indian chiefs with 
their followers hunted for the murderer 
for several days, but failed to find him. 
They held a council, and sent a deputa- 
tion to the commander of the United 
States troops, saying they could not 
_ discover the fugitive, but would con- 
tinue the search, and would deliver him 
as soon as he could be found, But the 
commander said his orders were impera- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


261 


tive, and that unless the man was 
brought in, dead or alive, he should com- 
mence war on the day named. An- 
other fruitless search was made, and 
another council was held, when one of 
the warriors said, “We cannot find this 
man, and they will make war upon our 
tribe; our women and children will be 
killed; take me and shoot me, and lay 
my body down before the officers.” 
And, after awhile, this was done. The 
warrior was shot, and his body was laid 
at the feet of the officers. 


The noble act of this Indian in dying 
to save his people reminds us of the 
atonement of Christ; but it has this 
difference—that while the Indian died 
for his friends, “God commendeth his 
love toward us, in that, while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom. 
v. 8).—Ernest H. MacEwen. 


eee AGH cae 


WHICH WAY ARE YOU GOING? 


A little girl went home from church 
one Sunday full of what she had seen 
and heard. A day or two afterward, 
when talking with her father, who was 
not a godly man, she said suddenly, 
“Father, do you ever pray?” He did 
not like the question, and in a very 
angry manner asked her: 


“Is it your mother or your aunt who 
has put you up to this?” 

“No, father,” said the little child; 
“the preacher said all good people pray, 
and those who do not pray can not be 
saved, Father, do you pray?” 

This was more than the father could 
stand, and in a rough way he said: 

“Well, you and your mother and your 
aunt may go your way and I will go 
mine.” 

“Father,” said the little creature with 
great simplicity, “which way are you 
going?” 

The question pierced his heart. It 
flashed upon him that he was in the 
way to death, and be began to pray for 
mercy. 

Which way are you going?—Selected. 


262 


TAG 
PRAYER FOR MEN AND MONEY. 


“It is not lost time to wait upon 
God. May I refer to a small gathering 
of about a dozen men in which I was 
permitted to take part some time ago, 
in November, 1886, We in the China 
Inland Mission were feeling greatly the 
need of Divine guidance in the matter 
of organization in the field and in the 
matter of reinforcement and we came 
together before our Conference to spend 
eight days in united waiting upon God, 
four alternate days being days of fast- 
ing as well as prayer. This was No- 
vember, 1886, when we gathered to- 
gether; we were led to pray for a hun- 
dred missionaries to be sent out by our 
English Board in the year 1887, from 
January to December. And, further 
than this, our income had not been 
elastic for some years; it had been about 
22,000 pounds; and we had, in connec- 
tion with that Forward Movement, to 
ask God for 10,000 pounds, say $50,- 
000, in addition to the income of the 
previous year. More than this, we were 
guided to pray that this might be 
given in large sums, so that the force 
of our staff might not be unduly oc- 
cupied in the acknowledgment of con- 
tributions. 

“What was the result? God sent us 
offers of service from over six hundred 
men and women during the following 
year, and those who were deemed to be 
ready and suitable were accepted, and 
were sent out to China; and it proved 
that at the end of the year exactly one 
hundred had gone. What about the 
income?, God did not give us exactly 
the 10,000 pounds we asked for, but 
He gave us 11,000 pounds, and that 
11,000 pounds came in eleven coniri- 
butions; the smallest was 500 pounds, 
say $2,500, the largest was $12,500, or 
2,500 pounds. We had a thanksgiving 
for the men and the money that was 
coming in November, 1886, but they 
were all received and sent out before 
the end of December, 1887. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“The power of the living God is avail- 
able power. We may call upon Him 
in the name of Christ, with the assur- 
ance that if we are taught by the Spirit 
in our prayers, those prayers will be 
answered.”’—Hudson Taylor, 


—— 490 
COMMONPLACE DUTIES. 


The noble Christian life is not neces- 
sarily one of heroic deeds, but one anima- 
ted by the spirit of devotion, a life of 
commonplace duties done and burdens 
borne forthe glory of God. In one of Mu- 
rillo’s paintings we see the interior of a 
convent kitchen, and there at work are 
white winged angels. One serenely 
puts the kettle on the fire, another with 
heavenly grace lifts a pail of water, and 
a third is busy at the dresser. As you 
see them all so cheerily working, you 
forget the soiled pans and the sooty 
pots, and kitchen drudgery seems Just 
a natural and beautiful work for angels. 
The spirit glorifies the task. 

A woman who had cheerfully borne 
many hardships said that she had been 
helped through life by some words 
spoken to her as a child by her father, 
the village doctor. She came to his 
office one day thoroughly exasperated. 
“What is the matter, Mary?” 

“T am tired to death. It’s making 
beds and sweeping floors and washing 
dishes all day and every day, and what 
does it all amount to? Next day there 
are the same beds to make and floors to 
sweep and dishes to wash again; and 
I’m sick and tired of it.” 

“Look here, my child; do you see 
those little empty vials? They are 
worthless things in themselves; but in 
one I put a deadily poison, in another 
a sweet perfume, in a third a healing 
medicine. The vials are nothing; it is 
the thing in them that hurts or helps. 
So those homely tasks of yours count 
for little themselves; it is the petulance 
or sweet patience or loving zeal that 
you put in them that makes your life 
a bane or a blessing.’”—Rev. E. C. 
Murray, D. D. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 49] —— 
NO SECTS IN HEAVEN. 


The late Dean Stanley, speaking on 
the subject of the substantial unity of 
all true Christians, illustrated it by the 
following anecdote: 

It is said that John Wesley once, in 
the visions of the night, found himself, 
as he thought, at the gates of hell. 
Knocking at the entrance, he asked who 
were within. ’ 

“Are there any Roman Catholics 
here?” 

“Yes,” was the answer; 
many.” 

“Any Church of England men?” 

“Yes, a great many.” 

“Any Presbyterians?” 

“Yes; a great many.” 

“Any Wesleyans, or Baptists, or In- 
dependents?” ‘ : 

“Yes; a great many.” 

Disappointed and dismayed at the re- 
plies he received, he turned his steps 
upward, and found himself at the gates 
of Paradise, where, knocking at the 
gate, he repeated the same questions: 
“Any Wesleyans, Baptists, Indepen- 
dents, Presbyterians, Church of Eng- 
land men, or Roman Catholics here?” 
_And to each of these questions came 
back the same answer. 

“No, not one of any of these denomi- 
nations.” 

“Whom have you then?” he asked 
in astonishment. 

“Not one, was the answer, “of any 
of the names you have mentioned. The 
only name of which we know anything 
here is the name of Christian. We are 
all Christians here; and of these we 
have a great multitude, whom no man 
can number, from every kindred, and 
nation, and tribe, and tongue, all one 
in Christ, bearing His name, filled with 
His spirit, and loving, and serving, and 
enjoying Him forever!” 

The anecdote reminds one of the re- 
mark of good old John Newton: “If I 
ever reach heaven,” he said, “I expect 
to find there three wonders. First, to 


“a great 


263 


meet some I had never thought to see 
there; second, to miss some I had ex- 
pected to see there; and third, and the 
greatest wonder of all, to see myself 
there.” This is the true Christian 
spirit, and it corresponds to the teach- 
ings of the Master who said, “Judge 
not that ye be not judged.”—Selected. 


sasaki th 
FACE YOUR TROUBLES. 


“I had ploughed round a rock in one 
of my fields for five years,” said a farm- 
er, “and I had broken a mowing ma- 
chine knife against it, besides losing the 
use of the ground in which it lay, all 
because I supposed it was such a large 
rock that it would take too much time 
and labor to remove it. But to-day 
when I began to plough for corn, I 
thought that by and by I might break 
my cultivator against that rock; so I 
took a crowbar, intending to poke 
around it and find out its size once for 
all; and it was one of the surprises of 
my life to find that it was little more 
than two feet long. It was standing 
on its edge and so light that I could 
lift it into the wagon without help. 

“The first time you really faced your 
trouble you conquered it,” I replied 
aloud, but continued to enlarge upon 
the subject all to myself, for I do believe 
that before we pray, or better, while we 
pray, we should look our trouble square- 
ly in the face. 

a 93 rm 
A SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 


What constitutes a spirit of prayer? 
President Charles G. Finney answered 
this question as follows: “Prayer is the 
state of the heart. The spirit of prayer 
is a state of continual desire for the sal- 
vation of sinners, It is something that 
weighs one down. It is the same, so 
far as the philosophy of mind is con- 
cerned, as when a man is anxious for 
some worldly interest. Anxiety for 
souls is the subject of his thoughts all 
the time. This is properly praying with- 
out ceasing.”—Selected, 


264 ILLUSTRATIVE 


UE Pai 
THE SAVIOUR OF KURDISTAN. 


Knee deep in the waters of the upper 
Tigris stood a poor Kurdish washer- 
woman plying her vocation. Although 
her pay was but a pittance, she wrought 
daily at her hard task for her own live- 
lihood, for the education of her bright 
little boy, and for charity. In the win- 
ter, when blocks of ice from the streams 
in the Taurus Mountains came floating 
down the river, she still was there, labor- 
ing with strong arms and a stronger 
love. 

The missionary from Kharput, mak- 
ing his annual visit, saw in his congre- 
gation a face that fascinated him, In 
it suffering and sorrow and hope and 
patience and passionate devotion seemed 
to have wrought their perfect work. At 
the close of the meeting he said to the 
native pastor: “Bring that woman to 
me,” 

In mean attire and trembling, the 
woman stood before him, holding with 
one hand her little boy. The mission- 
ary spoke Armenian; she understood 
the Kurdish. He addressed her through 
the native pastor. 

“Mother, do you love Jesus?” 

“IT do,” she said, “I do.” 

“How much would you give to Him?” 
asked the missionary. 

“Oh, missionary,” she cried, “I have 
nothing! Yet all I earn I give, saving 
only enough for food for this little boy 
and myself.” 

“Would you give your little boy?” 
he asked. 

“He is my all—my life!” she cried. 

“Think well of it to-night and pray,” 
said the missionary. “I return to Khar- 
put to-morrow.” 

And the widow went out, sobbing: 
“My only son, my Thomas!” 

The remaining hours of the mission- 
ary’s visit were very busy ones, and 
when the morning came and his horse 
was saddled, he had forgotten about 
Thomas. He reproached himself after- 
ward, but it was true—he forgot, The 


ANECDOTES. 


journey was long. The mountain full 
of brigands. There was so much of 
preparation for the journey, so much of 
necessary adjustment of the work of the 
mission, so much of admonition, direc- 
tion and advice, that Thomas and his 
mother, with the wonderful light in her 
eyes, passed wholly from his mind. 

But just as he was about to start, the 
group of mission workers and converts 
who had assembled to bid him farewell 
divided to make room for her to ap- 
proach him—and there was the mother 
and Thomas. 

At the missionary’s feet she laid the 
little bundle of clothing on which she 
had worked all night. She laid one 
hand on her boy’s head, and with the 
other pointing upward, said two words: 
“Thomas—Christos.” Then she went 
back to her lonely home, But not to a 
narrowed or mournful life; hers was the 
joy of one who had made the supreme 
sacrifice. 

Thomas developed all those powers 
which the missionary had discerned in 
promise in his face, and had seen in full 
development in the face of his mother. 
He led his class. He advanced by leaps 
and bounds. He was valedictorian at 
his graduation. He pushed straight on 
in his Bible study, and when he gradu- 
ated he went back to his old home, 
where the mother waited for him, and 
then far beyond into the Kurdish moun- 
tains to a town which, for its Christian 
faith in early ages, had been named 
Martyropolis. There he began anew the 
preaching of a Gospel that once made 
its followers faithful unto death, and 
they call him “The Prophet of Kur- 
distan.” 

The black year 1895 came round, and 
with it the awful massacres. Many 
thousand Christians gave their lives for 
their faith. Eight hundred of the mem- 
bers of the churches located close to 
him perished. Twenty-seven teachers 
and preachers died at their posts; 
Thomas was shot and cruelly cut, and 
left for dead. With bleeding wounds 
and broken bones and a fractured skull 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


they bore him fifteen hours’ journey— 
two long days—to where he could have 
the protection of a British consul and 
the care of a European surgeon, And 
Thomas, against all probabilities, re- 
covered, 

Back he went into the mountains 
where he had worked before. He 
gathered the scattered, frightened Chris- 
tians and inspired them with new cour- 
age and hope. He protected the wid- 
ows; he fed the orphans. He gave him- 
self without fear or fatigue to a work 
that brought new life to crushed and 
broken hearts. The sacrifice of his own 
mother bore its abundant fruit in the 
comfort he brought to hundreds of wid- 
ows and orphans, and they called him 
the saviour of Kurdistan.—Selected. 


ae AOS 
PRESCOTT’S PERSEVERANCE. 


Some years ago a student in college 
lost one of his eyes by a missile thrown 
by a class-mate. His other eye became 
so affected by sympathy that its sight 
was endangered. The best oculists 
could not relieve him. He was sent to 
Europe for medical treatment and 
change of climate, and tarried there 
three years, when he returned with only 
part of an eye, just enough to serve 
him in traveling about, but too little 
for reading. His father was an eminent 
jurist, and designed his son for the bar, 
but this calamity quenched his aspira- 
tions in that direction. He resolved to 
devote himself to authorship in the de- 
partment of historical literature. He 
spent ten years in laborious systematic 
study of the standard authors before he 
even selected his theme. Then he spent 
another ten years in searching archives, 
exploring masses of manuscripts, official 
documents, and correspondence, con- 
sulting old chronicles, reading quanti- 
ties of miscellaneous books, and taking 
notes—all through the eyes of others— 
before his first work was ready for the 
press—“Ferdinand and Isabella.”’ Pres- 
cott was forty years of age when he 
gave this remarkable history to the 





265 


public. Then followed his “Mexico,” 
“Peru,” and “Philip the Second’— 
works that have earned for him the 
reputation of a profound historian on 
both sides of the Atlantic. Noble work 
for any man with two good eyes! Noble 
work for a man with none!—Selected. 


meee OG en 
DOING PERSONAL WORK. 


It has always been the Master’s way 
to speak to individuals, and it is also a 
difficult way. Most Christian workers 
find it easier to save souls by whole- 
sale, speaking from a pulpit or plat- 
form, than to deal individually with 
men as they have opportunity, whether 
in the street, in the home, in the office 
or the shop. And yet many of our 
great men whose lives have been lived 
in the open have been glad to under- 
take personal work. 

I have been told that the pastor of 
the First Presbyterian Church of In- 
dianapolis tells that after a meeting one 
night in his church, a young student 
came to him with “intellectual diffi- 
culties’—-he was not fully persuaded 
that Jesus Christ was the Saviour. One 
of the pastor’s elders standing by over- 
heard some of the conversation, and as 
he finally left the meeting, asked for 
the name and address of the young man. 
The next night, the church officer climb- 
ed the stairway of the boarding-house 
of the young student, and after con- 
versation and prayer was able to dispel 
all of his difficulties, and upon his knees 
the young man gave his heart to Jesus 
Christ. The church officer who follow- 
ed up the seeding-sowing of the pastor 
was none other than Benjamin Harrison, 
at one time President of the United 
States — John Willis Baer, 

—— 497 
THE DARKEST DAY. 

“The darkest day in any man’s 
earthly career is that wherein he first 
fancies that there is some easier way of 
gaining a dollar than by squarely earn- 
ing it.”’—-Horace Greeley. 





266 ILLUSTRATIVE 


cuearame 498, me 


THE HINDU IDEA OF SIN. 


The people in India have no idea of 
sin as we understand it from the Word 
of God. Stealing is no sin until found 
out. There is the caste we generally 
call the “Thief Caste,” and in some 
places the men of that caste must sleep 
at the Public Rest House during nights 
and are counted in the evening. Thus 
they are kept under watch as it were. 
We speak to them of sin and they will 
answer that “our god was a thief, why 
should we give up stealing?” 

Once we came to a village, and a 
farmer told us that the farmers were 
very big sinners, because they cut the 
grass and it cried out; they could see 
the tears of the grass fall on the ground. 
They took the life of the grass, his idea 
of sin. 

And how often have we seen the 
storekeepers steal and deceive all day, 
and then to atone for it all take a hand- 
ful of sugar and feed the ants along the 
roadside in the evening. And again 
the well-to-do man sometimes employs 
a poor man to lie on his cot for a couple 
of hours in order that the bedbugs may 
be satisfied with his blood that the rich 
man may sleep in peace the rest of the 
night. 

But the crowning of all these things 
is that we never saw a hospital for man 
built by the Hindu, but we saw a fine 
stone building as a hospital for animals 
in which were halt, blind and lame old 
oxen, cows and buffaloes, with a good 
native doctor to look after them. 

There is no compassion on the suffer- 
ing humanity of which the following 
will be enough to convince you: During 
the famine of 1897 we were living in a 
native house in the town, and one night 
a young starved girl, about eighteen 
years old, had fallen into an open ditch 
alongside the street and was found there 
in the morning, still alive, by the mis- 
sionaries. But none of the people going 
backward and forward, nor any of the 

storekeepers sitting around, would give 


ANECDOTES 


her a helping hand. They said, “She 
is not one of ours.” 

The poor girl died in the government 
hospital after three days. 

These are some of the ideas of sin 
among our Hindu people. Do you think 
they need the Gospel?—-Missionary Wit- 
ness, 


—— 499 ——- 


COMING. 


There was an old turnpike man on a 
quiet country road, whose habit was to 
shut his gate at night and take his nap. 
One dark wet night I knocked at his 
door, calling: 

“Gate—gate!” 

“Coming,” said the voice of the old 
man. 

Then I knocked again, and once more 
the voice replied: “Coming.” This 
went on for some time, till at length 
I grew quite angry, and jumping off my 
horse, opened the door and demanded 
why he cried “Coming” for twenty 
minutes, but never came. 

“Who’s there?” said the old man, in 
a quiet, sleepy voice, rubbing his eyes. 
“What d’ye want, sir?” Then awaken- 
ing: “Bless yer, sir, and yer pardon; 
I was asleep. I got so used to hear- 
ing *em knock that I answer ‘Coming’ 
in my sleep, and takes no more notice 
about it.” 

So it is with too many hearers of the 
gospel, who hear by habit and answer 
God by habit, and at length die with 
their souls asleep.—Selected. 


500 -—— 


ESTIMATES OF VALUE. 


A man who was a lawyer for ten 
years, then a physician, and later a 
preacher, said he found men would pay 
about 90 cents on a dollar to save their 
property, 50 cents to save their lives, and 
10 cents to save their souls. But if all 
would pay 10 cents on the dollar the 
cause would be amply provided for, and 
empty Lord’s treasuries would be the 
exception.—Selected. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


——=— 501 —— 
THE LAST MESSAGE. 


When Mrs. Johnson, the prisoner’s 
friend, was dying her last thoughts were 
still of the cause to which she had de- 
voted her life. She talked about it to 
the Bishop of Rochester, who was with 
her, declaring that the inspiration of her 
life had been her unwavering faith in 
an accessible spot in every soul, no mat- 
ter how sunk in sin that soul might be. 

“Don’t you believe it is there?” she 
asked. 

The bishop hesitated. ‘Perhaps’ he 
answered, gravely, “it is more truly a 
matter of hope than faith.” 

Then she replied instantly, 
couldn’t do the work.” 

Several years ago one of our prison 
chaplains told the story of a man who 
taught him the faith that Mrs. Johnson 
declared necessary. 

He was a man who had been convict- 
ed of robbing a bank and sent to prison 
for a long term. After he had been 
there awhile another man was accused 
of complicity. The second man had a 
wealthy father; if the son could be con- 
victed the father would indemnify the 
bank for its loss. 

One day two unscrupulous lawyers 
went to the prison to see the convict. 
They sat on the edge of his bed and 
talked to him a long time. They both 
could and would procure a pardon for 
him, they declared, if he would only 
testify that the second man was guilty. 

As soon as they were gone the prison- 
er sent for the chaplain. The poor fel- 
low was weak and ill, and seemed to 
be terribly excited. 

“Don’t let me see those men again!” 
he cried. “They offer me pardon, and 
God knows I would like to be free; but 
I can’t do it. Arnold wasn’t with us. 
He wanted to go, but I said, ‘Arnold, 
you have a father and mother. Don’t 
go!’ and he didn’t. Do you understand 
what I say? He wasn’t with us!” 

The chaplain quieted him and prom- 
ised that he should not be troubled 


“you 


267 


again, and after a little while went away. 
A few nights later there came an ur- 
gent call; the convict was dying of 
hemorrhage. When the chaplain reach- 
ed him he was beyond speech, but he 
made a sign for paper. The warden 
handed him his passbook and pencil. 
With a supreme effort the weak hand 
wrote four words—the burden of all his 
thoughts: “Arnold is not guilty.” 

He died a few hours later; but be- 
neath the common convict, paying the 
just penalty of his crime, had been re- 
vealed, dimmed and blurred, it is true, 
but not destroyed, the spirit of a hero. 
—Youth’s Companion. 


—— 502 


LINCOLN’S RELIGIOUS 


DEVELOPMENT. 


In 1860 in a conversation with Mr. 
Bates, State Superintendent of Public 
Schools, Lincoln said: “I am not a 
Christian, God knows I would be one.” 
Then taking a New Testament from 
his pocket he began to protest against 
the opposition of certain clergymen to 
his candidacy. Mark his language. 
“These men well know that I am for 
freedom in the territories, freedom 
everywhere so far as the Constitution 
and the laws will permit, and my op- 
ponents are for slavery. They know 
this and yet with this book in their 
hands, in the light of which human bon- 
dage cannot live a moment, they are go- 
ing to vote against me. . . Iam 
nothing, but the truth is everything. I 
know I am right, for I know liberty is 
right, for Christ teaches it and Christ 
is God!” This conviction, like leaven 
wrought slowly its own blessed effect 
in his soul. 

His confession is noteworthy. “When 
I was first inaugurated I did not love 
my Saviour, but when God took my 
son I was greatly impressed; but still 
Tf did not love him; but when I stood 
on the battle-field of Gettysburg I gave 
my heart to Christ, and I can now say 
I do love the Saviour.”—-Wm, P. Bruce. 





268 
—— 503 —— 
STOPPED BY THE HAND OF 
GOD. 


The London Methodist Times con- 
tains a story of a remarkable deliver- 
ance, as related by Father Williams, an 
old Irish Methodist preacher, and jotted 
down by his daughter, Mary, who 
sought by encouraging its recital to win 
his mind away from weary and despond- 
ing thoughts, 

“Well,” Mr. Williams began slowly, 
“you remember it happened that night 
of the meeting in James Humphries’ 
barn. We always looked back to that 
meeting as the climax of the great revi- 
val in our part of the country. In our 
neighborhood it made itself felt about 
Christmas. They would tell you now- 
a-days that you must not on any account 
plan special services for such a time, 
because everybody is too busy. I dare 
say it may be so—that if everything is 
dead and cold, and you have to work 
up an interest and enthusiasm, every- 
body is too busy. 

“In our case we forgot everything, 
and gave up everything in the way of 
social preparation and festivity, and just 
opened our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s 
influence. And surely the very windows 
of heaven were opened too, and such a 
blessing was poured out upon us as there 
was hardly room enough to contain. 

“Nothing stopped our getting to the 
meetings, neither darkness, nor cold, 
nor distance, If we hadn’t means to 
drive, we walked, and every one who 
had a horse that could be ridden, or a 
seat to spare upon a car, took those who 
could neither walk nor drive. 

“Well, as I was saying, it was the 
night of that meeting in the barn at 
Humphries’ place, at Ballyconneil—a 
big, draughty outhouse, with rat holes 
in the floor, and all the rafters hung 
with cobwebs. They had a number of 
tallow dips stuck in tin sconces round 
the wails, and young Humphries would 
go around during the singing and snuff 
them. The window slits were stuffed 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES © 


with straw to make it possible for us to 
stay in the place at all. Mind you, we 
thought of none of these things at the 
time. It was only as I looked back in 
after years, when I heard people grumb- 
ling that the cause couldn’t grow be- 
cause they hadn’t the right accommo- 
dation, that my mind took in all these 
points. 

“Well, Mary, it was a wonderful 
meeting, The penitent form was filled, 
and before long sinners were weeping 
their way to the cross in every part of 
the building. We were all busy, pointing 
them the way. 

“Every now and again, with a great 
burst of ‘Hallelujah! praise the Lord!’ 
some one would break out into a prayer 
or hymn of thanksgiving, because an- 
other soul had found peace with God. 
Sometimes with one consent the whole 
body of people broke into a hymn. 

“We had none of Sankey’s at that 
time, and we didn’t want them, Our 
old hymn book gave us, ‘Come ye sin- 
ners, poor and needy’, and ‘How happy 
every child of grace,’ and many another 
that carried our burden of penitence or 
intercession or rejoicing, and they were 
sung in our families till we knew them 
by heart. 

“At last, however, the meeting was 
over, and we tore ourselves away. Out- 
side, we found the night was as dark as 
pitch. I never have experienced, be- 
fore or since, such utter blackness. By 
a great deal to do we got everybody on 
the right car or the right horse, and set 
them going. Then three or four of the 
younger men—your Uncle John was one 
of them—and I, started to walk home. 
The roads were deep in mud, but the 
rain had ceased. 

“So deep was the gloom that it 
seemed to make no difference whether 
we walked under the trees or not, noth- 
ine but the swish of the wind through 
the bare twigs told us we were near 
them. We took one another’s arms and 
sang as we walked, ‘My God the spring 
of all my joy,’ and hymns like that. 
Three or four miles along the road we 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


came to a white gate, for which we had 
kept a sharp lookout. It opened into a 
held which was the beginning of short 
cut to our homes. We turned in at the 
gate, and, as we believed, took the right 
direction, We knew there were several 
fields to cross and several hedges to 
climb, and we came to them one by one. 

“We went forward more silently than 
before, but without any misgiving, till 
suddenly, with the strongest impression 
I ever felt in my life, we were all stop- 
ped dead short. No one was first, no 
one was last to stop. We were as if 
rooted to the spot, unable to stir hand 
or foot. A sense of the immediate pres- 
ence of some extreme danger was all 
that we could at first discern in our 
minds. What it was we did not even 
stop to think. 

“After what seemed a long, time, but 
I suppose was only a minute or so, your 
uncle broke the deathlike stillness by 
quoting the words, ‘Call unto me, and 
I will answer thee; and show thee great 
and mighty things which thou knowest 
not.’ Bending down, we laid our black- 
thorn sticks on the wet ground, and 
each man, keeping his hand on the 
shoulder of his neighbor, we knelt and 
p:ayed. We cried to the Father of the 
spirits of all flesh that He would enlight- 
en our darkness of body and mind, that 
fie would show us our danger, what- 
ever it was, and point out to us the way 
of safety. Then we waited in silence, 
looking upward as if by instinct. After 
a minute there appeared to us, descend- 
ing out of the blackness of darkness, a 
great ball of fire. 

“Slowly it descended, and, within 
three feet of where we knelt, to our un- 
utterable horror, it descended still— in- 
to the yawning gulf of a great disused 
quarry pit, where a twenty-foot depth 
of water had accumulated. 

“Without a sound it vanished, With- 
out a sound, and still keeping touch of 
one another, we rose as rigidly as we 
had knelt, and each one turning upon 
the spot our feet covered, we strode in 
silence away. We had had instant de- 


269 


liverance from a sudden and violent 
death, made more terrible by every cir- 
cumstance of darkness and helplessness. 

“The quarry pit was known to all of 
us, but we had not the faintest idea that 
we had wandered in the direction of it. 
How we could have gone so far astray 
{ have always been at a loss to imagine, 
unless it was in the same Way that peo- 
ple wander round in a circle when the 
will is not consciously. used to direct 
the walk. However that may be, cer- 
tain) it is when the hand of God seized 
and stopped us, another movement on 
our part must have fixed our earthly 
doom,”—Selected. 





504 —— 


SUCCESSFUL MEN WHO WERE 
NOT RICH. 


We have fallen under a universal 
witchcraft, declares Francis Bellamy in 
Everybody’s Magazine. A sense of the 
power and luxury in money, beyond all 
the wonder tales, has suddenly come to 
us. It has turned our fashionable so- 
ciety into a materialism which is no 
longer ashamed of its poverty of ideals. 
It is hard and merciless of heart; it is 
skeptical of unworldly motives; its 
smartest relish is for the strokes and 
ruses of the manipulators of finance. 

In times like these it is good to re- 
member Agassiz, who refused to lecture 
at five hundred dollars a night because 
he was too busy to make money; 
Charles Sumner, who declined to lec- 
ture at any price because, he said, as 
Senator all his time belonged to Massa- 
chusetts; Spurgeon, who refused to 
come to America to deliver fifty lectures 
at one thousand dollars a night, saying 
he could do better—he could stay in 
London and try to save fifty souls, and 
Emerson, who steadfastly declined to 
increase his income beyond one thou- 
sand two hundred dollars, because he 
wanted his time to think. Such stories 
of fine haughtiness did hot seem quix- 
otic to the young men in college thirty 
years ago. A generous idealism was 
abroad, and it was unshamed. 


270 ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 505 —— 
HE LOST HIS SOUL 


There was in Ohio a certain young 
man by the name of McClure, a Chris- 
tian, very active, as bright and talented 
as any of the early lights of Oberlin. 
He taught school and was always suc- 
cessful; was a member of the church, 
and taught in the Sabbath school, and 
was always loved by the people. His 
friends urged him to go to Oberlin 
college and prepare himself for the min- 
istry, Then the thought came to his 
mind. “If I go to Oberlin I will never 
be anything but Rev. Sam. McClure; 
but if I study law, I may become judge, 
a great politician, and a wealthy man.” 
He would study on it for a while, and 
then go back to his law books. Finally, 
one night he went into his office, piled 
up his law books on the table before 
him, sat down in a chair, leaning his 
face in his hands, and meditated until 
the city clock struck twelve and lifted 
a law book over his head, slammed it 
down and said, “I will have my law, 
come heaven or hell.” He had no more 
than spoken the words until he felt a 
cold chill run down his back and go all 
over him, and then he felt what he had 
done. He went to the church officers 
and said, “Take my name off of the 
church record. My soul is utterly hard- 
ened and steeled against God. If I 
should see as many people as could 
kneel between here and Cleveland (a 
distance of forty-two miles) kneeling 
and kegging me to pray for them, my 
heart would be utterly unmoved.” 

Oh, the man had settled it! He had 
settled it! He lived to become a judge, 
“Honorable Judge McClure”; he lived 
to amass two hundred thousand dollars; 
he also became profane and drunken, 
and one day as he was sitting in his soft- 
cushioned carriage, which was drawn 
up to his residence to take him to an 
afternoon entertainment, an arrow from 
God Almighty struck his heart, and he 
died in an instant. He lost his soul 
for $200,000. Who knows but what 
God wanted him to become some great 


ANECDOTES 


President Finney, and like a flaming 
angel to herald the Gospel until hun- 
dreds’ and thousands should turn to 
righteousness and receive a crown of 
fadeless glory, and shine as the stars 
forever and ever?—A. M, Hills. 


—— 506 —— 


JOY AMIDST AFFLICTION. 


“IT remember one time while conduct- 
ing meetings in Connecticut that one of 
the pastors asked me if I would see a 
young woman who had been an invalid 
for many years. We called upon her 
and found her lying upon her bed ina 
little room, outside of which she had 
not been for 16 years. During all that 
time she had not known what it was 
to be without pain, It was a fearful 
species of rheumatism from which she 
was suffering and her limbs were drawn 
and distorted in the most inconceivable 
way. One eye was blind and the other 
was slowly losing its sight. She could 
only use one muscle of her entire body, 
and by it she could lift her head about 
an inch from the pillow. They prepared 
her bed by lifting her by some me- 
chanical device fastened to the ceiling 
above. 

“As I stood there I could almost see 
the pain go shooting through her poor 
quivering frame, but on her face was 
an expression it would have paid you 
to have gone thousands of miles to see, 
and when we had talked awhile she 
said, “Do you sing?’ and my friend who 
was with me said ‘A little, what would 
you like to have us sing?’ And what do 
you suppose she said? She said sing 
for me “There’s Sunshine in My Soul 
Today.” Think of it! And just before 
we kneeled to pray she said, ‘I feel so 
very sorry for strong people who do not 
know Christ.’ My brother, you may 
never have an experience like that, but 
if you do, you’ll need something better 
than your infidelity and agnosticism 
and your unbelief or any power this 
world can give to keep a light heart 
within your breast.”——W. E. Biederwolf, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


mmm 507 ——— 


“LOOK PLEASANT!” 

An elderly woman, the widow of a 
soldier who had been killed many years 
before, went into a photographer’s to 
have her picture taken. She was seated 
before the camera wearing the same 
stern, hard, forbidding look that had 
made her an object of fear to the chil- 
dren living in the neighborhood, when 
the photographer, thrusting his head out 
of the cloth, said, suddenly, “Just 
brighten your eyes a little.” 

She tried, but the dull and heavy look 
still lingered, 

“Look a little pleasanter,” said the 
photographer, in an unimpassioned but 
confident and commanding voice. 

“See here,” the woman replied sharp- 
ly, “if you think that an old woman who 
is dull can look bright, that one who 
feels cross can beconie pleasant every 
time she is told to, you don’t know any- 
thing about human nature. It takes 
something from the outside to brighten 
the eye and illuminate the face.” 

“Oh, no, it doesn’t! It’s something 
to be worked from the inside. Try it 
again,” said the photographer, good- 
naturedly. 

Something in his manner inspired 
faith, and she tried again, this time with 
better success. 

“That’s good! That’s fine! You look 
twenty years younger,’ exclaimed the 
artist, as he caught the transient glow 
that illumined the faded face. 

She went home with a queer feeling 
in her heart. It was the first compli- 
ment she had received since her husband 
passed away, and it left a pleasant mem- 
ory behind. When she reached her 
little cottage she looked long in the 
glass, and said: “There may be some- 
thing in it, but I’ll wait and see the 
picture.” 

When the picture came, it was like 
a resurrection. The face seemed alive 
with the fire of youth. She gazed long 
and earnestly, then said in a clear, firm 
voice: “If I could do it once, I can do 
it again.” Approaching the little mirror 


271 


above her bureau, she said: “Brighten 
up, Catherine!” and the old light flashed 
up once more. 

“Look a little pleasanter!” she com- 
manded, and a calm and radiant smile 
diffused itself over her face. 

Her neighbors, as the writer of this 
story has said, soon remarked the 
change that had come over her face. 

“Why, Mrs. A., you are getting 
young. How do you manage it?” 

“It is almost all done from the inside. 
You must brighten up inside and feel 
pleasant.”—Rev. E. P. Hammond. 


—— 508 —— 


POWER OF LITTLE THINGS. 


In an address delivered some years 
ago, the Rev. J. A. Worden, D. D., of 
Philadelphia, related the following inci- 
dent as illustrating the power of small 
things: 

The superintendent of a large iron 
foundry in that city was showing a 
gentleman through the various depart- 
ments. In the machine shop an im- 
mense beam of steel suspended from the 
roof arrested the attention of the gentle- 
man. He attempted to push it, but was 
unable to do so, whereupon the super: 
intendent, a practical mechanic, said, 
“Would you like to see me start that 
beam swinging with the aid of an ordi- 
nary cork?” “Yes,” was the answer. 
“Then, if you can spare twenty minutes 
we will have it in motion,” ‘The super- 
intendent instructed one of the work- 
men to get the cork and suspend it by 
a thread parallel with the beam. This 
being done he set the cork in motion 
so that it struck the beam in the centre. 
For ten minutes the little cork was kept 
swinging backward and forward, strik- 
ing always in the same place, and now 
that immense weight of steel began to 
tremble, and before the twenty minutes 
had passed was swinging like the pen- 
dulum of a clock. The cork, striking 
the rough fibres of the steel, had caused 
them to vibrate until the whole mass 
had been set in motion. 


‘272 ¢ ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 509 -— 


JOHN PATERSON’S ESCAPE, 


Among all the wonderful escapes of 
the Scottish Covenanters, when for con- 
science sake they were hunted like par- 
tridges upon the mountains, few were 
more wonderful than those recorded of 
John Paterson, a small farmer at Penny- 
venie, near the Crag of Benbeoch. 

It was when the dreadful Claverhouse 
and his fierce troopers were harrying 
the country-side, and carrying off to 
prison all who took part in the forbid- 
den “field-preaching,” or who were sus- 
pected of favoring those who did. But 
so hungry were the people for the Word 
of Life, and the teaching of their be- 
loved minister, that, in spite of the 
danger, they continued to assemble for 
prayer and preaching in the secluded 
glens and hollows of the mountains. 
One such meeting-place was called the 
Black Glen, and here a goodly number 
were once gathered around the preacher, 
when suddenly a scout, placed to watch 
on the hill above, descried in the dis- 
tance the gleam of armour. 

“The sodgers! the sodgers!” he cried, 
rushing down among the people. 

Instantly the little party broke up, 
and the poor, harassed worshippers hur- 
ried away to their various homes or 
hiding-places, 

John Paterson, however, who was one 
of them, had to cross a boggy moor, 
and was scon espied by Claverhouse 
and his men, who, with a wild yell, set 
off in pursuit. 

On and on they rushed, and on fied 
' poor John, calling earnestly upon God 
to deliver him. 

At first he kept well ahead, the 
horses and their heavy riders sinking 
in the boggy ground, but feeling his 
strength beginning to fail and know- 
ing the bog would soon end, and then 
they would be upon him, John resolved 
to lie down in a deep furrow that crossed 
the moor, in the faint hope thus to es- 
cape his pursuers, But scarcely had he 
done so, and pulled the moss and long 


ANECDOTES. ~ 


grass together above him, when a deep, 
savage bay rang out across the moor. 

“That sound,” said John, “struck on 
my heart like a death-knell.” 

And well it might, for the soldiers 
had brought dogs to track him! Guided 
by their keen sense of smell, they came 
on straight and sure toward the furrow. 

John cried once more on God to save 
him, then was about to rise lest the 
hounds should tear him as he lay, when 
suddenly there was a quick rushing 
sound in the grass at his head, and a 
fox dashed out close past him. 

Away went horses, dogs, and men 
after the fox, and John was saved, for 
they never came back that day! 

‘Thus as of old God saved His prophet 
by the ravens, so surely did He then 
save His praying servant by the fox. 

Another escape was even more won- 
derful. The cruel Claverhouse was so 
angry at Paterson’s escaping him that 
he set a watch upon his movements, so 
that poor John dare not remain at home, 
but was obliged to hide among the 
rocks of Benbeoch, visiting his home 
only by stealth. 

The first time he ventured from his 
hiding-place on one of these visits, the 
dragoons saw him as he was crossing 
the moor toward the little white farm- 
house, where his dear wife, Isabel, was 
watching for him from the window. 
Fortunately seeing them, he fled quick- 
ly back toward his hiding-place, 

But the troopers on their strong 
horses soon gained upon him, and as 
strained up toward the friendly rocks, 
he heard them leaping the stone wall 
that girdled Benbeoch. 

“Ah, surely it is all over with me 
now!” he thought, for he knew they 
would have no mercy; only that week 
Claverhouse had hung one poor man at 
his own door. 

On galloped the troopers, and on 
panted John, crying as he ran, “O 
Lord, deliver me, for Thy name’s sake!” 
Just then his foot slipped, and he fell 
heavily to the ground. 

“Another moment and they will be 


“ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 273° 


on me,” thought the poor fellow, when 
suddenly the solid earth parted, and he 
felt himself sinking through the grass 
and heather, down, down among loose 
soil and stones. 

“Where am I going?” he gasped for 
he knew every foot of Benbeoch, and 
was sure no hole existed there. 

He was right; but he did not know 
that underneath stretched a large dry 
cavern, and that he had fallen just where 
the roof was too thin to bear the sudden 
crash, 

Verily the God in whom he trusted 
had made a new thing, and caused the 
earth to open her mouth and swallow 
him up, sooner than he should fall into 
the hands of his enemies. 

When John came to himself, for he 
was bruised and stunned by the fall, 
and saw where he was, and heard the 
angry shouts of the baffled troopers, who 
with all their searching could not find 
where he had disappeared, he fell on 
his knees and praised and blessed God 
for his wonderful preservation. 


By and by, when all was quiet, he 
ventured to climb the sides of the hole 
and peer out, and seeing nothing but 
the purple heather and the blue sky 
above, he presently scrambled out. Sud- 
denly pitiful sobs and cries fell on his 
ear, and he saw his poor wife, Isabel, 
coming toward him, wringing her hands 
and wailing, for she thought the soldiers 
had killed her dear husband, and ex- 
pected every minute to find his dead 
body among the heather. 

Oh, how glad she was when she 
heard his voice, and saw him standing 
there alive and well! 

Then John helped her down into the 
cave, and told her how he had escaped 
the crfiel soldiers; and kneeling down, 
they joined together in thanking and 
praising God. 

By degrees they carried some bedding 
and other things into the shelter so 
wonderfully provided, and John and 
many another poor Covenanter hid there 
in safety so long as Claverhouse remain- 
ed in the country.—Sylvia Penn. 


—— 510 —— 
POWER OF LOVE. 


A little fellow, four years old, was 
brought from the slums to a Chicago 
orphan home. This is how The Life- 
Boat tells the story: 

When he was brought up to be put 
in bed, had his bath, and the matron 
opened up the sweet little cot to put 
him between clean white sheets, he 
looked on in amazement. He said, “Do 
you want me to get in there?” “Yes.” 
“What for?” “Why, you are going to 
sleep there.”” He was amazed beyond 
description. The idea of going to sleep 
in such a place as that—he did not know 
what to make of it. He had never slept 
in a bed in his life before, never. 

He was put to bed, and the matron 
kissed him good night—a little bit of a 
chap, only four years old, and he put 
up his hand and rubbed off the kiss. 
He said, “What did you do that for?” 
But the next morning he said, “Would 
you mind doing that again?—what you 
did to me last night?” He never had 
been kissed before and did not know 
anything about it, 

It was only about a week later, the 
matron said, that the little fellow would 
come around three or four times a day 
and look up with a soft look in his face 
and say, “Would you love a fellow a 
little ?” 

After a few weeks a lady came to 
get a child, and was looking for a boy, 
so the matron brought along this little 
chap, and the lady looked at him. She 
said, “Tommy, wouldn’t you like to 
go home with me?” He looked right 
down at the floor. She said, “I will 
give you a hobby-horse and lots of play- 
things, and you will have a real nice 
time, and I will give you lots of nice 
things to do.” He looked right straight | 
at the floor—did not pay any attention 
to it at all. She, talking, persuading 
him, and bye and bye the little fellow 
looked up into her face and said, “Would 
you love a fellow?” I want to tell you, 
my friends, there is a tremendous 
pathos in that. 


274 ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 511 —— 
THE MILLER’S STORY. 


Permit me to repeat a story my pas- 
tor, Duncan Dunbar, used to tell for the 
benefit of certain churches. 


A worthy miller was once pained by 
hearing that the minister was going 
away for want of support, the church 
having decided they could no longer 
raise his salary. He called a meeting 
and addressed his brethren very modest- 
ly, for he was one of the poorest among 
these comfortable farmers. He asked 
if want of money were the only reason 
for this change, and if all were united 
in desiring the services of the pastor, 
could they still keep him. There was 
but one voice in the reply. The pastor 
was useful and beloved; but the flock 
was so poor! 

“Well,” replied the miller, “I have 
a plan by which I can raise the salary 
without asking one of you for a dollar, 
if you will allow me to take my own 
way to do it, I will assume the re- 
sponsibility for one year. Have I your 
consent?” ¥ 

Of course they could not refuse this, 
although they expressed surprise, know- 
ing the miller to be but a poor man. 

The year drew to a close. The min- 
ister had been blessed in his labors, and 
no one had been called on for money. 
When they came together the miller 
asked the pastor if his wants had been 
supplied and his salary promptly met. 
He replied in the affirmative. When the 
brethren were asked if they were any 
poorer than at the beginning of the 
year, each one replied, “No,” and asked 
how they could be, when their church 
privileges had been so mysteriously paid 
for. He asked again: “Is there any man 
here any poorer for keeping the minis- 
ter?” and the reply was the same as 
before. 

“Then,” he said, “brethren, I have 
only to tell you that you have paid the 
salary the same as you always did, only 
more of it, and with greater prompt- 
ness. You remember you gave me per- 


ANECDOTES 


mission to take my own way in this 
matter; and I have done so. As each 
one of you brought his grist to mill, I 
took out as much grain as I thought 
your proportion, and laid it away for 
the salary. When the harvest was over, 
I sold it, and have paid the minister 
regularly from the proceeds. You con- 
fess that you are no poorer; so you never 
missed it, and therefore made no person- 
al sacrifice. 

“Now I propose that we stop talking 
about poverty, and about letting our 
minister go, and add enough to his 
salary to make us feel that we are do- 
ing something.” Mr. Dunbar used to 
say, with a sigh, “Oh for a miller in 
every church!”—G, F. Love. 


— 512 —— 


NOT KNOWING THEIR VALUE. 

A poor old widow, living in the 
Scottish Highlands, was called upon 
one day by a gentleman who had heard 
that she was in need. The old lady 
complained of her condition, and re- 
marked that her son was in Australia 
and doing well. 

“But does he do nothing to help 
you?” inquired the visitor. 

“No, nothing,” was the reply. “He 
writes me regularly once a month, but 
only sends me a little picture with his 
letter.” 

The gentleman asked to see one of 
the pictures that she had received, and 
found each one of them to be a draft 
for ten pounds. 

That is the condition of many of God’s 
children. He has given us many “ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises,” 
which we either are ignorant of or fail 
to appropriate. Many of them seem 
to be pretty pictures of an ideal peace 
and rest, but are not appropriated as 
practical helps in daily life. And not 
one of these promises is more neglected 
than the assurance of salvation. An 
open Bible places them within reach 
of all, and we may appropriate the 
blessing which such a knowledge brings. 
—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


UNUSED ABILITY WASTED. 


The unused eye soon loses its sight, 
as the fish in mammoth caves have lived 
so long in the dark that their eyes are 
gone, or, if they are there, they are 
sightless. The inused arm becomes 
powerless. The unused talent, when 
searched for, is not to be found. Of 
the unused coin covered with rust it 
is said: “The rust upon your unused 
coin is to witness against you at the 
judgment seat of Christ.” Two men 
were walking together along the high- 
way. One of them espied a ten-dollar 
gold-piece on the ground. He stooped 
and picked it up and quickly placed it 
in his pocket. His companion said to 
him: “Fred, what are you going to do 
with that gold-piece?” Fred answered 
frankly: “Why, I am geing to keep it, 
to be sure.” As they walked further 
along the way Frank reached down 
and picked up a clod of earth and hastily 
placed it in his pocket. Fred, noting 
the act, said: “Frank, what was that 
you picked up?” Frank replied that it 
was a clod of dirt. Fred at once said, 
“And what are you going to do with it, 
Frank?” He answered: “Why, to be 
sure, I am going to keep it.” “Why 
so? What good is a clod of dirt?” 
““Why, my brother, is not a clod of dirt 
just as good to keep as a gold piece?” 

Talents are for use, not to be wrapped 
in napkins. Money is not to be put by 
for rust to gather upon it, but to be 
used in helping to spread abroad the 
Master’s kingdom. Use your lips, your 
hands, your feet, your eyes, your brain, 
for God, and the salvation of men, that 
when He cometh and reckoneth with 
thee, thou mayest say, “Master, the five 
pounds which thou gavest me have 
gained other five pounds.” Then will 
come the cheering words, “Well done, 
good and faithful servant.”—Selected. 


—-- $14 ----- 
YOU’LL SWEAR WITHOUT ME. 


Several boys in the upper part of 
New York were playing with their tops, 


ANECDOTES 2/5 
and one of the number, feeling cha- 
grined at his inability to come up to the 
mark of his playmates, began to swear 
roundly. 

A Sunday-school boy promptly said, 
“Johnnie, if you swear I won't play 
with you.” 

Johnnie very curtly answered, “I 
don’t care, and I’ll swear as much as I 
have a mind to.” 

Willie said, “Well, you'll swear with- 
out me;” and, picking up his tops, he 
put them in his pockets and moved on 
for home. 

Johnnie saw Willie would do as he 
said, and feeling somewhat ashamed at 
his conduct, called out, “Willie, if 
you'll come back and play, I won’t 
swear any more.” 

Willie came back, and saying, “John- 
nie, my Sunday-school teacher says 
swearing is very wicked and wrong, 
and I dare not play with any boy who 
is wicked,” resumed his play. 

This was a little hero who was not 
afraid to stand up like a brave soldier 
for the cause of pure speech and right 
morals, and in obedience to the com- 
mand of God.—Presbyterian, 


— 515 —— 


LINCOLN’S OPINION. 


General John H. Littlefield, who 
studied law under Lincoln, tells an 
anecdote which many lawyers of today 
might note with profit, as follows: “All 
clients knew that with ‘Old Abe’ as 
their lawyer they would win the case, 
if it was fair; if not, it was waste of 
time to take it to him. After listening 
some time one day to a would-be client’s 
statement, with his eyes on the ceiling, 
he suddenly swung around in his chair, 
and exclaimed, ‘Well, you have got a 
good case in technical law, but a pretty 
bad one in equity and justice. You'll 
have to get some other fellow to win 
this case for you. I couldn’t do it. All 
the time while standing talking to that 
jury I'd be thinking, “Lincoln, you’re 
a liar,” and I believe I should forget 
myself and say it out loud,’” . 


276 ’ 


ame 516 ——— 
HUDSON TAYLOR’S TRAINING, 


While Hudson Taylor, the famous 
founder of the China Island Mission, 
was deliberating on going to that coun- 
try as a missionary, to trust God for his 
maintenance, the thought occurred that 
he better begin by seeing if he could 
trust Him for his support while still in 
England. If his faith should prove un- 
equal to the test at home then he had 
better not go abroad. He was em- 
ployed in a dispensary as a doctor’s as- 
sistant, but he determined he would not 
ask his employer for his salary, though 
due and he needed it, but he would 
trust God to bring the matter to the 
doctor’s remembrance, and thus prepare 
himself to trust Him in China. The 
following story shows how he succeeded, 

“At Hull my kind employer, busily 
occupied, wished me to remind him 
when my salary became due, I deter- 
mined to ask God to bring the fact to 
his recollection, and so encourage me 
by answering prayer. At the end of a 
certain quarter, when my salary was 
_ due, one Saturday night I found myself 
possessed of only a single coin—one 
half-crown piece. Still I had hitherto 
had no lack, and I continued in prayer. 

“That Sunday was a very happy one. 
After divine service in the morning, the 
rest of the day was filled with gospel 
work in lodging-houses in the lowest 
part of the town as usual. It seemed 
as though heaven had begun below. 
After my last service at ten o’clock that 
night, a poor man asked me to go and 
pray with his wife as she was dying, 
and the priest had refused to come with- 
out a payment of one shilling and six- 
pence, which the man could not pro- 
duce, as the family were starving. It 
flashed into my mind at once that all 
the money I possessed was the solitary 
half-crown, and that it was in one coin, 
and, moreover, that though I had gruel 
sufficient for supper and breakfast, I 
had nothing for dinner the next day. 

“At once there was a stoppage of the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


flow of joy in my heart. Instead of re- 
proving myself, I began to reprove the 
poor man. I found he had applied to 
the relieving officer, and had been told 
to come at eleven the next morning; 
but he feared his wife might not live 
through the night. ‘Ah,’ thought I, 
‘if only I had two shillings and a six- 
pence instead of this half-crown, how 
gladly would I give these poor people 
one shilling!’ The truth of the matter 
was that I could trust God plus one 
shilling and sixpence, but could not 
trust Him only, without any money. 

“My conductor led me into a court 
where, on my last visit, I had been 
roughly handled. I followed up a 
miserable flight of stairs, and into a 
wretched room and oh, what a sight pre- 
sented itself to us! Four or five starved- 
looking children stood about, and on a 
wretched pallet lay the poor mother, 
with a tiny babe, thirty-six hours old, 
moaning at her side. ‘Ah,’ thought I, 
‘if I had two shillings and a sixpence 
instead of half a crown, how gladly 
would I give one shilling and sixpence 
of it.’ Still unbelief prevented me from 
relieving their distress at the cost of all 
I possessed. 

“Strange to say, I could not comfort 
these poor people. I told them not to 
be cast down, for they had a kind, lov-. 
ing Father in heaven; but something 
said to me, ‘You hypocrite, speaking 
about a kind, loving Father when you 
are not prepared to trust Him without 
half a crown!’ I was nearly choked. 
If I had only had a fiorin and a six- 
pence!—but I was not yet ready to 
trust God without the sixpence. 

“In those days prayer was a delight 
to me; and I tried to pray, but when I 
opened my lips with ‘Our Father which 
art in heaven,’ prayer seemed a mock- 
ery, and I passed through such a time 
of conflict as I have never experienced 
before or since. I arose from my knees 
in great distress of mind. 

“The poor father turned to me and 
said, ‘Sir, if you can help us, for God’s 
sake, do!’ and the word flashed into my 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


mind, ‘Give to him that asketh of thee’; 
and in the word of a king there is 
power. Slowly taking the half-crown 
from my pocket, I gave it to the man, 
Saying that I was giving him my all, 
but that God was really a Father and 
might be trusted. All the joy came 
back to my heart, and the hindrance to 
blessing was gone—gone, I trust, for 
ever. 

“Not only was the woman’s life saved, 
but I was saved too. My Christian life 
might have been a wreck had the striv- 
ing of God’s spirit not been obeyed. As 
I went home, my heart as light as my 
pocket the lonely streets resounded 
with a hymn of praise. As I kneit at 
my bedside, I reminded the Lord that 
‘he who giveth to the poor lendeth to 
the Lord’; and with peace within and 
peace without, I spent a restful night. 

“Next morning, at breakfast, I was 
surprised to see my landlady come in 
with a letter in her hand. I could not 
recognize the handwriting or the post- 
mark, and where it came from I could 
not tell. On opening the envelope I 
found, inside a sheet of blank paper, a 
pair of kid gloves, and as I opened 
them, half a sovereign fell to the ground. 
‘Praise the Lord!’ I exclaimed; ‘four 
- hundred per cent for twelve hours’ in- 
vestment! How glad the merchants of 
Hull would be to lend their money at 
such a rate! I then and there deter- 
mined that a bank which could not 
break should have my savings—a de- 
termination I have not yet learned to 
regret.” 


—— 517 —— 


THE WARM-HEARTED WORLD. 


The last time that Frances E. Wil- 
lard spoke to a Washington audience 
she told of a Chicago bootblack who, 
with his kit on his shoulder and a pack- 
age of newspapers under his arm, 
stopped at the call of a man with a 
clubfoot. He worked away at the 
man’s shoes, giving them as fine a 
polish as he could, and when the job 


277 


was done the man threw him double 
pay, saying, “No change; I made you 
more work than most folks do.” 

Quick as a flash the little fellow 
handed back half the money, saying 
with eyes full of earnest sympathy, 
“Oh, mister, I couldn’t make money 
out of your trouble.” 

Not far from Washington there lives 
a boy who has to bear the heavy bur- 
den of deformity, but so bravely does he 
bear it that he is the very heart of his 
home, the brightest and the cheeriest 
and most helpful one in the household. 

A while ago he went out and hunted 
up a situation for himself, so that he 
might pay his share of the family ex- 
penses, 

Somebody asked him, “Don’t you 
find it rather disagreeable, going about 
as you have to, now?” 

He looked up with his bright, flash- 
ing smile, and answered quickly, “Oh, 
no; everybody is kind to a fellow in 
my fix,” with a slight gesture toward 
his back. 

There is plenty of love and sympathy 
in the world, after all, if our eyes are 
open to see them.——Selected. 


—— 518 ——. 
THE LUXURY OF GIVING. 


Few men, if any, in modern times, 
can be counted more successful in their 
chosen sphere, or more highly honored 
therein, than the Rev. Charles Spur- 
geon. May this not be regarded as a 
fulfilment of God’s promise of over- 
flowing blessing upon those who bring 
in all the tithes? (Mal. 3 : 10.) 

Speaking of his youth Mr. Spurgeon 
says: “I knew a lad in Christ once who 
adopted the principle of giving a tenth 
to God. When he won a money prize 
for an essay on a religious subject he 
felt he could not give less than one-fifth 
of it. He has never since been able to 
deny himself the pleasure of having a 
fifth to give. God has wonderfully 
blessed that lad and increased his means 
and his enjoyment of that luxury of 
luxuries— the luxury of doing good.” 


278 
exsm $19 ——~ 
FAMILY RESEMBLANCE, 


A lady in Germantown, Pa., was res- 
cued from an embarrassing position 
recently by the fortunate presence of 
one of her children. Her husband, who 
is a traveling man, before leaving on a 
journey, gave her a check for household 
expenses during this absence. As he 
had before always given her currency, 
she had not had occasion to go to his 
bank. Accompanied by her little 
daughter, she went to the paying tell- 
er’s window and presented the check. 
To her astonishment, the teller declined 
to pay it. He admitted that there were 
plenty of funds in the account on which 
it was drawn, but it was a rule of the 
bank never to cash a check for a 
stranger. She indignantly told him 
she was not a stranger, but the wife of 
the drawer of the check. That might 
be, he said, but he did not know her, 
and therefore could not pay. She ar- 
gued with him for some time, but with- 
out avail, and was leaving the bank 
very much crestfallen, when her child 
made some remark to her, addressing 
her as “Mamma.” ‘The teller looked 
closely at the child, and then said he 
would honor the check. Asked why he 
had changed his mind, he answered, “I 
have known the signer of the check for 
many years, and that little lady is so 
like him that I am sure her mamma is 
his wife.” So the check was duly hon- 


ored. What a blessing it would be if . 
the Christian so clearly bore the like- © 


ness of his heavenly Father, that he 
would at once be recognized by his 
character and conduct. Such likeness 4 
is possible to all. 


ja and said, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“I was a country boy who had come 
into the city, A salesman asked me if 
I wouldn’t go to his church. It was a 
quiet, old-fashioned meeting. There 
was a handsome old man of about 
seventy-five years of age, who got up 
and in the gravest way said he was just 
waiting for God to take him; and he 
had lived his life; that God had been 
good to him; that religion was a good 
thing to die by. I sat ’way back, and 
I scliloquized: ‘Well, old man, you 
can’t touch me; you have lived your 
life; you haven’t any sympathy with 
a big boy; it has passed over my head.’ 

“Soon after a younger fellow got up; 
he was perhaps thirty-five; and he said, 
‘I have just begun the Christian life. 
Two years ago I was converted; I had 
just begun business, and I had had a 
prejudice against religion, I am a great 
deal happier; I am a better business 
man.” 

“I listened to him,’ continued Mr. 
Wanamaker, “and I said to myself, 
‘There you are; you want to be a busi- 
ness man, and he tells you how you 
can be a better business man. He tells 
you that religion is good to live by. 
Another man tells you it’s good to die 
by.’ ‘Now, do you ever intend to be 
a Christian?’ ‘Yes.? ‘Well, if it is a 
good thing, why don’t you be it right 
away?’ I said ‘Yes, I will.’ I waited 
till everybody went out except the jani- 
tor and the old minister; and as the 
latter came down the aisle he met a 
country boy coming up, and I was the 
chap. I simply said to him, ‘I have 
settled to-night to give my heart to 
God” And he reached out his hand, 
‘God bless you, you will never 


“We all with unveiled face, behold- 4 regr et it. That was the whole business.” 


ing as in a mirror the glory of the’ 
Lord, are transformed into the same 
image.” (2 Cor. 3: 18, R. V.)—Chris-, 
tian Herald. 


—— §20 —— 
WANAMAKER’S CONVERSION. 
John Wanamaker once said: 


—— §21 —— 
AGASSIZ ON MAKING MONEY. 


Agassiz said, “I have no time to 


waste in making money. Life is not 


sufficiently long to enable a man to get 
wee and do his duty to his fellow man 
the same time.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


———= 522 —— 
LOVE WON! 


“A little daughter born this morning. 
I dedicate her to the Lord and His 
service.’ Such was the entry in the 
diary of the father of Sarah J. Smith, 
who became world-famed as a model 
prison officer until her death about fif- 
teen years ago. At an early age she 
became aware of her father’s dedication 
of his infant daughter; rooting itself in 
her mind it became the key-note of her 
long and useful life. From an obituary 
notice in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, the 
following incident is taken. Sarah 
Smith was placed at the head of a prison 
Reformatory, the whole undertaking be- 
ing, as it were, on trial. 

“In the spring of 1869 the Reforma- 
tory was declared ready for the recep- 
tion of the women of Jeffersonville, the 
most hardened, debased, and undisci- 
plined—scarcely a vestige of woman. 
As the carriages containing the prison- 
ers drew up before the door, Sarah 
Smith stood in the doorway dressed in 
her Quaker costume (which she always 
wore) with snow-white cap and hand- 
kerchief, and with a fine physique and 
noble beauty, her handsome face, as 
she stood there feeling the force of her 
position, and the work before her was 
illuminated by a sacred light direct from 
the Holy Ghost, under whose inspira- 
tion she was then acting. 

The first one brought in by four stal- 
wart officers was a woman passed mid- 
dle age, manacled hand and foot. She 
was a murderess, had been incarcerated 
seventeen years, a most terrible char- 
acter, the terror of all convicts and of- 
ficers. As they brought her in they in- 
quired for the cell in which she was to 
be placed (feeling doubtless as many do 
now, that women could never manage 
those terrible creatures). 

With compassion beaming out of her 
eyes, she directed her to be set down 
and the chains removed. They looked 
astonished and demurred, when in the 
full dignity of her strength she replied: 


279 


“I command you to unloose her, take 
off every chain, and let her free; she is 
my prisoner, not yours.” 

And as the last chain fell, she stepped 
forward, took the vile creature into her 
arms and said: “My poor child I re- 
ceive thee into my arms as my child, 
and I will be a mother to thee and I 
know thou wilt to me be a faithful 
child”; and imprinting a kiss on her 
forehead (the first doubtless that she 
had received in many years), she said, 
“Let us pray.” Together they kneeled, 
while Mrs. Smith asked the power to 
care for the poor woman, and then ris- 
ing with her arms still around her, they 
walked to the cell, the hardened woman 
a broken penitent soul. 

In three weeks she gave every evi- 
dence of being converted to God. For 
fourteen years she led a meek, humble, 


self-denying life—Faith and Work. 


—— 523 —— 
A “RARE” SIN. 


I asked a question some years ago of 
a person whom I believed to be one of 
the most covetous individuals in my ac- 
quaintance, and [ received from him a 
singular reply. 

I said: “How was it that St. Francis 
de Sales, who was an eminent confessor 
to whom persons went in the Romish 
Church to confess their sins, found that 
persons confessed to him in private all 
sorts of horrible sins, such as adultery, 
drunkenness, and murder, but never 
had one person confessed the sin of 
covetousness ?” 

I asked this friend whether he could 
tell me why it was, and he made me this 
answer, which certainly did take me 
rather aback. 

He said: “I suppose it is because the 
sin is so extremely rare.” 

Blind soul! I told him that, on the 
other hand, I feared the sin was so very 
common that people did not know 
when they were covetous, and the man 
who was most covetous of all was the 
last person to suspect himself of it.— 
Chas, H. Spurgeon. 


280 ILLUSTRATIVE 


Reon eee 
“NOTHING LEFT TO DO” 


Some years ago there lived in one 
of the towns of northern Germany a 
young man who had been brought up 
in the Roman Catholic religion. He 
believed, however, neither in that nor 
in any other, but had long cast off all 
thoughts of God, and lived in sin so 
open and so terrible that he was re- 
markable amongst the ungodly and the 
depraved as one who outdid them all, 
How wonderful are the ways of God! 
Like him who slew the giant with his 
Own sword, so God made use of the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of this young man to 
awaken in hii. the first desire for salva- 
tion. He became alarmed at his own 
wickedness. “I am worse than any 
other,’ he thought. “If it is true that 
the wicked go to hell, and only the 
good to heaven, it is plain where I am 
going. If ever a man is lost eternally, 
I must be that man!” 

Night and day did this thought haunt 
the wretched sinner; his peace was 
gone, and he found no pleasure even in 
sin. “If only,” he thought, “it were 
possible to be saved!” What could he 
do? He had been told of penances and 
prayers, of convents where monks spent 
their days in works that might at last 
atone for sin, and he felt that no labor 
would be too great, no torture too se- 
vere, if only he might have the faint 
hope of pardon at last. He resolved to 
become a monk, but he wished first to 
know in what convent in the whole 
world the rule was the strictest and the 
penances the most terrible. If it were 
at the other end of the earth he would 
go to it, and, then he would spend the 
rest of his days in penance and in 
prayer, He was told in answer to his 
inquiries that the convent under the 
strictest rule was a monastery of La 
Trappe, distant about 1,500 miles from 
his home. He could not afford to pay 
the expenses of his journey, and he 
therefore resolved to walk the whole 
way, begging as he went. This alone 
would be the beginning of a penance, 


ANECDOTES. 


and might gain him one step toward 
heaven, 

It was a long, weary journey, each 
day beneath a hotter sun and through 
strange lands. He felt scarcely alive 
by the time that he came in sight of 
the old building where he hoped to gain 
rest for his soul—for his body it mat- 
tered not. Having rung at the gate, he 
waited till it was slowly opened by an 
aged monk, so feeble and infirm that he 
seemed scarcely able to walk. 

“What is it you want?” asked the 
old monk. 

“I want to be saved,” replied the Ger- 
man. “I thought that here I might find 
salvation.” The old monk invited him 
to come in, and led him into a room 
where they were alone together. “Tell 
me now what you mean,” said the old 
monk, 

“T am a lost sinner,” began the Ger- 
man. “I have lived a life more wicked 
than I can tell you. It seems to me 
impossible that I can be saved, but all 
that can be done I am ready to do. I 
will submit to every penance, I will 
complain of nothing, if only I may be 
received into the order. The harder the 
work, the worse the torture, the better 
will it be for me. You have only to 
tell me what to do, and whatever it may 
be I will do it.” 

I would ask you who read this story, 
have you known what it is thus to feel 
yourself a lost sinner? To know that 
you are in the road at the end of which 
there is but one place, and that place 
the eternal lake of fire? To feel that 
all toil, all suffering, all torture here, 
would be but an exchange too welcome 
could you but gain by it the faintest 
hope of escaping from everlasting de- 
spair? If you are still without Christ, 
you are, whether you know it or not, 
in this dark road, with its one terrible 
end; and should God in His great 
mercy have awakened you, so that you 
know the danger and the hopelessness 
of your position, you will be in a state 
to welcome as a voice from God the 
wonderful words which were spoken in 
answer to the trembling sinner—spoken 


-t ILLUSTRATIVE 


by the old monk of La Trappe. “If 
you tell me to do the most fearful pen- 
ance, I am ready to do it,” the German 
had said, and the old monk replied, 
“If you are ready to do what I tell you, 
you will go straight home again, for 
the whole work has been done for you 
before you came, and there is nothing 
left for you to do. Another has been 
here, and has done the work instead, 
and it is finished.” 

“It is finished?” 

“Yes, it is finished. Do you not 
know that God sent down His own Son 
to be the Saviour of the world? Did 
He not come? Did He not finish the 
work the Father gave Him to do? Did 
He not say on the Cross, ‘It is finished?” 
“What was finished?’ He had under- 
taken to bear the full punishment of 
sin, and He had borne it, and God was 
satisfied with the work done by His Son. 
And do you know this—Where is Jesus 
now?” 

“He is in Heaven.” 

“He is in Heaven, 
there? 


But why is He 
Why is Jesus in the glory? 
Because He has finished the work. He 
would not be there otherwise. He 
would still be here, for He undertook 
to do it all, and He would not go back 
to His Father till all was done. I look 
up, and see Jesus in Heaven, and I say, 
He is there, because He has done it all, 
and there is nothing left to do. He is 
there because God is satisfied with His 
work. And, oh! dear friend, why 
should you and I try to do that work 
which the Son of God alone could do, 
and which He has done? If God had 
left it for us to do, we could never do 
it; were we to perform all the penances 
that ever had been or could be perform- 
ed, they would be utterly useless to us. 
And as it is they are more than useless, 
they are fearful sins in the sight of God. 
In doing them, instead of gaining any- 
thing, you would be but adding the 
crowning sin to your evil life. It would 
be to say, Christ has not done enough. 
it would be to cast contempt upon the 
blessed, perfect work of the Son of God, 
and to dare to attempt to add to that 


-siOnary’s tent, some years ago, 


ANECDOTES © 281 


which He had said is finished. Yes! 
herein Christ is insulted, and God is 
made a liar and were it not that I am 
so old that I can scarcely walk to the 
gate, my escape would testify against 
the place. I would not remain here 
another day. As it is, I must wait till 
the Lord comes to fetch me; but you 
can go and I beseech you to go thank- 
ing God that His Son has done all for 
you, and that the punishment of your 
sins is for ever past. And remember 
always that Christ is in Heaven.” 
What astonishing tidings for the 
poor, weary sinner! Did he believe 
them? He did, and after a short time 
of rest, during which he learned more of 
the gospel, he returned to his own land, 
there to make known amongst sinners, 
lost as he had been, the news of that 
love and grace of which he had first 
heard in the monastery of La Trappe. 
There he was employed in this blessed 
work but a short while since, and prob- 
ably is still there. May the voice from 
La Trappe reach the heart of some 
weary sinner here, and may the “good 
news of the glory of Christ” bring peace 
and joy to many who, instead of walking 
1,500 miles to hear it, have the gracious 
message brought to them! It is sent 
to you from the glory where Christ is, 
the message of the Father’s love made 
known in the person of His Son.—F. B. 


— 525 —— 


A Chinese Nicodemus came to a mis- 
and 
asked about many things he did not 
know. The missionary tried to teach 
him about God, but the man refused to 
believe anything he could not see and 
understand. The missionary pointed to 
a pot of water boiling over the fire, and 
said: “Can you tell me how a cold 
match, cold charcoal, and cold water 
can in a few minutes develop light, fire, 
heat and steam? When you can tell me 
how this water is made into invisible 
steam and then condenses into water 
again, I will tell you how God gives us 
life when we believe in Jesus Christ.— 
Sunday School Times. 


282. 
tet As 

} em 526 —— 

WILLIAM HONE AND 'THE BIBLE 


Lord Shaftesbury once gave the fol- 
lowing illustration of the power of the 
Scriptures over this well-known author. 

You must often have heard of a fa- 
mous writer and clever man of the name 
of Hone. He was imprisoned in his 
early days for blasphemous writings, 
parodies of the Scriptures and the Prayer 
Book. He was an inveterate infidel. 
My friend, Mr. Plumpter, who was 
member for Kent, told me this story. 
On one occasion he went to the Religi- 
ous Tract Societys meeting. There was 
one vacant place, and he sat down. 
After two or three minutes he looked to 
see who was on his right-hand side, and 
to hig astonishment he saw this man 
Hone. Hone touched him and said, “E 
will speak to you afterwards.” 

When the meeting was over Hone 
took him into an adjoining window re- 
cess and said, “Mr. Plumpter, I saw 
your astonishment, and well you might 
be astonished at seeing me in this place, 
but let me tell you the history of it. 
Two years ago I was down in the coune 
try; I lost my way; at last I came to a 
cottage with a garden in front. I opened 
the wicket because I saw a little child 
sitting on the stone at the front door. 
I asked the child the way. The child 
was reading something, and I said, 
‘What are you reading?’ She said, ‘The 
New Testament.’ He said, ‘I took the 
book and threw it down in disgust, and 
said, ‘You foolish little thing, how is 
it you read such stupid, abominable 
books as these?’ And the child said to 
me with the utmost simplicity, ‘Oh, sir, 
pray don’t speak to me in that way. It 
is the only comfort we have. I have a 
mother, and mother is lying sick in bed.’ 

“I went home sad and went to bed, 
and said to myself, ‘If this book can 
bring consolation to this child and 
there must be something in it.” He read 
it to himself and this was the result. 
He said, “Mr. Plumpter, here I am and 
{ thank God for it. I have lived to see 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the horrible abomination of my former 
years.” The Bible did ali that and it will 
do a great deal more. 


—— 527 me 


SOPHIA HOLMES. 


One of the oldest servants i: the em- 
ploy of the Unitec States Government 
Was an aged ncgress, Sophia Holmes, 
who served as janitress in the Treasury 
Building. The story of her life is quite 
romantic. Her husband, a slave, ac- 
companied his master to the war asa 
body servant; and, when the master 
was killed, the negro seized his rifle, 
mounted his horse, and led the column 
on te victory. The black man’s body 
was riddled with bullets; and he died 
within two months, leaving Sophia 
with two children to support. 

Prominent men in Washington se- 
cured work for her among the women 
who were called “Uncle Sam’s scrub 
brigade,” she being assigned to the 
Treasury Building. One night, when 
Sweeping, she tound a box packed with 
bank-notes that had been overlooked in 
locking up the vaults at the end of the 
days work. She trembled with excite- 
ment, knowing that the contents of the 
box must be exceedingly valuable, and 
did not dare go home to her children. 

Evening came on, midnight passed, 
and at two o’clock in the morning the 
old woman wag startled by hearing 
General Spinner going to his office. 
He had a dream that something was 
wrong at the Treasury, and was so rest- 
less that he rose and went down to the 
building. Scphia followed him, told 
her story, and was kept a prisoner until 
the money was counted. The box con- 
tained $180,000. Then she was sent 
home in General Spinner’s carriage, and 
was afterward rewarded with a position 
for life. 

When asked if she was not tempted 
to take some ot the notes, she said 
proudly, “I’d rather leave my children 
the legacy of a white soul than all the 
gold and bank-notes the Treasury ever 
held.”—Congregationalist. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 528 —— 
THE CAPTAIN AND THE 
STOWAWAY. 


The Cyprian, commanded by Capt. 
John Alexander Strachan, left Liver- 
pool, on Thursday, October 13, 1881, for 
the Mediterranean. She had not long 
left port when she encountered a heavy 
gale, which gradually increased to a 
perfect hurricane, At length, her steer- 
ing-gear having been carried away, and 
one boiler-tube having burst, the vessel 
became unmanageable, and was driven 
ashore on the coast of Carnarvonshire. 
Cn board the ill-fated steamer there 
were in all twenty-eight persons, includ- 
ing one poor stowaway. 

Before the ship struck, the lifebelts 
were distributed amongst the crew, one 
being reserved for Capt. Strachan; and 
one after another the crew had plunged 
into the boiling surf, to be hurdled by it 
to the shore, as offering the only chance 
of saving their lives. The captain re- 
mained by his vessel to the last, and 
was then about to follow the example 
of the others, when for the first time he 
caught sight of the poor, shivering 
stowaway, whom, terror had now driven 
forth from his hiding-place. Many a 
man would have left him to take his 
chance, consoling himself with the re- 
flection that he had no business to be 
there. But the noble captain had not 
even a word of anger or of blame for 
the little terrified waif. Taking the 
lifebelt intended for himself, he fastened 
it securely round the lad, and told him 
to leap into the sea, He himself fol- 
lowed, but without a lifebelt. There 
was a fierce struggle for life amidst the 
boiling surge; but at length the boy 
was cast upon the shore, whilst the 
noble hearted captain perished amid the 
breakers. 

Was it not a wonderful thing that the 
captain should give up his life for such 
a one as the poor stowaway? What 
a clear illustration of the doctrine of 
substitution, or one laying down his 


ANECDOTES. 283 
life for another’! 

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, left 
His Father’s throne, was made in the 
likeness of men, and became obedient 
unto death, even the death of the cross; 
—and for what? To save His enemies. 

He became our Substitute, in order 
that we, the lost—we sinners, we, His 
enemies—should be redeemed by His 
precious blood, and should enter into 
His glory. Was ever love like this?— 
Cheyne Brady. 


—— 529 —— 
A TWICE-BORN FILIPINO 


A Methodist missionary, Joshua F. 
Cottingham, of the Philippine Islands, 
tells the following story of a life trans- 
formed by Christ: 

“At forty-four he seemed like an old 
man. Sin had made fearful inroads 
upon him. 'Two women not his wives 
had gone ahead of him to a better or 
worse world. He was a gambler, cock- 
fighter and worse. The Spanish Gov- 
ernment had had him in jail. The 
Aguinaldo Government released him 
only to find they had made a mistake and 
soon imprisoned him again. Some Am- 
erican soldiers released him and he im- 
mediately showed his gratitude by open- 
ing a saloon a la Americana. The sa- 
loon and its attending evils became so 
bad that even the soldiers could not 
stand it and the old man was imprisoned 
again. In prison some one gave him 
some Scripture in Spanish, which he 
read and by it was converted. When 
released he sought a missionary and was 
baptized. Now for seven years this man 
hag preached for us. There is no con- 
gregation which does not want him. 
There are no preachers nor missionaries 
who do not love him. He has had at 
least a thousand converted under his 
preaching. Tithing Bands and preach- 
ers called into the ministry are fruits 
of his work and Victorino Jorda’s face, 
once drawn with sin, has taken on a 
Christian smile, and his home is a happy 
one with a wife whom he dearly loves.— 
Missionary Review of the World. 


284 


—— 530 —— 
THE LAWYER’S CONVERSION 


In the midst of a sermon, a good many 
years ago, a distinct impression came 
into my mind that this was the hour for 
the everlasting decision of a multitude of 
souls. There was something in the omi- 
nous stillness of the assembly, and al- 
most pitiful appeals in some of the up- 
turned faces, which made this conviction 
irresistible. I remember how inade- 
quate all my well-prepared arguments 
seemed, when they came to endure this 
supreme ordeal. That strange colloquy 
with one’s self, of which every preacher 
is often conscious, got to be something 
overwhelming toward the close, “I have 
done my best.” “No, you haven't.” “I 
have taken away every excuse for un- 
belief.” “No, some of them are going 
out in rebellion.” ‘Well, what more 
can J do?” “Give them Bible promises 
enough to float upon, if they haven't 
yet grasped one of the planks in your 
sermon.” 

This was my last thought. And then, 
there I stood and delivered about all the 
precious promises of the Bible, as it 
seemed to me. They kept coming to 
me, in rich and embarrassing confusion; 
promises to the backslider; promises to 
the hardened sinner; promises to the 
chief of sinners; promises to everybody. 
‘Then I closed with a brief prayer, and 
invited those who were ready to begin 
at once the Christian life to meet me in 
the prayer room. 

About forty were there, among them 
one of the prominent lawyers of the 
town. After a few words of personal 
conversation with each of them, I in- 
quired if any of them would like to say 
anything to us all, as a first confession 
of Christ, on the very day of the surren- 
der of their hearts to Him. 

“Yes,” said the lawyer, instantly, “? 
shall be very glad of such an opportun- 
ity. EF want to confess, with the deep- 
est sorrow, that I have kept up this fight 
against God for twenty years. It is just 
twenty years this winter since the con- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


viction came to me, sharp, cleat and ur- 
gent, that 1 ought to be a disciple of 
Christ. The next thought was that, if 
I were a Christian at all I must be a 
minister. At that I rebelled, and there 
I have stood, in square hostility to the 
Spirit of God, ever since. This morning, 
when you reached a certain place in your 
sermon (he described exactly the mo- 
ment when the impression already men- 
tioned was made upon my own mind), 
I was convinced that this was the time, 
and the only time in my life, for the sur- 
render of my soul to God. I listened 
for pardon. But in vain. Not a word 
you said seemed to meet my case. To 
my consternation, you were coming to 
a close. I tried to remember your ar- 
guments and I could not apply a single 
word to myself. Then when I thought 
all was over with me, you began to re- 
peat those wonderful promises of the 
Bible. I leaned over the pew, as you 
noticed, determined to catch something 
I could live on. But even here I was 
disappointed. Your texts did not apply 
to me. I was not at all sure that I was 
“hungry and thirsting after righteous- 
ness,” that I was “returning from my 
backslidings,” that I was of the “broken 
and contrite heart.” At last you actu- 
ally closed your sermon without a word 
for me. The harvest was passed, the 
last harvest, and my soul was not saved. 
Then I reached out, as if by main 
strength, and seized upon a promise 
broad enough, and strong enough, to 
hold even me from sinking in despair: 
“Him that cometh unto me, I will in no 
wise cast out.” 


“That’s my promise,” said the lawyer. 
“You didn’t mention it. Yours were all 
too good for me, but here is one I can 
depend on. In no wise. No matter how 
I come, no matter when I come, I am not 
to be cast out. Inno wise. Here I am. 
I ask the Lord, What wilt Thou have 
metodo? I am not to be cast out. In 
no wise. I depend on that blessed 
promise.” 

He was never cast out, and never will 
be. The Lord has had a good deal for 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


him to do. And I believe I never have 
thrown into the close of a sermon, since 
that day, a double handful of promises, 
without putting that in among them, 
Him that cometh unto me, I will in no 
wise cast out.”—Wolcott Calkins: 


531 
KEEP AT IT! 


Years ago there was, in a certain 
village, a young physician who seemed 
to be a confirmed skeptic. At last, to 
the surprise of good people, he presented 
himself to the church committee as a 
candidate for church membership, and 
when asked what called his attention to 
the personal claims of Christ, he an- 
swered, “For years I have sat by my 
office window, and each Friday evening, 
in winter and summer, in storm and fair 
weather, I have seen good deacons 
G and P walk past to the 
church prayer-imeeting, and their con- 
stant going made me think.” It was not 
what they said, for he had not heard 
them say anything, but it was their 
“keeping at it,’ which shattered the in- 
fidelity of his heart. 

Those who have influence in this 
world for good are not the brilliant, now 
warm and now cold people, but the 
steady ones, who “keep at it” year in 
and year out, whom the pastor and the 
Master can depend upon. We once 
asked a friend about a Christian brother 
whom we had not seen for years, and 
his quick answer was, “Oh, he’s all 
right; hell stand without hitching.” The 
silent eloquence of such lives influences 
men. It is not a question of place, or 
gifts , or opportunities, but of “keeping 
at it.’ Not to keep at it, is to throw 
away the past, the present and the 
future. 

It is not the first blow upon the drill 
which opens the rock. It may take one 
hundred blows, but the first blow, which 
seems to make no impression, is as im- 
portant as the last one when the rock 
opens. Without the first blow the last 
one would have produced no effect; in- 
deed, without the first, the last would 














285 


not have been. It is the continuation 
of little blows which severs the rock, but 
the workman must keep at it. 

The first stroke of the brush does not 
bring out the immortal picture, or even 
an idea of what is in the artist’s mind, 
but the final touch of the brush, which 
seems to breathe with life, could not 
have produced its results without that 
first seemingly idealess stain upon the 
canvas. 


Young people are not in any too much 
of a hurry to do something, for nothing 
is more fatal to manhood than content- 
ment to do nothing, but young people 
are frequently in too much of a hurry 
to see the results of what they are try- 
ing to do. Proceed at once, and keep at 
it, is the law of success. 'There is bless- 
ing in “keeping at it.’ — Rev. Smith 
Baker, D. D. 


—— 532 —— 
CAN YOU UNDO? 


“The evil that men do lives after 
them.” 

A visitor in a hospital found a young 
man near death. 

“Can I do anything for you?” he in- 
quired, as he bent over the cot. 

“Oh, sir,” cried the man, “can you 
undo?” 

In response to a kindly word ke 
opened his heart and unburdened his 
soul to the visitor. He told how he 
had led this companion and that one 
astray; how he had ruined this pure life 
and that one. 

“Oh, sir, can you undo this awful 
work that I have done? Can God undo 
it?” 

No one, not even God, can undo what 
sin has done. God will forgive the pen- 
itent, but forgiveness can not take away 
the smart from the soul of a converted 
man who sees the evil he has done and 
can not remedy. One reason why the 
world grows better slowly is that men 
do more harm in their riotous youth 
than they can cancel in the days of their 
sober manhood.— Canadian Epworth 
Era. 


286 


SF) 
IN THE TIGER’S JUNGLE. 


The wife of Dr. John Scudder, the 
pioneer medical missionary to India 
from America, once passed a night of 
peril in a tiger jungle that greatly 
strengthened her faith in God and 
proved the power of Divine protection. 

While undertaking an important jour- 
ney across India, he contracted jungle 
fever, and became so ill that his life 
was despaired of. When Mrs. Scudder 
learned of his condition she decided to 
go to him at once, notwithstanding the 
fact that the journey was a difficult and 
dangerous one. A tent having been 
Joaned her by a friend and provisions 
prepared, bearers were engaged, and she 
started without delay, accompanied only 
by her little son. In her anxiety to 
reach her husband before death ensued, 
she determined to travel by night as 
well as by day. This greatly enhanced 
the danger, as much of the way led 
through dense jungles infested by wild 
beasts, which as a rule, keep under 
cover during the daytime, but come out 
at night to seek their prey. 

All went well until one night, in the 
worst part of the jungle, the bearers 
became so terrified at the roaring of 
tigers and other wild animals that they 
ran away and left the missionary alone 
with her little child. With none to 
protect her, she spent that long and 
lonely night in prayer, pleading again 
and again the precious promises record- 
ed in the Word. Ever and anon she 
heard not only the tramp of elephants 
that could crush out her life in an in- 
stant, but also the low, menacing growls 
of tigers as they prowled around her 
tent. “All night long,” says her biog- 
rapher, “they seemed to be circling 
round the little spot, but—ah! wonder- 
ful ‘but’—God held them back. There 
was an inner circle. “The angel of the 
Lord encampeth round about them that 
fear Him, and delivereth them.’ ” 

Perilous as her position was, no harm 
came either to her or to her child. Next 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


morning the journey was resumed, and 
when at length she reached her destina- 
tion it was to find the crisis passed and 
Dr, Scudder out of danger.—Selected. 


rn S54 
THE PRECIOUS BLOOD. 


A lady came to me once when I was 
preaching some years ago in a western 
city, and asked me if I wouldn’t talk 
to her husband; that when she spoke 
to him on religion he paid no attention, 
and she might as well talk to a post. 
I told her she had better pray God to 
convince and convict him. 

They used to come to the meetings 
together, and often as I was speaking I 
would see her eyes close and her lips 
move, and I knew she was praying God 
to convict him. They came about a 
dozen times during the winter. 

One night, after he had taken his 
seat, I noticed that his eyes looked as if 
he had been weeping. I gave out one 
hymn after another, all bearing on the 
Atonement, as that was the subject for 
the sermon. When TI gave out the text, 
“The precious blood,” I saw him cover 
his face and bow his head, and he 
fairly wept aloud. He followed me 
into the inquiry room after the meet- 
ing was over, and said to me: 

“Mr. Moody, this has been the most 
extraordinary day in my life. When I 
got up this morning the words ‘Prec- 
ious blood’ cam¢ into my mind. When 
I went down town to my place of busi- 
ness the words ‘Precious blood’ were 
ringing in my mind, and all during the 
day it was ‘Precious blood, precious 
blood.’ They followed me here to: 
night, and when you gave out your text, 
‘The precious blood,’ I could hardly 
stay in my seat. I can’t understand it.” 

“Well,” I said, “I can’; and after 
talking with him for a while he ac- 
cepted Christ then and there. 

He is now dead, but when I was 
passing through that city years after I 
asked about him, and they told me in 
all the years he had lived he had never 
lost his hold on Christ.—D. L. Moody. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 535 —— 
AUGUST HERMAN FRANCKE, 


About the close of the seventeenth 
century, just about the year 1695, 
August Herman Francke, in the city 
of Halle, became impressed with the ig- 
norance, poverty, destitution, and es- 
pecially the wickedness, of the little 
children that were playing in the 
streets, without father or mother, with- 
out any domestic ties, and without any 
of the influences whatever of a home 
properly organized and administered. 
He felt deeply impressed that God had 
a work for him to do. He asked him- 
self, “How can I do that work?” At 
first he simply set up in his own house 
a box for voluntary contributions, with 
these inscriptions: “But whoso hath 
this world’s goods, and seeth his broth- 
er have need, and shutteth up his bow- 
els of compassion from him, how dweli- 
eth the love of God in him?” “Every 
man, according as he purposeth in his 
heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, 
nor of necessity, for God loveth a cheer- 
ful giver.” 

It was three months before any offer- 
ings were laid in that box, except of 
the most trivial character; but at last 
a benevolent woman put into it what 
was still a very small sum, only about 
the equivalent of $3.48 in American cur- 
rency, but when Francke took it from 
the box he said, “This is a glorious cap- 
ital! With this, with the help of God, 
I will begin a school for orphans.” So 
with a grand, simple faith in the leader- 
ship of God, he went forward, asking 
no one for any contributions or help in 
any way. He set apart a room in front 
of his own study, gathered children, 
hired a teacher, and went forward. It 
soon became perfectly obvious to him 
that as he had not the children under 
his own control, he could not therefore 
regulate their conduct and help shape 
their character; that he must have the 
sole charge of his orphans. So he un- 
dertook this work, depending only on 
the unseen God. So rapidly did the 


287 


work grow upon his hands, that three 
years after the first thought of it came 
into his mind, he bought the Golden 
Eagle Hotel, which was offered for sale, 
with its grounds, and prepared it for 
the purpose of an orphan asylum. 

It soon became perfectly obvious also 
that he could not have the girls and 
boys in the same building, and do jus- 
tice to their training. Another building 
must therefore be erected. So he under- 
took it by simple faith in God, without 
means, without human following; more- 
over, he was a man who attracted the 
animadversion and even hatred of 
many, by the pungency and pointedness 
with which he rebuked worldliness and 
wickedness, even in the church of God. 
But Francke laid the foundation of his 
orphan house, and on the very day on 
which he laid that foundation stone, a 
workman brought an old Weimar coin 
to him, which had been picked up in the 
rubbish. He cleaned it off, and read 
upon it this inspiring inscription: “Je- 
hovah conditor, condita, coronide cor- 
onet!”? which may be freely rendered, 
“Let Jehovah who has laid the founda- 
tion stone of the building add the cap- 
stone to the building.” And in that con- 
fidence the building went on. 

I add the statistics of the work of 
Francke at his death, in 1727, thirty- 
two years after he had entered upon this 
work—and he entered upon it just as 
his life had passed its meridian, being 


32 years old when he began, and 64 


years old when he died. He had in his 
orphan house 100 boys and 34 girls 
under his sole charge; he had in his 
German school, 1,725 children; in his 
Latin school, 400 children; in the Pae- 
degogium, 82; in all 2,200 children, with 
175 teachers. He fed 225 students at his 
free tables, and 148 scholars at noon, 
212 scholars at night; yet he had not a 
dollar in the world. All that colossal 
work that he began in early life, and 
matured in the course of thirty-two 
years, was a work of faith, prayer, and 
dependence on an unseen God.—Arthur 
T. Pierson, D. D. 


288 


—— 536 -—— 
WILLIE LEAR THE SUBSTITUTE 


Willie Lear lived near Palmyra, Mis- 
souri. In 1862 he was a young man of 
about eighteen years of age. Like most 
of those who lived in his neighborhood, 
he sympathized with the south in the 
civil war, which was at that time in pro- 
gress. The Union forces occupied Pal- 
myra, and had control of the district. 
Outrages were committed on both sides, 
and many indefensible deeds are record- 
ed in the local histories of those sad 
times, Union men were shot down from 
behind hedges, and Union men were 
driven away from their homes and some- 
times foully treated. 

To avenge these things, and to check 
them, the Federal commander arrested 
and imprisoned a large number of the 
citizens. They were all charged with 
being “guerillas,” and, after trial by 
courtmartial, were all sentenced to be 
shot. Willie Lear was among the num- 
ber. 

After this condemnation, the General 
decided to select ten of the number of 
those condemned for immediate execu- 
tion, and reserve the remainder under 
hope of pardon, if outrages in the neigh- 
borhood ceased, or for future punishment 
if not. These ten were drawn by lot. 
Willie Lear was not of this number. 

And now comes the story told to the 
writer, first by a native of Missouri, and 
confirmed by a Union soldier who stated 
that he was present at the execution. 

A neighbor of Lear’s, who was among 
the number to be shot, was terribly cut 
up by the thought of his situation. He 
was the father of a large family, a poor 
man, and the thought of the helpless con- 
dition in which he would leave his loved 
ones was very distressing to him. 

Lear saw all this, and it deeply moved 
him. He stepped forward to the com- 
manding officer and offered to take his 
neighbor’s place. The officer had no ob- 
jection. The order had been issued that 
ten men of the number should be shot, 
and if that number was made up, the 
law would be satisfied. ‘The neighbor, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


undoubtedly with the deepest gratitude, 
accepted Lear as his substitute, and so, 
by the acquiescence of the three parties 
concerned, the representative of the law, 
the condemned by the law, and the satis- 
fier of the law by substitution, the mat- 
ter was settled. 

Willie Lear took the place of his friend 
in line with the nine men drawn up be- 
fore a detachment prepared with loaded 
rifles, and at the command, “Fire!” he, 
with the others, fell, riddled with bul- 
lets, his blood soaking the earth. 


As the man for whom he died looked 
upon that blood, and beheld that man- 
gled body, what would be his thought, 
what expression would he be apt to 
make? 

Would he not say, with streaming 
eyes, “He died for me. I owe my life 
to him. O! that I could do anything to 
show my gratitude to one who has done 
so much for me!” If he were asked, 
“How is it that you are delivered from 
the sentence that was hanging over 
vou?” 

Would he be apt to ignore the work of 
his substitute by magnifying the impor- 
tance of some fancied work of his own 
in the acceptance of the substitute? 
Would he say, “Oh, I was saved by my 
faith, and by my determination to live 
a better life? It is all by faith and the 
development of character.” Would he 
have been so ungrateful as to leave out 
all mention of the death of that noble 
young man in his stead as the alone 
cause of his escape? If he would, he 
was not worth dying for, and it was a 
curse to his family and the community 
that he was spared. But no. He never 
returned such answers: he could not 
treat the act of his friend with such in- 
difference. 

Men for whom Christ died on the 
cross talk that way; but this man, as 
the story goes, never did. He never 
tired of telling of how Willie Lear had 
saved him, and gladly acknowledged 
his obligation to him. 

Do you believe that Jesus Christ died 
for your sins? Do you believe that, be- 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


cause He died for sins, and you have ac- 
cepted Him, your sins are forgiven? 
Believing in Him you are confessing 
Him and striving to show your grati- 
tude by a life consecrated to His ser- 
vice. 

Let us who are Christ’s never tire of 
telling the story of redemption by His 
blood; let us never rob Him of his glory 
as our only Saviour and Redeemer, by 
attributing our salvation from sin, and 
our hope of eternal life, to anything else 
than His death upon the cross for our 
sins. 

Hold fast to the simple testimony of 
the Word, “Christ also hath once suf- 
fered for sins, the just for the unjust, 
that he might bring us to God” (I Peter 
ili, 18)—D. W. Whittle. 


— §37 —— 


THE HACKMAN’S VISIT. 


The following story is told by Bishop 
McCabe: 

“T am sometimes startled at the ease 
with which a soul can be won. And I 
am often humiliated when I think of 
the many times and the many oppor- 
tunities in my life which I have wasted 
and not used for the winning of souls 
to Christ. : 

“I want to illustrate the ease with 
which a soul can be won. Not very 
long ago, in a strange city, as the hack- 
man got down off his box and opened 
the door to let me out, I dropped a 
quarter in hig hand, and as I did so I 
grasped his hand and said to him: 
‘Good-night! I hope to meet you in 
glory.’ I had often done that, and 
thought nothing of it. I went into the 
house, met my host, and retired to my 
room for the night. About midnight 
my host knocked at my chamber door 
and said: 


“‘Chaplain, that hackman has come 
back, and says that he has got to see 
you to-night. I told him that he had 
better wait until morning, but he said: 
“No, sir, I must see him to-night.” ’ 

“When the hackman came up, a 
broad-shouldered, rough-looking man, 


ANECDOTES 289 
with a great whip in his hand, stood 
there in my presence with the tears 
rolling down his cheeks like rain, He 
said: 

““If I meet you in glory I have got 
to turn around. Pray with me.’ 

“What a privilege it was to pray with 
that man; what a privilege to point him 
to Jesus! And yet I never saw him be- 
fore in my life. ‘There are 10,000 men 
in this country that have not had an 
invitation to come to God in all their 
lives.”—S. S. Times. 


—— 538 —— 
THE TWO CONFESSIONS. 


At the beginning of the Reformation 
there was a monk, Martin of Basle, who 
came to the knowledge of the truth but 
was reluctant to confess it. He wrote 
his confession on a leaf of a parchment: 
“O most merciful Christ, I know that I 
can be saved only by the merit of thy 
blood. Holy Jesus, I acknowledge thy 
sufferings for me. I love thee! I love 
thee!” Then he removed a stone from 
the wall of his chamber and deposited 
his confession there. It was not diss 
covered for more than a hundred years. 
In the meanwhile no one know that 
Martin of Basle had found the riches of 
Christ. 

About the same time, however, there 
was another monk, Martin of Wittem- 
berg, who reading an old copy of the 
Scripture, saw clearly the great truth 


of justification by faith. He said, “My 


Lord has confessed me before men. I 
will not shrink from confessing him 
before kings.” ‘On the door of the royal 
church he nailed his ninety-five theses. 
In the Diet of Worms he witnessed a 
noble confession. The world reveres 
the memory of Martin of Wittemberg ; 
but as for Martin of Basle, who cares 
for him? The manly thing is to make 
confession of one’s faith, The manly 
thing is to speak out. “Who now is on 
the Lord’s side?” “With the heart man 
believeth unto righteousness, but with 
mouth confession is made unto salva- 
tion.”’—Selected. 


290 ILLUSTRATIVE 
—— 539 —— 
A GOVERNOR’S REVENGE. 


A few years ago, while Robert Stew- 
art was governor of Missouri, a steam- 
boat man was brought in from the peni- 
tentiary as an applicant for a pardon. 
He was a large, powerful fellow, and 
when the governor looked at him, he 
seemed strangely affected. He scruti- 
nized him long and closely. Finally, 
he signed the document that restored 
the prisoner to liberty. Before he 
handed it to him he said: “You will 
commit some other crime, and, be in the 
penitentiary again, I fear.” 

The man solemnly promised that he 
would not. The governor looked doubt- 
ful, mused a few minutes, and said: 

“You will go back on the river and 
be a mate again, I suppose?” 

The man replied that he would. 

“Well, I want you to promise me 
one thing,” resumed the governor, “I 
want you to pledge your word that, 
when you are mate again, you will 
never take a billet of wood in your 
hand and drive a sick boy out of a 
bunk to help you load your boat on a 
stormy night.’ The steam boat man 
said that he would not, and inquired 
what the governor meant by asking 
him such a question. 

The governor replied: “Because, 
some day, the boy may become a gov- 
ernor, and you may want him to pardon 
you for a crime. One dark, stormy 
night, many years ago, you stopped 
your boat on the Mississippi river to 
take on a load of wood. There was a 
boy on board who was working his 
passage from New Orleans to St. Louis, 
but he was very sick of fever, and was 
lying in a bunk, You had plenty of 
men to do the work, but you went to 
that boy with a stick of wood in your 
hand and drove him with blows and 
curses out into the wretched night, and 
kept him toiling like a slave until the 
load was completed. I was that boy. 
Here is your pardon. Never again be 
guilty of such brutality.” 

Was not that a noble revenge ?—Sel. 


ANECDOTES ~ 


—— 540 
THE NEED OF WATCHFULNESS. 


A gentleman in India once raised a 
tiger cub. His kindness seemed to 
eradicate the ferocity of his nature, and 
it grew up as a pet. One day its owner, 
being alone with it in his library, ca- 
ressed it and gave it his hand to lick. 
The rough tongue of the animal grazed 
his skin, and gave it its first taste of 
blood. Then its ferocious nature awoke. 
Fury gleamed in its eyes, and crouch- 
ing itself, it made ready to spring upon 
its master. Fortunately the gentleman 
had a loaded pistol on his table and 
saved his life by shooting his former 
pet. 


Let this fact illustrate a valuable 
truth. Let the sleeping ferocity of the 
tiger, waked by the taste of blood, stand 
for a figure of that slumbering passion 
in your breast which needs but the 
taste of strong temptation to rise into 
a fearful life, and break over the feeble 
defences which a maltreated conscience 
and pride of character may have built 
up in the soul to protect its virtue. One 
moment of triumphant passion may 
suffice to undo the work of half a life- 
time.—Selected. 


Bay 5 pth 


MORE THAN SKIN DEEP. 


Jeremiah was right (Jer. 13:23). We 
cannot change the skin, nor can we 
change the life. Experiments have 
shown that the color of a person is deep- 
er than the skin. 


In treating a negro it was found neces- 
sary to replace portions of his skin with 
pieces taken from two white persons. 
These pieces darkened and at length be- 
came as black as the negro’s skin. The 
experimenters then transferred pieces of 
black skin to the body of a white sub- 
ject, and these pieces gradually became 
as white as the rest of the skin of the 
patient. It took some weeks to perfect 
this change in color. The negro’s color 
is therefore internal.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


ome 4.2 mm 
A HINDU BOY’S FAITH 
REWARDED. 


Well digging under a tropical sun is 
hard work, and becomes dreadfully dis- 
couraging ag day after day passes and 
no sign of water appears. 

They had been digging for days, the 
father and son, with occasional help of 
other laborers; they had gone down 
about forty-five feet and there was not 
a sign of water, A heathen neighbor, 
well versed in Hindu lore and the prac- 
tice of bribing the gods (through their 
agents) to render service to those in 
need, came to the discouraged diggers 
at this point and assured them that, by 
going through certain performances in 
the name of one of their popular gods, 
and by giving a certain sum of money, 
water would surely come into the well. 

The son, a boy of seventeen years, 
one who was opening his heart to the 
Gospel message and seeking to know 
the true God, urged his father not to 
believe the idle tale of the neighbor, 
but the father believed and determined 
to try the suggested remedy that water 
might quickly appear in the well. In 
vain did the lad plead with his father 
to ask God to send the water, but the 
father simply scathed his son for daring 
to suggest to him that he knew any- 
thing about a living and true God. 

So, the father had his idolatrous per- 
formance over the well. All the points 
were faithfully carried out, and then, 
he waited. He looked into the deep 
hole to see the signs of water trickling 
in. But alas! there were no signs; the 
bottom was still as dry as ever. Dis- 
gusted with the whole affair the father 
declared that he would dig in that place 
no more and that in the morning they 
would start digging in a new spot. 

Right here witness the faith of the 
young lad, just stepping out of heathen 
darkness! “Father,” said he, “now let 
me pray to the true God and He will 
send water into the well.” 

The unbelieving father bade him pray 


291 


on if he wanted to, and the boy did pray. 
He took his copy of one of the Gospels 
and went off by himself where he prayed 
and read God’s word for an hour and a 
half. He asked God to prove to him, a 
poor, ignorant boy, that He was really 
the true and living God, by sending 
water into the well. What happened? 
Did God deign to hear that boy’s prayer 
and to answer? He did, and when the boy 
went to look he found sweet water trick- 
ling in, water which continues to flow in 
and makes the well a first-class one for 
irrigating and all other purposes. When 
the father saw the water he turned to 
his son and said, “Now you can be bap- 
tized and be a Christian.” Yes, the God 
of Elijah still answers prayer !—Jose- 
phine Trumbull, in India Alliance. 


—— 543 —— 


DON’T WORK ON HIS KNEES. 


“Hall Caine, the last time he was in 
Philadelphia spent the evening with me 
at the University Club,” said a Phila- 
delphia journalist. His conversation 
was very brilliant. It was very strik- 
ing. 

“Hall Caine said that we could learn 
a lesson from the very lowliest. He said 
a bishop could learn a lesson from a 
convict. On that point he told me a 
true story. 

“A bishop riding in his carriage on 
the Isle of Man, came to a convict in 


his striped clothes, on his knees, break- 


ing stones on the road, 

“The bishop talked to the convict a 
little while, giving’ him some advice and 
encouragement. Then, as he got ready 
to drive on, he said with a smile and 
a sigh: 

“‘*Ah, my man, I wish I could break 
up the stony hearts of my people as you 
break those rocks on the highway.’ 

“From his lowly attitude the convict 
looked up at the proud bishop in mag- 
nificent equipage. 

“Perhaps sir,’ he said, ‘you don’t 
work on your knees.’ ”—Selected, 


202 


remrascat 4. 4. omen 
A DISCOURAGED PREACHER. 


Bishop Simpson, in one of his Yale 
lectures, uttered the following on the 
discouragements, of a preacher: 

“While the young minister should 
be guarded against self-conceit, he is 
also to be cautioned against discourage- 
ment. Eminence is not gained at once. 
The orators of today, like the orators of 
old, struggle with difficulties. The 
preacher who seems to speak with ease 
and power, has gained his position by 
long-continued effort. The work he 
does today is not of today. Sir Joshua 
Reynolds was requested, it is said, by 
a nobleman, to paint for him a picture 
of his daughter. The picture was com- 
pleted, and the bill presented, amount- 
ing to fifty guineas. The nobleman ob- 
jected to paying so large a price, say- 
ing that it cost the artist the labor of 
only a few days. Sir Joshua replied 
that he was mistaken. It had taken 
him forty years to paint that picture. 
So the sermon of today or the work of 
today, though just planned or executed, 
is really the work of years of thorough 
culture. 

“I presume there are but few young 
men who have not felt a sense of dis- 
couragement when Iistening to the ef- 
fort of superior thinkers or orators. 
They should remember, however, first, 
that possibly they may equal these ora- 
tors or thinkers at some future period, 
and their examples should be a stimu- 
lus; secondly, that God gives but few 
such men. to his church, and there is 
plenty of room for earnest workers, 
even if not so highly talented. 

“Let me again speak of myself. The 
only severe temptation I ever had to 
quit the active work of the ministry 
was during my first year of preaching. 
A church was finished. on the circuit 
on which I traveled and an eminent 
minister* was called to the dedication. 
He was a man of great mental power, 
an acute and original thinker, but of 
delicate health. For some years he had 
been troubled with doubts and perplex- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ities, partly owing to his ill health, and 
partly to some theological works which 
he had read. But now his health had 
improved, and he had emerged from his 
doubts into a clear, strong faith, and he 
was enjoying the sacred influence of 
the Holy Spirit. During the services he 
preached five sermons, full of thought, 
most forcible in expression, and accom: 
panied with divine unction. I thought 
then that I had never heard such ser- 
mons, and I still think I have heard 
but few equal to them. The effect 
upon me was one of humiliation and Gis- 
couragement. I felt that I had no right 
to stand in the sacred desk and utter 
my thoughts, when the service of such 
men could be secured. I resolved to 
close my connection wish the gircuit at 
the end of the year. I did not dare 
think of ceasing to preach; but I 
thought I would be a local preacher, I 
would support myself by another pro- 
fession, and preach whenever and 
wherever I could find a place to do 
good. I mentioned my purpose to but 
one friend, who had heard these ser- 
mons as well as myself; and he pro- 
tested most emphatically against my 
leaving. 


“Before the year closed I had a most 
interesting service, at which I invited 
a brother minister, one year older than 
myself, to preach, though I knew noth- 
ing of his qualifications. The congre- 
gation was unusually large and intel- 
ligent. Before he had proceeded far, 
I discovered that I had made a mis- _ 
take. His thoughts were crude and 
disjointed, and he murdered the king’s 
English. I was deeply mortified. I 
got my head down behind the pulpit, 
and as he proceeded it got lower and 
lower. I was chagrined and vexed, 
and said to myself, ‘As long as the 
church has room for such ministers, I 
will stay and preach on” It was the 
last temptation I ever had. Since I 
have been bishop it has been my lot to 
give that minister an appointment. He 
has never excelled as a_ preacher. 
Though T have kept his name strictly 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


to myself, I never met him without feel- 
ing a sense of gratitude to him, for 
through his stumbling, though without 
knowing it, he was the cure of my dis- 
couragement.” 


OUR SAVIOUR’S PLAN. 


A pastor sometime ago in the Ameri- 
can Messenger gave an account of a re- 
vival in religion that took place in his 
own parish. 

Two young ladies called on him one 
day to inquire what special work he 
could give them to do for Christ. He 
said to them, “Why not try the Sav- 
iour’s plan of work?” “What is that?” 
“The united prayer plan as recorded in 
Matt. xviii: 19, ‘If two of you shall agree 
on earth as touching anything that they 
shall ask, it shall be done for them of 
My Father, which is in Heaven.’” One 
of them spoke up and said, “We can 
do that.” 

Immediately the pastor and the two 
young ladies wrote down the names of 
seven lady friends, who were attend- 
ants at church and Sunday-school, but 
none of whom had made any profession 
of being Christians. So the three made 
a prayer union; each one took the list 
of seven names and promised to work 
as well as pray that the seven might be- 
come out and out Christians. 

For several weeks there did not seem 
to be any apparent. success but the two 
young ladies continued patiently and 
lovingly their efforts. At last one 
wrote a note to one of the seven urging 
her tenderly and earnestly to give her 
thoughts to her soul’s salvation. A few 
days after this the young lady met the 
writer of the note and asked, “Will you 
not try to lead my sister Maggie to 
Christ? When she comes, I will; I can- 
not corme and leave her.” Maggie was 
one of the seven. As soon as they could, 
the two young ladies visited Maggie 
and found her reading a book on the 
subject of religion. Soon Maggie and 
her sister gave themselves to Christ as 
their Saviour; others followed. At the 
next communion there were more than 


ANECDOTES. 293 
thirty that confessed Christ and were 
received into membership of the church. 

Among the number were six of the 
seven for whom the two young ladies 
agreed to pray. Before a year passed, 
the seventh became a hopeful and 
earnest Christian. 

The Lord has promised His blessing 
upon His plan of prayer union. He ex- 
pects that every Christian will be inter- 
ested in the spiritual welfare of those 
around him. Why should not every 
Christian put into daily practice the de- 
sire of their own hearts for God’s salva- 
tion to be the portion of all. 


546 


SHE MADE A MISTAKE. 


Doctor Arnot was accustomed to tell 
a story of a poor woman who was in 
great distress because she could not pay 
her landlord his rent. The doctor put 
some money in his pocket, and went 
round to her house, intending to help 
her. When he got there he knocked 
at the door. He thought he heard some 
movement inside; but no one came to 
open the door. He knocked louder and 
louder still, but yet no one came. Fin- 
ally he kicked at the door, causing some 
of the neighbors to look out and see 
what was going on, but he could get 
no entrance. At last he went away, 
thinking his ears must have deceived 
him, and that there was really no one 
there. 

A day or two afterward he. met the 
woman in the street, and told her what 
had happened. She held up her hands 
and exclaimed: 

“Was that you? I was in the house 
all the while; but I thought it was the 
landlord, and I had the door locked!” 

Many people think the grace of God 
is coming to smite them. My dear 
friends, it is coming to pay all your 
debts !—Selected. 








547 — 


I would rather have a church of five- 
and-twenty members than a crowd of 
twenty times that number.—Dr. John 
Hall. 





294 - ILLUSTRATIVE 
sabe yf Sa 
TRUE TO PRINCIPLE, 


In the town where I was born, a lit- 
tle way of Boston, there was a boy by 
the name of Henry. When I was twelve 
years old, my father took me to an 
academy, more than fifty miles from 
home, But Henry learned a trade. The 
prospect was that he would be a me- 
chanic, and I should be a scholar. Henry 
worked well; he talked well; he read 
and studied evenings; he went to po- 
litical meetings. A mutual friend of 
ours encouraged him to speak at these 
meetings, but with a sob in his heart, 
he said, “How can I ever be anything, 
when my father is a drinking man?” 
He solemnly signed the pledge of total 
abstinence; he began to make short 
speeches; the men said, “Let us send 
him to the Legislature.” 

At every step he did his best. Final- 
ly Massachusetts sent him with a peti- 
tion to Congress. John Quincy Adams 
from Massachusetts invited him to din- 
ner. While at dinner, Mr, Adams fill- 
ed his glass, and turning to the young 
mechanic, said, “Will you drink a glass 
of wine with me?” He hated to re- 
fuse; there was the ex-President of the 
United States; there was a great com- 
pany of men, All eyes were upon him. 
And so he hesitated and grew red in 
the face, and finally stammered out, 
“Excuse me, sir, I never drink wine.” 

The next day this anecdote was pub- 
lished in a Washington paper. It was 
copied all over Massachusetts, and the 
people said, “Here is a man that stands 
by his principles. He can be trusted. 
Let us promote him.” And so he went 
up higher. He was made Congressman, 
then a Senator, and finally Vice-presi- 
dent of the United States. That boy 
was Henry Wilson.—Selected. 

wo 549 
THE EDUCATED MAN AND THE 
COAL DRIVER. 

Christian man, is your religion genu- 
ine? There was once a man in my con- 
gregation who could talk eloquently, 


ANECDOTES 


and seemed to know the Bible from 
Genesis to Revelation. He could quote 
the pot ., and a stranger would be 
charmec. by his eloquent utterances. 
And yet when he had talked in a prayer 
meeting, the life of the meeting had 
gone, All knew that in his life there 
was something unsavory, that he would 
Crink before the bar with worldly 
friends, and that he was not as honest 
as he might be. His good grammar 
and fluent utterances did not make 
amends for the weakness of his character. 


There was another man in that con- 
gregation who would sometimes come 
to prayer-meeting with a circle of coal 
dust around his hair. He was a coal 
cart driver, and he was now and then 
so hurried to get to prayer-meeting that 
he did not make his toilet with as much 
care as he ought. But the people learned 
ever to listen when he talked. And 
why? Because they knew that he lived 
every day for God. He would pick up 
a tramp on the road, give him a ride on 
his cart, that he might talk to him about 
Jesus. His religion was real. I would 
rather have good religion in bad gram- 
mar than bad religion in good grammar. 
—A. J. Gordon. 


—— 550 —— 
CAST ALL UPON CHRIST 


“A man carrying a burden was over- 
taken by a rich man who was driving 
along and invited to get up behind him 
in the carriage which he thankfully did. 
After awhile the rich man looked around 
and saw the burden still strapped to the 
traveler’s back: he therefore asked him 
why he did not lay down his pack on the 
seat behind him. But he answered that 
he could not think of doing that; it was 
quite enough that he himself should be 
allowed to sit behind in the carriage, 
without putting his burden on the seat 
also, Thus often do believers fear to 
lay too much on the Lord who has bid- 
den us “cast all our care upon him,” 
and assures us that “he careth for us.” 
He who carries us will carry our burden 
also.”—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


———~ 551 —— 
GOD’S OPEN DOOR 


A young member of my church once 
came to me with the following: 

“I must either lose my place or break 
the Sabbath,” 

“Let your place go,” we instantly re- 
plied. “If you think that God can’t 
Open a door as quickly and widely as 
any mortal can shut it, then you might 
hesitate.” 

He gave up his place for conscience’ 
sake, and flung himself entirely on the 
Lord to provide for him. That young 
man at this hour has an “Hon.” pre- 
fixed to his name, has built a church 
with his own money, and is worth half 
a million in property, gained by steady, 
regular industry. 

We note another instance of a door, 
apart from any supernatural cause, be- 
ing opened when all hope had died out. 
A silver smith, after years of appren- 
ticeship, who had established a Chris- 
tian character, was enabled to buy out 
his employer, residing in a small vil- 
lage. His credit, not cash, was the 
basis of the purchase. Among the hum- 
ble stock was an antique bronze statue 
that for nearly an age had stood in the 
front window as a sign. The dust of 
years had settled on its limbs, and it 
was likely to descend an heirloom to 
his grand-children. He had invested 
all his money, and spent more in orna- 
menting a purchased cottage. He and 
his little family had the prospect of los- 
ing their little home. The mortgage 
was due, and must be paid. 

Friend after friend was besieged in 
vain. The day and hour approached 
for the law’s plowshare’s turning him 
and his olive plants out of their nest. 
The doors, behind and before, were shut 
and barred. On the morning of the fa- 
tal day, at sunrise, a stranger knocked 
at his office-door. Admitting him, he 
inquired if $500 would purchase that 
antique piece of bronze. He took the 
money, delivered the useless piece of 
brass, and paid the debt. Whence the 


295) 


stranger came, or whither he went, the 
astonished but grateful young man 
never knew to this day. 

“I have been young, and now am 
old,” writes the inspired Psalmist, “vet 
have I not seen the righteous for- 
saken,”—-Rev. Dr. Van Doren. 


—— 552 —— 
DRAWING AND HOLDING. 


Dr. Henry van Dyke tells about a 
layman who came to his study, from 
one of the churches in the Murray Hill 
neighborhood, to inquire about a pastor 
to fill the vacant pulpit. He asked Dr. 
van Dyke if he could recommend some- 
one. The Doctor told him he could 
recommend a dozen. The gentleman 
seemed surprised at that, for he could 
hardly believe there were a dozen min- 
isters in the land fit to minister to so 
important a congregation. Dr. van 
Dyke named one after another; to each 
one the preacher-hunter made some ob- 
jection. One had a weak voice, an- 
other wore a black cravat in the pulpit, 
and another had a disagreeable delivery. 

At last the gentleman said, “What 
we want in our church is a minister 
that will draw.” “Oh, no, my Chris- 
tian friend,” said the Doctor, “what 
you want is a church that will hold. 
You haven’t got it. Twenty conegrega- 
tions have passed through your chufch 
because you have not had a church that 
will hold. You want a church that 


will hold the people when they get into 


it. The minister cannot hold them. 
Success depends not half so much upon 
the minister as upon you, the church.” 

Every church member should be a 
drawing card. By the magnetism of 
his spiritual personality, by the efficacy 
of his prayers, by the power of his sanc- 
tified effort, he should draw the people 
from all classes to the house of the 
Lord. “Let your light so shine that 
others may see your good works and 
elorify your Father which is in Heaven.” 
Then shall the church of God prosper 
greatly and Mount Zion shall rejoice.— 
Christian Advocate. 


296 


———- 553 —— 
HE SAVED SEVENTEEN LIVES. 


A most dramatic and thrilling inci- 
dent occurred at the close of Dr. Tor- 
rey’s first meeting in Los Angeles, He 
was preaching upon “Soul Winning,” 
and closed the sermon with an account 
of the rescue of seventeen persons from 
Lake Michigan by Edward Spencer, 
September 8, 1860. He spoke as fol- 
lows: 

“Before I close I wish to relate an 
incident that 1 suppose I have told more 
than a hundred times, yet I never tell 
it without its doing me good, and if it 
does the speaker good, it will doubtless 
help you. 

“Twelve miles north of Chicago lies 
Evanston. At Evanston, the North- 
western University, one of the largest 
in the Methodist denomination, is lo- 
cated. Years ago, when the University 
was young, before it had attained to the 
dignity of a university, but was simply 
a country college, two strong, husky 
farmer boys came to the college from 
Iowa, Will and Ed Spencer. Ed Spen- 
cer was a famous swimmer. One morn- 
ing word came to the college that there 
was a wreck north of Evanston, near 
Winnetka. The college boys, with the 
people of the town, hurried along the 
shore. When they reached the place 
they found planks and spars and other 
pieces of wreckage being driven ashore 
from the Lady Elgin to which were 
clinging men and women. Ed Spen- 
cer, the famous swimmer, threw off his 
coat and superfluous garments, tied a 
rope around his waist, threw an end 
to his comrades on the shore, jumped 
into the breakers and swam out. He 
grasped one who was struggling in the 
waters, gave the signal and was brought 
to shore. Again and again and again 
he swam out, until he had brought a 
fifth, a sixth, a seventh, an eighth, a 
ninth and a tenth safe to shore. He 
then seemed completely exhausted. His 
comrades had built a fire of logs on 
the shore, and he tottered to the fire and 


wistful eyes. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


stood by it, trying to get a little warmth. 
into his perishing members. As he 
stood there, he looked out again over 
the lake and saw others struggling in the 
water. fle said, ‘Boys, I am going 
in again.’ ‘No, no, Ed,’ they cried, 
‘Your strength is all gone. You can- 
not swim out again. You will only 
throw your own life away.’ ‘I will 
try anyway,’ he cried. 

“Again he sprang into the breakers 
and swam out and grasped one who was 
drowning and brought him safely to 
shore. And again and again and again 
and again, until he had brought an 
eleventh, a twelfth, a thirteenth, a four- 
teenth and a fifteenth safe to share. 
Then strength seemed all gone. He 
tottered once more to the fire and stood 
there, pale and trembling and cold. It 
seemed as if the hand of death was 
already upon him. He could scarcely 
stand. Looking out again over the 
water he saw a spar rising and falling 
upon the waves. Then he saw a man’s 
head above the spar. He said, ‘Boys, 
there is a man trying to save himself,’ 
and he watched the spar as it drifted 
toward the point to go beyond which 
meant certain death. He looked again 
and saw a woman’s head beside the 
man’s. He cried, ‘Boys, it’s a man 
trying to save his wife. Vl help him,’ 
‘No, no, Ed,’ they cried. ‘You could 
never reach him. You could do no 
good, You would only throw your own 
life away.’ ‘I will try,’ he cried, and 
again sprang into the awful breakers. 

“Summoning his fast-dying strength, 
he reached the spar and placed his 
hands upon it and brought it around 
the point to a place of safety. He was 
then pulled through the breakers. Ten- 
der hands lifted him from the shore and 
carried him to his room in the college. 
They laid him upon his bed and for 
awhile he seemed to fall asleep. His 
brother Will went over and sat down 
by the fire that they had kindled in the 
grate. Looking up he saw Ed stand- 
ing, looking down into his face with 
‘Will,’ he said, ‘do you 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


think I did my best?’ ‘You saved 
seventeen, his brother replied. ‘I 
know it. I know it,’ he cried; ‘but I 
was afraid I did not do my very best. 
Do you think I did my very best?’ 

“Will took him back and laid him 
on the bed. ‘Through the night he 
tossed in semi-delirium. Will held his 
hand and tried to calm him. He said, 
‘Ed, you saved seventeen.’ ‘I know 
it. I know it. But, oh, if I could 
only have saved just one more!’ 

“Men and women of Los Angeles, 
we are standing beside a stormy sea— 
the sea of life. There are wrecks every- 
where. Men and women are going 
down, they are going down! They are 
going down! Let you and me plunge 
in again, and again and again, until 
every last ounce of strength is gone, 
and when at last in sheer exhaustion 
we sink upon the shore let us cry in 
the earnestness of our love for lost 
souls: ‘Oh, if I could only have saved 
just one more!’ ” 

All over the tabernacle people were 
in tears. Hundreds rose to their feet to 
sonsecrate themselves to the work of 
soul winning. At that point, President 
Baer stepped up behind Dr. Torrey and 
whispered: ‘“‘The man who sat next 
me says Ed Spencer is in the building 
at this moment.” Dr. Torrey at once 
stepped to the front of the platform and 
said, “I am often asked what became 
of Ed Spencer. He was a physical 
wreck the rest of his life. He had to 
give up his preparation for the minis- 
try. He is now a resident of Califor- 
nia, and I am told that he is in the 
building at this moment. If he is, will 
he please come to the platform?” Rev. 
Mr. Cleveland, who had pointed him 
out to Dr. Baer, went to him where he 
sat near the platform, and he was im- 
mediately brought to Dr. Torrey’s side. 
The whole audience sprang to their 
feet, burst into applause and waved 
their handkerchiefs. People were over- 
come, bathed in tears in every part of 
the building. Dr. Torrey placed his 
hand around his shoulder and the whole 


ANECDOTES 297 
audience bowed in prayer, aS he asked 
that God would make Ed Spencer’s 
last days his best days. Mr. Spencer 
whispered, “He has!” From every part 
of the building they flocked to the front 
to shake the hero’s hand, and hundreds 
of people were moved as they never had 
been moved before in their lives. 


954 —— 


THE GHOST OF LOST OP- 
PORTUNITIES. 


The words, “redeeming the time,” are 
not fairly translated. They mean, 
“buying up the opportunity.” Be on 
the lookout for opportunities. The sad- 
dest part of our record, I fear, is that 
we have let precious opportunities flow 
by us, never to be recalled. Think of 
the opportunities you have had to say a 
word to an impenitent soul, or some 
word of comfort to a friend, or to tes- 
tify for Christ. The specter I most fear 
is the ghost of lost opportunities. Be 
on the lookout for opportunities, and 
you will never know just what blessing 
is going to burst on you. A poor itin- 
erant Methodist minister went to Col- 
chester to preach. It was a cold day, 
and he found only fifteen or twenty peo- 
ple in that primitive little chapel. He 
went up into the pulpit and took for his 
text, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.” 
The whole sermon was only a repetition 
of the one thought, look to Christ. “A 
young lad up in the gallery looks very 





sad. He will never get any comfort 


until he looks to Christ.” | Heaven 
knows who that boy in the gallery was; 
the world knows; but from that day 
Charles H, Spurgeon never saw that 
preacher again. He went his way. He 
did his work. Spurgeon has already 
met him in heaven, I doubt not. Oh, 
would not life be worth living if a stray 
shot of ours should bring a Spurgeon 
to the Saviour? Who knows! Who 
knows! If you have consecrated your- 
self to the work of lifting up the Savs 
iour, how do you know who is to look 
to him and be saved?—Theodore L. 
Cuyler. 


298 ILLUSTRATIVE 


pommmneee J) ame 


LINCOLN AND THE BIBLE 


William H. Herndon, his old law 
partner, somewhere declares that Mr. 
Lincoln read less and thought more than 
any other man of his sphere in America. 
A few books, however, he read and re- 
read with loving care. The Bible and 
Shakespeare’s works were scarcely ever 
out of his mind; he was fond of the 
poems of Burns and Hood, and he found 
delight in the verses of Bryant and 
Whittier, and of Holmes, whose “The 
Last Leaf” he knew by heart, and used 
often to repeat with deep feeling. Many 
of his published writings bea: witness 
to Mr. Lincoln’s close and reverent ac- 
quaintance with the Bible, and nothing 
is more certain than that the most vital 
influence in his life and conduct during 
his last years, was his belief in and de- 
pendence upon a personal God. It was 
an influence whose force was felt by 
all who shared or came into close touch 
with his daily life. Joshua F. Sipeed, a 
friend of Mr. Lincoln’s youth, being in 
Washington in the summer of 1864, was 
invited out to the Soldiers’ Home to 
spend the night. Entering the Presi- 
dent’s room unannounced, he found him 
sitting near a window, intently reading 
his Bible. 

“I am glad to see you so profitably 
engaged.” 

“Yes,” was the reply, “I am profit- 
ably engaged.” 

“When I knew you in early life,” con- 
tinued Speed, “you were a skeptic and 
so was I. If you have recovered from 
your skepticism, I am sorry to say that 
I have not.” 

“You are wrong, Speed,” said the 
President, placing his hand on his 
friend’s shoulder, and gazing earnestly 
into his face. “Take all of this Book 
upon reason that you can, and the bal- 
ance on faith, and you will live and die 
a happier man.” 

Save for an occasional visit to the 
theatre, there was little recreation in Mr. 
Lincoln’s life in the White House. He 


ANECDOTES 


dined at six o’clock, and spent most of 
his evenings in his office. “There,” John 
Tiay writes, “he was not often suffered 
to be alone. He frequently passed the 
evening with a few friends, in frank 
and free conversation.”—Galusha A. 
Grow, Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, 1861-1863. 


—— 956 —— 
THE CHILD AND THE QUEEN 


How strikingly true it is, from the fol- 
lowing incident, that out of the mouths 
of babes is ordained praise. Befurchte, 
gardener te Elizabeth, consort of Fred- 
erick II., had one little daughter, with 
whose religious instruction he had taken 
great pains. When this child was five 
years of age, the Queen saw her one day 
while visiting the royal gardens at Shon- 
hausen, and was so much pleased with 
her that, a week afterward, she ex- 
pressed a wish to see the little girl again. 
The father accordingly brought his art- 
less child to the palace, and a page con- 
ducted her into the royal presence. She 
approached the Queen with untaught 
courtesy, kissed her robe, and modestly 
took the seat which had been placed for 
her, by the Queen’s order, near her own 
person. From this position she could 
overlook the table at which the Queen 
was dining with the ladies of her court, 
and they watched with interest to see 
the effect of so much splendor on the 
simple child. She looked carelessly on 
the costly dresses: of the guests, the 
gold and porcelain on the table, and the 
pomp with which all was conducted; 
and then, folding her hands, she sung 
with a clear childish voice, these words: 

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness 

Are all my ornament and dress: 

Fearless, with these pure garments on, 

I'll view the splendors of Thy throne! 
All the assembly were struck with sur- 
prise at seeing so much feeling, pene- 
tration, and piety in one so young. Tears 
filled the eyes of the ladies, and the 
Queen exclaimed, “Ah, happy child! 
How far we are below you!”—American 
National Preacher. F 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


et 0] 


WHY HE TOOK A FLOGGING. 


Bronson Olcott, the teacher, had his 
boys make rules for the conduct of the 
school, and attach penalties. One little 
fellow had been guilty of a second of- 
fence, punishable by a public flogging. 
“Now,” said his teacher, ‘the rules com- 
pel me to inflict chastisement, but I 
cannot bear to inflict this punishment 
upon you: I am going to have you 
punish me instead.” To the astonish- 
ment of the boys, and especially of the 
offender, he put the rod into his hands 
and said, “Now lay that rod upon my 
back.” The lad of course touched him 
very lightly. “No,” he said, “that 
won't do. You must hit me as hard as 
you think you ought to be hit.” per- 
sisting, until that boy laid stripes upon 
him with sufficient force to vindicate 
the law of the school and punish the 
offence. Meanwhile, the lad was cry- 
ing and sobbing under the thought that 
he was punishing his innocent teacher 
for his own offence. From that time 
he was never known to violate another 
rule—Arthur T. Pierson, D. D. 


—— 558 —— 
A HIDDEN TREASURE. 


My employer said to me one day, 
“What a lucky fellow that L——- is. 
He recently saw a picture covered with 
cobwebs and dirt, which he bought for 
a mere trifle. It did not appear to have 
any value. When cleaned, it proved 
to be the work of a master, and of great 
value, so that he was immediately after 
offered a large sum for it.” 

I thought of the time I was in the 
devil’s second-hand shop; I cannot un- 
derstand what God ever saw in me that 
was of value, but he bought me, not a 
low figure—the price of his own Son. 
He has put me in the hands of an ex- 
pert cleaner, and I expect to hang in 
the gallery of heaven one of these days, 
a wonder for adoring angels. 

As some one has uniquely put it, 
“He took me out of the mire and put 
me in the choir.”—Selected. 


299 


———— 959 —— 
HARMONIC LIVES 


While I was attending school in Illi- 
nois our teacher one day, while teaching 
some of the elements of music or ex- 
piaining some musical terms, undertook 
to emphasize her instruction by a prac- 
tical illustration. To impress upon our 
minds the nature of a chord, she asked 
one of the scholars—a young lady of 
music ability—to step to the organ and 
to play a chord. Mattie did so. Then, 
aiter she had struck several different 
chords, the teacher said, “Now play a 
discord.” Mattie tried to do so, but 
it was not so easy for her; and, after 
several unsuccessful attempts, she col- 
ored up and went to her seat in con- 
fusion. Siome of the scholars naturally 
tittered, and Mattie herself felt very 
much embarrassed. But I have often 
thought since that day how satisfying 
it would be could we reach such a final 
harmony with God and goodness that 
we should actually forget how to strike 
sin’s discord at all—Rev. E. B. Tre 
Fethern. 


—— 560 —— 
LINCOLN’S ADVICE 


It became the duty of President Lin- 
coln to send a letter of censure to a 
young officer accused of quarreling with 
another. This is what he wrote: 

“The advice of a father to his son, 
‘beware of entrance to a quarrel, but, 
being in, bear it that the opposed may 
beware of thee,’ is good, but not the 
best. Quarrel not at all. No man re- 
solved to make the most of himself can 
spare time for personal contention. 
Still less can he afford to take all the 
consequences, including the vitiating 
of his temper, and the loss of self-con- 
trol. Yield larger things to which you 
can show no more than equal right, 
and yield lesser ones though clearly 
your own. Better give your path to a 


dog than be bitten by him in contest- 


ing for the right. Even killing the 
dog would not cure the bite.”—Sel. 


306 


—— 561 —— 
A CHILD’S SONG. 


One day, nearly half a century ago, 
a Gypsy wagon stopped before a doc- 
tor’s door in a little Hertfordshire town. 
There was a sick child inside. The 
doctor went to the door of the cart and 
looked at her. His verdict was instant: 
“Smallpox. Get out of the town at 
once.” 

Under the doctor’s directions the 
father drove his wagon to an unfre- 
quented lane, where he set up his tent. 
He kept the wagon at some distance 
and used it for the sick-room, and 
there he, the father, remained to care 
for the suffering child. In a few days 
another child became ill. The father 
took him, too, not allowing his wife to 
come near. She cooked the food for 
the sick ones, and wandered up and 
down the fane almost distracted with 
grief. In her anxiety she crept closer 
and closer to the wagon where her 
sick children lay, and so, probably 
through her mother-love, exposed her- 
self constantly to contagion. 


One morning she knew that the fatal 
disease had found her, too. The father 
was desperate. He loved his wife de- 
votedly, and had tried his best to save 
her. Day and night for a month he 
had nursed his children alone. Now 
the wife was dying. From the first 
there was no hope for her or the baby. 
Sitting by her bed, the husband asked 
her if she believed in God. Once, years 
before, he had been in prison upon some 
charge or other, and had heard the 
chaplain preach from the text, “I am 
the good Shepherd.” He could not 
read, and there had been no one to help 
him, but the sermon had made a deep 
impression on him, and through all his 
subsequent years of wandering he had 
not forgotten it. 

“Do you try to pray?” he asked. 

“Yes,” she answered, but always 
there comes a black hand before me, 
and a voice says, “There is no mercy 
for you.” Her husband hurried out- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


side that she might not see his face. 

He was so utterly alone in his terrible 
need! His wandering life had left him 
small opportunity to form any perma- 
nent friendships in any of the places 
he visited, and his race was never res 
garded with favor. Now, moreover, the 
terrible disease from which his wife 
was dying and his children suffering, 
still further cut him off from human 
help. Then from the wagon he heard 
his wife’s voice: 

“I have a Father in the promised land, 

My Father calls me; I must go 

To meet Him in the promised land.” 

The feeble voice sang the words 
clearly. The man ran back. “Where 
did you learn that?” he cried. 

The dying woman lifted her eyes to 
his, all the trouble gone from them. 
One Sunday when she was a child, she 
told him, her father had pitched his 
tent upon a village green. The chil- 
dren were going to chapel, and the 
Gypsy child had followed them and 
heard them sing those words. Today 
they had come back to her with a won- 
derful message. 

“I am not afraid to die now,” she 
said. “It will be all right. God will 
take care of my children.’ A day or 
two later she died—quiet and unafraid. 

No minister, teacher or missionary 
had ever come near her life, but through 
a child’s song, heard twenty years be- 
fore, the mighty Love had met the 
seeking soul and given it peace. The 
dying woman was the mother of the 
famous evangelist, “Gipsy” Smith— 
Youth’s Companion. 


—— 562 —— 


“GIVE AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN 
TO YOU.” 


There is a good story told of a cer- 
tain Christian bishop, who was noted 
for liberality. One day he was on a 
journey with his servant. Some poor 
people applied to them for help. The 
bishop told his man to give them all 
the money they had in their purse, 
which was three silver crowns; but the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


servant thought he knew better than 
his master, so he only gave them two, 
and kept the other crown, as he told 
his master, to pay for their lodging at 
night, 


Soon after this a rich nobleman met * 


the bishop, and knowing what a good 
and charitable man he was, he ordered 
his steward to give two hundred crowns 
to the bishop’s servant for his master’s 
use. As soon as he received the money 
he ran with joy to tell his master about 
he 

“Ah,” said the bishop, “you see how 
wrong you were in not giving the three 
crowns to those poor people, as I told 
you. If you had done this, we should 
have received three hundred crowns 
from our friend, instead of two hun- 
dred.” 

And no doubt he was right in saying 
this; for it was God that put it into 
the heart of the nobleman to give this 
money to the bishop, and he could as 
readily have put it into his heart to 
give three hundred as _ two.—Rev. 
Richard Newton, D. D. 


—— 563 —— 


FRIGHTENED TOO EASILY 

During the Civil War in the United 
States, General Butler sent a portion of 
his troops against an earthwork held by 
the Confederates. It was very early in 
the war. The troops were raw volun- 
teers, and in a few minutes they came 
running back into the camp, defeated 
and badly frightened. One man in 
the action, who afterward proved his 
bravery in more than one battle, was 
asked by General Butler to give some 
account of the battle, and he reported 
that it was a very large fort, “I should 
think about 13 feet high, and they 
had mounted on it some 15 or 20 
guns; there was a ditch in the front, 
and if we had got up to it, it would 
have been impossible for us to climb 
up to it so as to get in”? This was the 
most moderate report given by any of 
those present at the engagement, and 
yet the next day after the engagement, 


301 


General Butler investigated and found 
that instead of 15 or 20 guns (some had 
said 30) there were only 3 six-pounder 
field pieces, and instead of being 13 
feet high, the fort was so low that they 
had had to dig an excavation to let the 
wheels down, so as to bring the gun 
carriages below the top of the parapet 
to protect them from the fire of the 
Federal troops. “Afterward,” says 
General Butler, “I rode my horse at 
full trot over those 13 feet high para- 
pets.” 

The same evening, General Butler 
sent an officer to look over the ground 
around the fort, and this officer after a 
careful examination approached nearer 
and nearer, hearing no sound, and at 
last boldly advanced to the breastwork, 
looked over it, and walked in to find 
not a soul there. The enemy had been 
as badly scared as the attacking party 
had been, and no one seems to know 
whether they ran away before the 
Federal troops did, or afterward.— 
The Armory. 


ee BE Aen 
A DOLLAR AND HALF A WEEK 


When a boy, I worked in a grocery 
store in a country town. One of my cus- 
tomers was an old man who they told 
me was worth $100,000, and had no one 
in the world to care for but himself, and 
yet he’d buy scrapings from the butter 
tubs at ten cents a pound, when butter 
was thirty cents a pounds. 

One day he came in and said, “It 
cost me $1.55 to live last week, and I 
can’t afford to spend more than $1.50; 
haven’t you got some scrapings you 
can sell for eight cents?’”’ And I scraped 
him up two and a half pounds, putting 
in a little more of the wood. I used to 
think he was very foolish, and that if I 
was worth as much as he was, I’d spend 
more than $1.50 a week. 

For years I lived on less than $1.50 
per week spiritually! But I have found 
that my Father is rich, and I have been 
drawing largely ever since.—J. W. Bo- 
them. 


302 


—— 565 —— 
AFRAID OF THE WET. 


The crew of a certain life-saving sta- 
tion on the New England coast has 
many times proved itself brave and 
efficient in time of need, but of late its 
skill and bravery have been useless, like 
so much treasure locked in a vault. 
There has been no wreck. The sea has 
been kind as a big dog. 

Inaction had inevitably bred soit 
habits of life, and the idle crew had 
given the summer visitors much to 
joke about. Their satirical comments 
were rather ungrateful, for the practice 
drills of the crew were a part of the 
entertainment of the seaside resort. 

Twice a week the crew pulled out 
the brass cannon, shot a rope over a 
dummy mast which is set up on a 
point of land, and then practiced sliding 
down in the breeches buoy. The small 
boys of the place were glad to play the 
part of the rescued mariners, and alto- 
gether this serious drill, required by 
law, was a pretty holiday sport. 

One rainy day at the appointed time 
the crew failed to appear at practice. 
The summer boarders on the hotel ver- 
anda waited in vain for the exhibition 
which should vary the monotony of a 
dull day. Finally, one of them went 
over to the quarters of the crew to 
learn the reason. 

“I say, aren’t you going to practice 
today?” 

“No, sir!” 

“Why not?” 

Then the brave life saver, hero of 
many rough seas, made an explanatory 
gesture toward the weather and said: 

“What, in this rain?”—Youth’s Com- 
panion. 


— 566 —— 
HOW CARVOSSO PREVAILED 
FOR HIS CHILDREN 
Carvosso, noted for the earnestness 
and faith of his prayers, tells as follows 


of the conversion of his children: 
“I had always prayed for my children, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


but now I grasped the promise, with the 
hand of faith, and retired daily at special 
seasons to put the Lord to his word. 
I said nothing of what I felt or did, to 
any one but the searcher of hearts, with 
whom I wrestled in an agony of prayer.” 

About two weeks after he was called 
from his work, to pray with his daugh- 
ter, who became a seeker of Christ. His 
oldest son was converted at the same 
time. 

Regarding his younger son he says: 
“T laid hold, by iaith, on the promise 
which I had while pleading for my other 
children. One day while I was wrest- 
ling with God, in mighty prayer for 
him, these words were applied with 
power to my mind: ‘There shall not 
a hoof be left behind.’ Soon after he 
yielded, and obtained the knowledge of 
salvation by the remission of sins. 

“A dull and careless way of praying 
for our friends will avail nothing. It 
may conceal hypocrisy, or strengthen 
deception concerning our own piety, 
but it will not move God nor convert 
a single soul. Our friends know that 
we are not in earnest, and care little 
for it. But, let us take hold of the 
matter in a spirit corresponding to the 
magnitude of the object to be secured, 


and there will be a movement!” Pre- 
vailing Prayer, by Wigle. 
—— 567 —— 
SHALL WE RECEIVE GOOD, AND 
NOT EVIL? 


The famous Oriental philosopher, 
Lokman, while a slave, being presented 
by his master with a bitter melon, im- 
mediately ate it all. “How was it pos- 
sible,” said his master, “for you to eat 
so nausous a fruit?” Lokman re- 
plied, “I have received so many favors 
from you, it is no wonder I should, for 
once in my life, eat a bitter melon from 
your hand.” The generous answer of 
the slave struck the master so forci- 
bly that he immediately gave him his 
liberty. With such sentiments should 
man receive his portion of sufferings at 
the hand of God.—Bishop Horne. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 568 —— 
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH 
TOBACCO? 

Dr. E. N. Robinson says: “The 
medical name for tobacco is nicotin or 
nicotina, named for Joel Nicot who first 
introduced it into Europe in the year 
1560. A chemical examination of a 
tobacco leaf shows its surface dotted 
with minute glands which contain an 
oil found in no other plant, the pro- 
portion being 7 per cent of the whole 
weight of the leaf. This oil is nicotin, 
one of the subtlest of poisons, 

The nicotin in one cigar if extracted 
and administered in a pure state would 
kill two men. Bocarme, of Belgium, 
was murdered in two and one-half 
minutes by a little nicotin. The In- 
dians used to poison their arrows by 
dipping them into nicotin, convulsions 
and death being the result of these ar- 
row wounds,” 

Another physician says: “If we wish 


at any time to prostrate the powers of © 


life in the most sudden and awful man- 
ner we have but to administer a dose of 
tobacco and the object is accomplished.” 

One drop of the crude oil has been 
known to almost instantly kill a New- 
foundland dog. Many of our most em- 
inent physicians regard much of the 
invalidism and also the positive ill 
health of women as due to the poisoned 
atmosphere created around them by the 
smoking members of their household. 
The effect of tobacco on the heart is 
caused by paralyzing the minute vessels 
which form the batteries of the nervous 
system. Smoking causes insanity, epil- 
epsy, chorea, apoplexy, organic diseases 
of the heart, congestion of the brain, 
consumption and cancer. It affects the 
muscles, causing muscular rheumatism 
and acts on the nerves of the eyes in 
such a way as to produce amaurosis. 
(Diminution or complete loss of sight.) 

Prof. Laflin says: “Cigarettes create 
a thirst for strong drink, containing as 
they do five poisons, one in the paper, 
the oil of nicotin, saltpetre to preserve 
the tobacco, opium to make it mild and 
the oil in flavoring.” The economy of 
the human system is such that a per- 


303° 


son can by beginning with small doses 
and gradually increasing become accus- 
tomed to the rankest poison. Then they 
are slaves to it, which is proved in an 
effort to discontinue the habit. You 
cannot afford to trifle with deadly pois- 
ons. Tobacco is a poison weed, a thing. 
It never shall be said of me again: 
“There is a man mastered by a thing.” 
“The Son of God came, that he might 
destroy the works of the Devil.” 


—— 569 —— 
GOD HONORS OUR FAITH. 


Sir William Napier was one day tak- 
ing a long walk near Freshport, when 
he met a little girl about five years old, 
sobbing over a broken bowl. She had 
dropped and broken it in bringing it 
back from the field to which she had 
taken her father’s dinner in it, and she 
said she would be beaten on her return 
for having broken it; then, with a sud- 
den gleam of hope, she innocently looked 
into his face and said: “But ye can 
mend it, can’t ye?” Sir William ex- 
plained that he could not mend the 
bowl; but the trouble he could mend 
by the gift of a sixpence to buy another. 
However, on opening his purse, it was 
empty of silver, and he had to make 
amends by promising to meet his little 
friend in the same spot at the same hour 
next day, and to bring the sixpence with 
him, bidding her, meanwhile, tell her 
mother she had seen a gentleman, who 
would bring her the money for the 
bowl next day. The child, entirely 
trusting him, went on her way com- 
forted. On his return home he found 
an invitation awaiting him to dine in 
Bath the following evening to meet 
someone whom he especially wished to 
see. He hesitated for some little time, 
trying to calculate the possibility of 
giving the meeting to his little friend of 
the broken bowl and of still being in 
time for the dinner party in Bath; but, 
finding that this could not be, he wrote 
to decline accepting the invitation on 
the plea of a “pre-engagement,” saying 
to one of his family as he did so, “I can- 
not disappoint her, she trusted me so 
implicitly.”—Selected, 


304 
| —— 570 —— 
“HAVE YE BROUGHT THE 
BREAD?” 


(This question was put to a visitor who 
knocked at the door of Mr. Muller’s 
orphanage many years ago. The visi- 
tor was at the time an unbeliever and 
on one occasion had said to a friend 
when out of work that God does not do 
anything for him. The friend aston- 
ishingly cried out, “Oh, my man, my 
man, you will talk differently from that 
one of these days.” He, however, re- 
peated the assertion with more empha- 
sis declaring that God does not do a 
ha’penny worth for him; but since he 
is out of work anyhow, and no signs of 
any for weeks, he was going down to 
Bristol to look up George Muller and 
his orphans and see if it was really true 
what they talk about, that God does 
give them daily bread and money for 
all their needs. His friend told him that 
he had better go. So he went, walking 
the whole distance, 186 miles. He 
reached the Orphanage in the early 
morning, footsore and dusty, and 
knocked at the door. A woman opened 
it and looked at him as though expect- 
ing something. 

“Have ye brought the bread?” 

“What bread?” 

“Why, the bread for the children; it 
was to come, and it is five minutes of 
the time.” 

“T don’t understand, woman, what 
you mean.” 

“I mean the bread for the children; 
it is now about time for breakfast and 
the bread must come, and I thought 
that you were the man that was to bring 
it.” 

“Well, my good woman, I have no 
bread, I am not in that way. I ama 
stranger. I came to see Mr. Muller and 
his Orphanage.” 

“Oh,” she said, “walk in;” so he was 
introduced to Mr, Muller. He went in 
and found many children waiting for 
their breakfast. Mr. Muller seemed to 
be calm but expecting something, when 
the woman who had introduced the 
stranger suddenly came rushing in and 
said, ‘The bread has come!” and sure 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


enough, there was a cart load of bread, 
plenty and to spare; and at the proper 
time the children were put down at the 
tables and enjoyed their meal of bread 
and milk, The visitor thought this was 
rather strange, but said nothing. 

Mr. Muller afterward took him aside 
and told him that they absolutely knew 
nothing of where that bread was to 
come from, but had been spending the 
time just before the meal in prayer for 
it. Then looking up to his visitor he 
Said: 

“Do you believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ?” 

“Not at all,” said the man, “but I 
have come up to see this Orphanage and 
find out for myself if there is such a 
thing as God’s hearing prayer, anyway.” 

“Oh, my dear friend,” said Mr. Mul- 
ler, “then you have much to learn, and 
if you will come with me this forenoon 
you will be likely to get something to 
confirm within you a belief in Jesus 
Christ and the power of prayer. I have 
to meet to-day a note of £5,000 (about 
$25,000) at twelve o’clock. I don’t know 
where a penny of it is coming from, but 
it is certainly coming.” So they went to 
the post-office. Mr. Muller asked for 
his mail but got only one letter, and that 
was from India. He opened it in his 
visitor’s presence; it contained a draft 
for exactly £5,000. 

The man had no more to say. He re- 
turned to his home filled with different 
thoughts, a new life sprang up within 
him, In relating the story to his friend 
he said, with tears in his eyes, “And do 
you know, I found that not only did 
God care for Mr. Muller’s orphans, but 
he had looked out for my family all the 
days I was gone.” 

He is now a member of the Church 
of England and a servant of God, and 
believes that God does answer prayer 
and care for all his children—John K. 
Hastings. 


—— 571 —— 


THE HUNTER’S STORY. 


The following anecdote was told to 
Dr. J. Todd by an old hunter in the 
forests of America: “I had been cut all 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


winter alone trapping for furs. It was 
in March, when I was hunting beaver, 
just as the ice began to break up, and 
on one of the farthest, widest lakes I 
ever visited. I calculated there could 
be no human being nearer than one 
hundred miles. I was pushing my canoe 
through the loose ice, one cold day, when 
just around a point that projected into 
the lake, I heard something walking 
through the ice. It made so much noise, 
and stepped so regularly, that I felt sure 
it must be a moose. I got my rifle 
ready, and held it cocked in one hand, 
while I pushed the canoe with the other. 
Slowly and carefully I rounded the 
point, when, what was my astonishment 
to see, not a moose, but a man, wading 
in the water—the ice water! He had 
nothing on his hands or feet, and his 
clothes were torn almost from his limbs. 
He was walking, gesticulating with his 
hands, and talking to himself. He 
seemed to be wasted to a skeleton. With 
great difficulty I got him into my canoe, 
when I landed and made up a fire, and 
got him some hot tea and food. He had 
a bone of some animal in his bosom, 
which he had gnawed almost to nothing. 
He was nearly frozen, and quieted down, 
and soon fell asleep. I nursed him like 
an infant. With great difficulty and in 
a roundabout way I found out the name 
of the town from which he came. Slow- 
ly and carefully I got him along, around 
falls, and over portages, keeping a reso- 
lute watch on him, lest he should es- 
cape from me in the forest. At length, 
after nearly a week’s travel, I reached 
the village where I supposed he lived. 


I found the whole community under 
deep excitement, and more than a hun- 
dred men were scattered in the woods 
and on the mountains seeking for my 
crazy companion, for they had learned 
that he had wandered into the woods. 
it had been agreed upon that if he was 
found, the bells should be immediately 
rung and guns fired; and as soon as I 
landed a shout was raised, his friends 
rushed to him, the bells broke out in 
loud notes, and guns were fired, and 
their reports echoed again and again in 
forest and on mountain, till every seeker 


305 


knew that the lost one was found. How 
many times I had to tell the story over. 
I never saw people so crazy with joy; 
for the man was of the first and best 
families, and they hoped his insanity 
would be but temporary, as I afterward 
learned it was. How they feasted me, 
and, when I came away, loaded my 
canoe with provisions and clothing, and 
everything for my comfort. It was a 
time and place of wonderful joy. They 
seemed to forget everything else, and 
think only of the poor man whom I had 
brought back.” 

The old hunter ceased, and I said, 
“Doesn’t this make you think of the fif- 
teenth chapter of Luke, where the man 
who lost one sheep left all the rest and 
sought it, and brought it home rejoic- 
ing; and of the teaching of our Saviour, 
that there is joy in heaven over one re- 
penting, returning sinner?” “Oh, yes; 
I have often compared the two, and 
though I don’t suppose they ring bells 
and fire guns in that world, yet I have 
no doubt they have some way of making 
their joy known.” 


—— 572 —— 
THE UNUSED UMBRELLA 


A youth was lately leaving his aunt’s 
house after a visit, when, finding it be- 
ginning to rain, he caught up an um- 
brella that was snugly placed in a cor- 
ner, and was proceeding to open it, 
when the old lady, who for the first 
time observed his movement, sprang to- 
ward him, exclaiming: “No, no; that 
you never shall! Ive had that umbrella 
twenty-three years, and it has never 
been wet yet; and I’m sure it sha’n’t 
be wetted now.” 

Some folk’s religion is of the same 
quality. It is none the worse for wear. 
It is a respectable article to be looked 
at, but it must not be dampened in the 
showers of daily life. It stands in a 
corner, to be used in case of serious ill- 
ness or death, but it is not meant for 
common occasions, We are suspicious 
that the twenty-three-year-old gingham 
was gone at the seams, and if it had 
been unfurled it would have looked like 
a sieve.—C. H. Spurgeon. 


306° 


—— 573 —— 
WONDERFUL ANSWER TO 
PRAYER IN LEYDEN 


We could not leave Holland with- 
out making a visit to the spot from 
which our Pilgrim Fathers started on 
their voyage to the New World. In 
1574 Leyden was besieged by the Span- 
ish forces under Vasdez, but for tour 
months the inhabitants resisted these 
cruel invaders. At last when sum- 
moned to surrender, Vanderdoes sent 
back the answer that when provisions 
failed they would devour their left 
hands, and keep their right hands to 
preserve their liberties with. They 
were forced to eat all the cats and 
dogs to keep from starving. Finally 
a carrier pigeon flew over the heads of 
their enemies and brought the glad 
news that the Prince of Orange was 
coming with two hundred boats loaded 
with provisions, that he had cut his 
way through the dykes, and as Ley- 
den was lower than the ocean they 
would soon be flooded to the city gates. 
But the water did not rise high enough. 
Away in the distance beyond the walls 
of the city, they saw bread and food in 
abundance, but this only maddened the 
Starving multitude, and some of them 
begged the Burgomaster to surrender 
to the Spanish, hoping that though cap- 
tured, their lives might be spared, and 
bread given to their starving children, 
but his answer was this: “I have sworn 
to defend this city and with God’s help 
I mean to do so.” Many cried to the 
Lord for help, and their prayers were 
answered, A wind arose, a storm from 
the ocean drove the water faster 
through the dykes; on and on they 
rushed till they reached the haughty 
Spaniards and drowned them in a 
watery grave. The flotilla glided over 
them, and carried food to the hungry 
people. 

It is no wonder that the citizens cele- 
brated each year the day on which God 
answered their prayers and sent deliv- 
erence to them, October 3, 1574. Let 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


us thank God that our forefathers, not 
so very long after, emigrated from a 
place like that to our American shores 
that they might worship God according 
to the teachings of his word. May I 
ask if my young friends have made any 
real sacrifices for Christ? Have you 
thought much of the great sacrifice he 
made for us? Do you love him for it? 
You may not be called upon to live for 
days and weeks without any food, as 
were the people in Leyden, nor to leave 
your home, as were the Pilgrim Fathers; 
yet Jesus says to all those who truly 
love him: “Take my yoke which is 
easy and my burden which is light.” 
The small burdens he calls upon us to 
carry are small in comparison with the 
heavy burden of sin he bore for us on 
the cross.—Rev. E, P. Hammond. 


Sauk By atetaes 
“BUTTON-COAT” CHRISTIANS. 


An incident is related which occurred 
during Mr. Finney’s meetings in New 
York City, and which well illustrates the 
value of a little tact in the great strug- 
gle for souls. The big cutlery firm of 
Sheffield, England, had a branch house 
in New York. The manager was a part- 
ner of the firm, and very worldly. One 
of his clerks, who had been converted in 
the meetings, invited his employer to 
attend. One evening he was there and 
sat just across the aisle from Mr. Arthur 
Tappan. He appeared affected during 
the sermon, and Mr. Tappan kept his 
eye on him. After the dismissal, Mr. 
Tappan stepped quickly across the aisle, 
introduced himself, and invited him to 
stay to the after-service. The gentle- 
man tried to excuse himself and get 
away, but Mr. Tappan caught hold of 
the button on his coat and said, “Now, 
do stay; I know you will enjoy it!” and 
he was so kind and gentlemanly that the 
cutlery man could not well refuse. He 
stayed and was converted. Afterward 
he said, “An ounce of weight upon my 
coat-button saved my soul!” 

We need more button-coat Christians. 
—Selected, 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 575 —— 
THE LORD’S FISH. 


While spending a few days recently 
at the Catharine Mission in New York 
an instance of the Lord’s dealing with 
his children was narrated which we 
chronicle for the encouragement of our 
readers. 

A New York clergyman had received 
On one occasion a ten-dollar gold piece, 


and as he had not often had a gold. 


piece in his pocket it felt good there. 
He started for home with the money, 
and on reaching the corner of the street 
where he lived put his hand into his 
pocket to get his keys, and went to his 
house, passed inside and turned on a 
light, 

The thought occurred to him to look 
at the gold piece again, but on putting 
his hand inside his pocket he found it 
gone. He immediately returned to the 
corner where he had taken out his keys 
and searched for several minutes for the 
piece that was lost, but in vain, although 
it was an unfrequented locality, and 
there was no one in sight who might 
have picked it up. 

“I thought,’ said the clergyman, “of 
the fish that the Master had told the 
disciple to catch and to take from his 
mouth the tax money ‘for thee and me,’ 
and I said to the Lord, ‘Lord, if thou 
hast a fish that needs that money more 
than I do, grant that he may get it.’” 

Some months later a poor woman 
who had been attending the clergyman’s 
preaching desired to unite with the 
church, and in telling her pastor some 
of her experiences, she said: 

“God has revealed himself to me in 
such a marvelous way in the last few 
months that I feel I must tell you about 
it. We were strangers in the city, my 
husband had ‘been sick and out of work 
for several weeks, although a good me- 
chanic and sober and industrious. At 
last he became so discouraged that he 
left the house one morning resolving 
not to return until he had found some- 
thing. He went away without break- 
fast in order that the children might 
have what little there was, and he did 
not return to dinner or supper. 


ANECDOTES 307 


“TI was much alarmed, and finally near 
ten o’clock at night I started out, with 
the few cents I had left, to go to a near 
by grocery store, to see if I could not 
get something suitable for a supper for 
husband in case he should come home 
weary and hungry. 

“Just as I reached the corner of the 
street I looked down, and there in the 
glare of the street light I saw a ten- 
dollar gold piece and it looked as large 
as the moon! I picked it up; and as 
there was no one in sight to whom it 
might belong, I took it with me to the 
grocery and gave it to the grocer for 
some things for supper, and when he 
gave me the change, I knew it was 
good.” 

Returning home, the woman prepared 
supper and had it on the table for her 
husband when he returned at about elev- 
en o’clock with twenty-five cents as the 
price of his day’s effort at finding work. 
She told him what she had found, and 
they both got down on their knees and 
gave thanks to God for what seemed 
to them the miraculous provision he had 
made for them and their little ones. 

“We had never given much atten- 
tion to matters of religion up to that 
time,” said the woman, “although 
brought up to believe in God; but from 
that day my husband began to attend 
church.” | 

A little inquiry as to the time of find- 
ing and the location where the money 
was found, convinced the clergyman that 
is was his own lost gold piece that had 
been the source of so much happiness 
to this poor family. 

“I did not tell the woman that it was 
my gold piece,” said the clergyman, “but 
I thanked God for sending along the 
right fish.”—H. B. H. 


—-— 576 — 


/ HIS GREATEST DISCOVERY. 


Sir James Simpson, the great Edin- 
burgh physician, who first discovered 
and used chloroform as an anaesthetic, 
was once asked this question: “What 
would you consider the greatest dis- 
covery you ever made?” He replied: 
“That I have a Saviour.” 


308 ILLUSTRATIVE 


—— 577 —— 
A MOTHER’S INFLUENCE. 


“IT have long felt,” says the Earl of 
Shaftesbury, “that until the fathers and 
mothers are better men and women, 
our schools can accomplish comparative- 
ly little. I believe that any improve- 
ment that could be brought to bear on 
the mothers, more especially, would ef- 
fect a greater amount of good than any- 
thing that has yet been done.” 

An obscure and pious woman lived in 
a city in the south of England. History 
is silent respecting her ancestry, her 
place of birth, or her education, She 
had an only son, whom, in his infancy, 
she made it her great business to in- 
struct and train up in the nuture and 
admonition of the Lord. At seven years 
of age his mother died, and a few years 
after he went to sea, and became at 
length a common sailor in the African 
slave trade. He scon became a great 
adept in vice—a most horribly profane 
swearer; and though younger than many 
of his companions in years, he was one 
of the oldest in guilt. 

But he could not shake off the re- 
membrance of his pious mother’s in- 
structions. Though dead and in her 
grave, she seemed to be speaking to him 
still. After many alarms of conscience, 
and many pungent convictions, he be- 
came a Christian, and subsequently a 
devoted minister of the gospel. 

In addition to his great ministerial 
labors, few writers have done more to 
promote the truths of religion. He was 
eminently useful in religious conversa- 
tion; and John Newton’s hymns are of a 
truly elevated and Scriptural character. 

Let us follow that mother’s influence 
still farther. Her son was the instru- 
mental means of the conversion of Clau- 
dius Buchanan, who subsequently be- 
came a minister of the gospel, and went 
to the East Indies. Here he occupied 
a responsible station; and his labors in 
behalf of the English population, and 
for the improvement of the moral and 
Spiritual condition of the natives, are 
deservedly ranked among the noblest 
achievements of Christian philanthropy. 
Elis little work entitled, “The Star in the 


ANECDOTES. 


East,” was the first thing that attracted 
the attention of Adoniram Judson to a 
mission in the East Indies. Hence, 
had it not been for that mother’s faith- 
fulness, Dr, Buchanan might not have 
been converted, nor that train of causes 
put in operation which are now shedding 
so much light on Burmah and the sur- 
rounding regions.—Selected. 


— 578 
PRESERVED FROM BULLETS. 


In the Civil War the rebels made an 
attack upon one of our regiments doing 
picket duty on the Maryland side of the 
Potomac. There were three houses, 
standing upon the Virginia shore, which 
afforded shelter to the enemy, and it 
became necessary to have them re- 
moved. The colonel tried the effect of 
shelling them; but, owing to the short 
range of his guns, and the great dis- 
tance, could not demolish them. The 
only thing accomplished by this was 
driving the enemy out of them, to the 
shelter of the woods beyond. The colo- 
nel asked for volunteers to cross the 
river and burn the buildings. Only two 
men came forward, one a private, the 
other an orderly sergeant. The colonel 
gave the command to the sergeant, and 
told him to select as many men as he 
needed, and go. Selecting three men 
from his own company to manage the 
boat and assist him, the brave fellows 
departed on their perilous mission. Be- 
fore they reached the middle of the 
stream they were greeted with a shower 
of bullets; volley followed volley, each 
passing over their heads without touch- 
ing a man. 

As they neared the shore, the house 
immediately in front of them, which was 
a large brick one, offered them shelter 
for landing; and it was not many min- 
utes after before the smoke issuing from 
the roof showed their work was accom- 
plished there, The next house was soon 
in flames also; but the third stood some 
distance from the river; to get to it they 
must cross a ploughed field directly un- 
der the fire of the musketry. Here, as 
in crossing the river, they were made 
the target for the enemy’s bullets. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Strange to say, this forlorn hope re- 
turned uninjured, and were received 
with enthusiastic cheers from their brave 
comrades. The young sergeant, on be- 
ing complimented upon his courage, and 
interrogated as to the source of it, re- 
plied: “It is not in me; give God the 
glory. When I started, I committed my 
beloved wife and child to his fatherly 
care should I never return. I breathed 
a prayer for myself and the little band 
with me. I went further: I entreated 
that we might all return in safety; and 
as I stepped from that boat, these words 
of the ninety-first Psalm came forcibly 
to my mind: “A thousand shall fall at 
thy side, and ten thousand at thy right 
hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. 
Only with thane eyes shalt thou behold 
and see the reward of the wicked. Be- 
cause thou hast made the lord, which is 
my refuge, even the Most High, thy 
habitation, there shall be no evil befall 
thee, neither shall any plague come nigh 
thy dwelling.” I received it as an answer 
to my prayer; and though we could 
hear the bullets whizzing by, almost 
touching us, I felt no more fear of them 
than if they had been hailstones.—A. C. 
Thompson, D, D. 


—— 579 —— 


BLIND JOAN WASTE 


Among many who suffered martyr- 
dom in the reign of Queen Mary, Joan 
Waste, a poor woman, deserves never to 
be forgotten. Though blind from her 
birth, she learned at an early age to knit 
stockings and sleeves, and to assist her 
father in the business of rope-making 
and always discovered the greatest aver- 
sion to idleness and sloth. After the 
death of her parents, she lived with her 
brother; and, by daily attending the 
church, and hearing divine service read 
in the vulgar tongue, during the reign 
of King Edward, became deeply im- 
pressed with religious principles. This 
rendered her desirous of possessing the 
word of God; so that at length, having 
by her labor earned and saved as much 
money as would purchase a New Testa- 
ment, she procured one, and as she could 


309 


not read it herself, got others to read 
it to her, especially an old man seventy 
years of age, the clerk of a parish in 
Derby, who would read a chapter to 
her almost every day. She would also, 
sometimes, give a penny or two (as she 
could spare) to those who would not 
read to her without pay. By these 
means she became well acquainted with 
the New Testament, and she could re- 
peat many chapters without book; and 
daily increasing in sacred knowledge, 
she exhibited its influence in her life, 
till, when she was about twenty-two 
years of age, she was condemned for 
not believing the doctrines of transub- 
stantiation, and burned at Derby, Au- 
gust 1, 1556.—Selected. 


—— 580 —— 


HOW TO COME TO CHRIST. 


The Rev. David Nelson relates that 
after attending a brilliant party at the 
house of a young man of wealth, when 
the crowd had dispersed, he sat down 
with him for the purpose of religious 
conversation. His young friend acknowl- 
edged that he would gladly become a 
Christian if he knew what to do. 

“Suppose,” said Dr. Nelson, “the Lord 
Jesus stood in this room, and you knew 
it was the Lord Jesus, and he should 
look kindly on you, and stretch out his 
hands toward you, and should say, 
‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest,’ what would you do?” “I would go 
to him, and fall down before him, and 
ask him to save me,” was the reply. 
“But what if your gay young compan- 
ions were in the room, and they should 
point and laugh at you?” “I should not 
care for that. I should go to the Lord 
Jesus.” “Well, the Lord Jesus is really 
in this room, though you cannot see 
him; and he stretches out his hand to 
you, and says, ‘Come unto me’; and you 
should believe what he says in his let- 
ter, the Bible, as much as though you 
heard the words.” Soon after the con- 
versation, Dr. Nelson had the pleasure 
of meeting this young man at the table 
of our Lord. 


310 


mm 581 —— 


THE BOY AND THE MAN 


John Newton, who ran away to sea, 
and then to Africa, so that, as he said, 
“I might be free to sin,’ was sold at 
last to a negress, herself a slave. He 
sank so low that he lived only on the 
crumbs that fell from her table and on 
the raw yams that he dug by stealth 
at night. His clothing was reduced to 
a single shirt, which he washed in the 
ocean, hiding among the trees while it 
dried. Yet he never thought of the 
better life. When he escaped from his 
drudgery he went with the natives, ac- 
cepting their horrid superstitions and 
living their base life. It does not seem 
possible for a civilized man to have 
sunk so low. But the power of Jesus 
laid hold of him, and he became a sea 
captain. Afterward he was ordained 
as a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land. 

If we think his life meant nothing 
to us, we are mistaken, for it was he 
who wrote the hymn that we have 
often sung, “Safely Through Another 
Week.” He was also the author of 
“Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare,” 
“Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, 
Zion City of Our God,” “One There is 
Above All Others Well Deserves the 
Name of Friend,” “How Sweet the 
Name of Jesus Sounds on a Believer’s 
Ear,” and this other one, which I sus- 
pect must have been his own favorite, 
“Amazing Grace, How Sweet the 
Sound, That Saved a Wretch Like Me.” 

In the church in London of which he 
was rector, you can still read the epi- 
taph he wrote for himself: “Sacred to 
the memory of John Newton, once a 
libertine and blasphemer, and slave of 
slaves in Africa, but renewed, purified, 
pardoned, and appointed to preach that 
gospel which he labored to destroy.” — 
Exchange, 


—— 582 —— 
PREACHING FOR A CROWN 


Two clergymen happened to meet, 
ene Sabbath morning, in a certain dis- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


trict of Wales. For a time they travelled 
the same road, the one on foot, the 
other on horseback, Though strangers 
to each other, they entered into con- 
versation, and it appeared that both were 
on their way to preach, “Our profes- 
sion,’ said the one on horseback, “is 
one of great drudgery, and by no means 
profitable. I never get more than half 
a guinea for preaching a sermon. 

“You preach for half a guinea?” said 
the one on foot; “I preach for a crown.” 
“Preach for a crown! You are a dis- 
grace to your cloth.” “Perhaps so; 
and you may think I am a still greater 
disgrace, when I tell you that I am now 
walking nine miles to preach, and have 
but seven pence in my pocket to bear 
my expenses out and in, ‘and I do not 
expect to receive even that amount 
from those I go to serve. But I look 
forward to that crown of glory which 
my Lord and Saviour will bestow upon 
me when he makes his appearance be- 
fore an assembled world.” 

The horseman, it may be well sup- 
posed, did not care to continue the 
conversation with one who was ready 
to disgrace his cloth by preaching for 
a crown. The foot-soldier was the 
Rev. Howell Davies, a man whose la- 
bors were greatly blessed to the revival 
of religion in Wales. He had four 
stated places for preaching, besides 
often preaching in barns and on com- 
mons and hill sides. He had more than 
two thousand communicants in his 
church. On communion days the church 
was frequently emptied twice, to make 
room for a third congregation to par- 
take of the Supper.—Selected. 

583 —— 


HONORING HIS MOTHER. 





“When General Garfield became Pres- /~ 


ident of the United States, he insisted 
upon having his dear old mother beside 
him while he gave his first address. 
When he had made his speech, he turned 
round before all the people and kissed 
his mother. All the best men and wo- 
men have been dutiful, obedient, will- 
ing, loving children.” 


in 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


eal SES 
BROWN WAS WANTED. 


I will tell you a little anecdote which 
I have often told before; it brings to 
your mind more clearly than any other 
means your right to believe in Christ. 
I am speaking to those who say, “I have 
no right to trust Christ.” But if Christ 
commands you to do it, and if, moreover, 
He tells you, “you are condemned al- 
ready because you do not believe,” you 
certainly have a right to believe. Sit- 
ting one day in court with a judge in- 
teresting myself with some trials that 
were going on, there was wanted a wit- 
ness. I am not clear about his name, 
but I think it was Brown. So it was 
said from the bench that Brown was 
wanted next. The usher down in the 
court cried out, “Brown!” Someone near 
the door cried, “Brown!” and I could 
hear them calling out in the street two 
or three times, “Brown! Brown! 
Brown!” The court was very crowded. 
Sy-and-by there came in at the court 
door, with a great deal of difficulty, a 
little, ugly, mean-looking creature. He 
came pushing and elbowing his way. 
There was a fine, tall gentleman stand- 
ing in the court looking on. He did 
not like to be pushed about, and he said 
in a very peremptory manner, “Who are 
you?” “Brown,” said the man, “I am 
Brown.” “Well, but,” said the other, 
“who is Brown?” “Nobody,” said he, 
“only I was told to come.” It was won- 
cerful how everybody made way for 
Brown, because he was told to come. 
They just cleared a lane for him, and I 
do not suppose for my lord and duke 
they would have made room, they were 
so tightly packed; but Brown must 
come in anyhow, because he was 
wanted. It did not matter how poor 
he looked, how ragged, how greasy, 
how dirty, Brown was wanted and he 
had aright to come. So now, God com- 
mands you to trust Christ. But you 
say, “There is a big sin standing up.” 
And He says, “Who are you?” You say, 
“A poor sinner.” “And what is a poor 
sinner?” says He. “Nothing at all,” 
you say; “but Jesus Christ told me to 


311 


trust in Him. If He is wrong I leave 
the blame with Him, I will not keep 
back from Him.”—-Spurgeon. 


—— 585 —— 
WHY HE WAS PARDONED. 


In the early part of the reign of Louis 
XVI a German prince, traveling 
through France, visited the arsenal at 
Toulon, where the galleys were kept. 
The commandant, as a compliment to 
his rank, said he was welcome to set 
free any one galley-slave whom he 
should choose to select. 

The prince, willing to make the best 
use of the privilege, spoke to many of 
them in succession, inquiring why they 
were condemned to the galleys. Injus- 
tice, oppression, false accusations, were 
assigned by one after another as the 
causes of their being there. In fact, 
they were all injured and _ ill-treated 
persons. 


At last he came to one, who, when 
asked the same question, answered to 
this effect: “Your highness, I have no 
reason to complain; I have been a very 
wicked, desperate wretch. I have de- 
served to be broken alive on the wheel. 
I account it a great mercy that I am 
here.” The prince fixed his eyes upon 
him and said: “You wicked wretch! 
It is a pity you should be placed among 
so many honest men. By your own 
confession, you are bad enough to cor- 
rupt them all; but you shall not stay 
with them another day.” Then turning 
to the officer, he said: “This is the man, 
sir, whom I wish to be released.” 

Was not this a wise decision? Must 
not all who hear the story allow that 
the man who was sensible of his guilt, 
and so submissive to his punishment, 
was, in all probability, the most worthy 
of pardon, and the most likely not to 
abuse it? 

Sense of sin is the first step toward 
forgiveness. There is hope for a man 
who confesses his guilt, and feels that 
punishment is his desert. And the 
deeper the conviction of sin, the more 
hopeful often is the condition. 

Selected. 


312 


——— 586 —— 
TRUST IN PROVIDENCE. 


I have a story which I think will in- 
terest you if you will try to listen to it, 
of a man in London, fifty years or more 
ago, at a time when there used to be not 
£5 notes only, but £1 notes. Well, 
there were two gentlemen who had met 
each other walking about in the streets. 
One was a minister of some chapel, and 
he did not know the other when he 
came up and spoke to him, but the gen- 
tleman knew him very well. They 
walked along and began to talk, and at 
last the gentleman introduced the min- 
ister into his house. The minister hard- 
ly knew what to make of it. He was 
very friendly with him, but he did not 
quite understand him. He took him up 
into the upper rooms and then he sat 
down with him in the parlor, and he 
said, “You wonder why I am showing 
you these things. Now, you don’t re- 
member me, but I remember you.” 
He said, “Many years ago I came to this 
town of London as a workman”— (an 
iron workman, I think he-was)— and 
then he went on to say that he had come 
all the way from Scotiand, and brought 
his wife with him, and they had lived 
in London. He had been ill and out of 
work for some months. He had pawned 
his things; nobody had beiriended him, 
and he had been reduced from a state 
of being comparatively well-off as a 
working man till he had got lower and 
lower, and did not know what to do. 
He had no bread in the house—nothing 
at all—and he did not know where to 
get anything. It was a Sunday morn- 
ing, and he set off with the intention of 
going and drowning himself. 

He got up early in the morning, and 
went on till he passed a chapel where 
this minister was preaching. He went 
past it, and he saw people going in. 
In some places they preached early in 
the morning. And he said, “Well, I 
will just go and sit down there before 
I drown myself;” and he went in and 
sat down, and the sermon of that min- 
ister went home to his heart. The min- 
ster told him of God’s loving-kindness 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


and tender mercy to the poor sinner, 
until the thought of that love entered 
into the heart of that poor man. And 
he said at the close of the sermon, 
“Now, my dear friends, put the God 
of Israel to the test, and see if it is 
not as I have said. I have been telling 
you of His love, and now I ask you to 
come to Him now, and put Him to the 
test, and see whether it is not as I have 
said.” And this poor man said to him- 
self, “Well, I will go home, and I will 
put my trust in Him. He says that He 
will listen to the voice of those who 
come to Him. Well, I will put Him to 
the test.” He went straight to his wife 
and he said, “Let us have a little reading 
of the Bible.” She was touched to the 
heart, for they had come from Scotland 
and used to read the Bible, but for many 
years they had forgotten it entirely. 
The wife agreed directly, and she won- 
dered what it was that had induced 
him. And then he read a chapter, and 
knelt down and earnestly besought God 
to forgive him his sin, and also that 
He would give him food and show him 
how to go on. 

Well, there was no food to eat on 
that day. They prayed again and again 
that God would send them a deliver- 
ance from their trouble; that He would, 
in some way, help them out of their 
trouble, and earnestly begged God to 
forgive them their sin. Next day, in 
the morning, there came a letter in the 
house. It was a long time since they 
had had a letter from anybody. They 
opened it and found it came from a man 
who knew them years back, and knew 
that they were in trouble, and he said, 
“Tf have heard of such and such a place 
where they are seeking a workman. If 
you go there you will find, I think, that 
the master of the place will give you 
employment, and here is a one-pound 
note to help you in the meantime.” The 
man felt he had put the God of Israel 
to the test, and God had answered his 
prayer. He went to the place indicated ; 
and as he was really a good workman, 
he was employed, and soon got on. Af- 
ter a few years he became foreman; af- 
ter that, partner in the business; and af- 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ter that, I believe, he was pretty much 
the sole manager of it; and when he met 
the minister, he was a rich man. And 
he said to the minister, “All this is ow- 
ing to your sermon that day. It was, 
through Jesus Christ, blessed to my 
soul. Now I have left off my wicked 
ways; I have come and trusted in God, 
and I have not only blessings around 
me, but I have a hope of blessedness 
hereafter in the world to come.” 
—Sewell. 


—— $87 ——— 
THE UNGROUND GRIST. 


My father was a man of prayer, and 
in our home the family altar was never 
permitted to fall down, nor its fires to 
expire or grow dim. Around that altar 
our dependence on God was constantly 
acknowledged, and the Divine blessing 
continually invoked. Nor was that 
blessing sought in vain, but mercies 
new and fresh, from day to day, were 
granted in answer to a father’s prayers. 

One bright morning in the spring of 
1850, after commending us to the Div- 
ine protection, my father put two bush- 
els of rye into his wagon and started 
for the grist-mill, a few miles distant 
from our home. When more than half- 
way there he had to cross a bridge, 
along the sides of which there were no 
railings, but only some logs laid upon 
the end of the planks. 

When on the middle of this bridge 
the horse stopped and began to back. 
My father leaped from the wagon, and 
the horse continued backing till the 
hind wheels went over the logs and off 
the edge of the bridge, and the wagon 
seat and grain bag tumbled out and 
fell into the stream. At this moment 
the horse stopped, the forward wheels 
caught on the logs, and the hinder part 
of the wagon hung over the edge of the 
bridge, being held by the horse and by 
the forward wheels. 


Four or five men soon came to the 
rescue, the wagon was lifted back, the 
grist fished up from the water, and in 
half an hour my father was on his way 
back home to dry his grist and get it 


ANECDOTES. 313 
ready for grinding again. 

There was a mystery about this whole 
transaction. We could not imagine 
what had made the horse back when 
upon the bridge. He showed no signs 
of fright, and had never acted so before. 
My father was troubled. He had earn- 
estly prayed that morning that the angel 
of the Lord might encamp around about 
us that day, and now to be subjected to 
such an accident and so much inconven- 
ience, was something of a trial to his 
faith, though it did not shake his con- 
fidence in God. 

He returned home, and we went to 
work to dry our grain and prepare it 
for grinding; but when we spread out 
the rye upon a cloth to the sun to dry, 
we noticed, scattered all through it, 
fragments of a fine glittering substance, 
which on examination proved to be 
glass! Thousands and thousands of 
little fragments and splinters of broken 
glass were mingled with those two 
bushels of rye—enough to have caused 
the death of all our family, and a hun- 
dred others, if the grain had been 
ground, and baked and eaten. 

We were amazed at this revelation; 
and with what grateful hearts we knelt 
around the family altar and thanked 
God for His wonderful providence 
which had so strangely preserved our 
lives! 

But how came the glass thus mingled 
with the grain? It was all explained 
very soon. The rye had been kept in 
an open barrel, and over this barrel our 
neighbors had smoothed axe-handles, 
using pieces of glass to scrape and pol- 
ish them. These pieces of glass were 
thus broken and splintered, and the frag- 
ments dropped unnoticed into the 
grain, and were measured up and placed 
in the bag to be carried to the mill. 

No one suspected the danger, and it 
that grist had been ground no human 
power could have averted the calamity, 
or saved our family from the terrible 
influence of a poison so deadly as pow- 
dered glass. God, in His providence, 
interposed and preserved our lives— 
truly it is but right that they should be 
consecrated to His service.—Selected. 


314 


—— 588 —— 
HE GOT IN. 


Gipsy Smith tells this incident of the 
early life and ministry of the late Rev. 
Charles A. Berry, one of England’s 
greatest preachers of the past genera- 
tion. Dr. Berry received a call to be- 
come the successor of Henry Ward 
Beecher soon after his death, but de- 
clined the call. When Dr. Berry was a 
young minister just out of the divinity 
hall where he had been taught and im- 
bued all the modern ideas about culture 
as a substitute for Calvary, he set out to 
revolutionize everything in sight. 

He proposed to throw down every- 
thing he found standing and to build 
up everything that was new. 

One night as the town clock was toll- 
ing the midnight hour, for he was emi- 
nently a student and loved to burn the 
midnight oil, he heard a ring at the 
door. Answering the call in person, 
he found a young girl with an old Lan- 
cashire shawl thrown over her head, 
standing at the door. 

“Be you the preacher?” she asked. 

He replied that he was a minister. 

“I want you to come and get my 
mother in.” 

“Why, you need a policeman for 
that.” 

“Oh, I don’t mean that, sir; my 
mother is dying and I want you to come 
and get her into heaven.” 

“Where do you live?” 

When she gave the street and number, 
he knew that it was about a mile and a 
half away. 

“Is there no minister who lives nearer 
to your home than that?” 

“My mother wants to see you, and 
said that she could not rest until she 
could see you.” 

The young minister did not like the 
thought of walking the streets of the city 
at midnight with a girl with a shawl 
over her head. It was a risky thing to 
do; but she was persistent, and there 
seemed nothing else to do. 

He went and found the poor mother 
tossing and groaning upon a comfort- 
less bed in a house of shame. She told 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


him that she knew she was dying, and 
that she wanted to know what she must 
do to be saved. He began to give her 
some of the beautiful ideas about Chris- 
tian culture which he had learned about 
Jesus as the perfect example, etc. 

“That’s not for the likes of me,” she 
said. “I’m a sinful woman and I’m 
dying, and I want to know what I must 
do to be saved, for my guilty conscience 
tells me I am lost.” 

The minister told at the first how he 
was puzzled; then his faith leaped over 
the years of scholastic training, back to 
the simple faith of his childhood, which 
he had heard from his mother’s lips-- 
the story of Bethlehem and Calvary, 
and the blood that cleanseth from all 
sin. 

“That’s what I need, that’s what I 
need!” said the dying woman. “Tell 
me some more.” And he went on and 
told her more. 

“And so,’ he confided to a brother 
minister, “I got her in, and—I got in 
myself.” 


—— 589 —— 
NOBILITY OF CHARACTER. 


As an illustration of the ruling spirit 
of considerateness in a noble character, 
we may cite the anecdote of the gallant 
Sir Ralph Abarcrombrie, of whom it is 
related that, when mortally wounded in 
the battle of Aboukir, he was carried in 
a litter on board the Foudroyant, and 
to ease his pain a'soldier’s blanket was 
placed under his head, from which he 
experienced considerable relief. 

He asked what it was. 

“It’s only a soldier’s blanket,” was 
the reply. 

“Whose blanket is it?” said he, half 
lifting himself up. 

“Only one of the men’s.” 

“I wish to know the name of the man 
whose blanket this is.” 

“It is Duncan Roy’s of the Forty- 
second, Sir Ralph.” 

“Then see that Duncan Roy gets his 
blanket this very night.” 

Even to ease his dying agony, the 
General would not deprive the private 
soldier of his blankets for one night. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 590 —— 
A BLESSING AND A PENNY. 


The heart of a child stores up experi- 
ences that are to be the memories of 
after years, and happy is he who counts 
among them as kind an act as that re- 
corded by Dwight L. Moody. He said: 

“There were nine of us children, and 
my widowed mother had great difficulty 
in keeping the wolf from the door. 
My next older brother had found a 
place for me to work during the winter 
months in a neighboring village about 
thirteen miles away, and early one No- 
vember morning we started out together 
on our dismal journey. That was the 
longest journey I ever took; for thir- 
teen miles was more for me at ten than 
the world’s circumference has ever been 
since. 

“When at last we arrived in the town 
I had hard work to keep back my tears, 
and my brother had to do his best to 
cheer me. Suddenly he pointed to some 
one and said: “There’s a man that'll 
give you a cent; he gives one to every 
new boy that comes to town.’ 

“I was so airaid that he would pass 
me that I planted myself directly in his 
path. He was a feeble, old, white-haired 
man. As he came up to us my brother 
spoke to him, and he stopped and 
looked at me. ‘Why, I have never seen 
you before. You must be a new boy,’ 
he said. He asked me about my home, 
and then laying his trembling hand 
upon my head, he told me that although 
I had no earthly father, my heavenly 
Father loved me, and then he gave me 
a bright, new cent. I do not remember 
what became of that cent, but that old 
man’s blessing has followed me for over 
fifty years, and to my dying day I shall 
feel the kindly pressure of that hand 
upon my head.” 


—— 591 —— 


GRATITUDE HOW EXPRESSED. 

A rich youth in Rome was suffering 
from a dangerous illness; at length he 
recovered, and regained his health. 
Then he went for the first time into the 
garden, feeling, as it were, born again; 
and he was full of joy, and praised God 


315 


with a loud voice. He turned his face 
to heaven and said: “O Thou all-suffi- 
cient Creator, could man recompense 
Thee, how willingly would I give Thee 
all my possessions!” 

Hermas, who was called the herd- 
man, heard this, and said to the rich 
youth: “All good gifts come from 
above; thither thou canst send nothing. 
Come, follow me.” 

The youth followed the pious old man, 
who took him to a dark hut, where was 
nothing but misery and wretchedness. 
The father was stretched on a bed of 
sickness, the mother wept, the children 
were destitute of clothing, and crying 
for bread. 

The youth was deeply touched. Her- 
mas said: “See here an altar for thy 
sacrifice. See here the Lord’s brethren 
and representatives.” 

Then the rich youth assisted them 
bountifully, and provided for the sick 
man’s wants. And the poor people 
blessed him, and called him an angel 
of God. 

Hermas smiled, and said: “Thus turn 
always thy grateful countenance first 
to heaven and then to earth.”—F. A. 
Krummacher. 


se |e peas 
“MY BOAT IS SO SMALL?” 


The fishermen of Brittany are wont 
to utter this simple prayer when they 
launch their boats upon the deep: “Keep 
me, my God; my boat is so small, and 
thy ocean is so wide.” How touchingly 
beautiful the words and the thought! 
How wise and appropriate the prayer! 

Might not the same petition well be 
uttered with the same directness by us 
every day of our lives: “Keep me, my 
God; my boat is so small”—I am so 
weak, so helpless, so easily carried by 
the winds and tossed by the waves? 

“And Thy ocean is so wide”’—the 
perils are so many, the rocks are so fre- 
quent, the currents of temptation are so 
resistless, the tides of evil are so treach- 
erous, the icy mountains of disaster are 
so threatening, that except thou, the 
Lord, dost keep me, I must utterly per- 
ish.—Rev. G. B. F. Hallock, D. D. 


316 


—— 593 —— 
HOW CONVICTED OF SIN. 


Let us illustrate my way of convict- 
ing persons of sin. How would I at- 
tempt to convict a person of ignorance? 
If a little sprig of a fellow comes where 
I am, thinking that he knows every- 
thing, and that he is going to teach me 
everything, it is not necessary for me 
to say to him, “You are a popinjay, sir; 
you are a conceited fool!” One of the 
best ways to deal with him is to assume 
that he knows everything. I introduce 
one subject, and assume that he is fam- 
iliar with it, and question him upon it 
till he begins to say to himself, “I do 
not know quite as much as I thought I 
did.” I at once pass from that to an- 
other subject, and assume that he knows 
something on that, and push him along 
till he begins to boggle, and feel that 
he is not half so wise as he thought he 
was. And by the time I have swamped 
him on half-a-dozen subjects, he will be 
quite crestfallen, and have some idea of 
his ignorance. 


And if a man comes to me and says, 
“I cannot see that I am a sinner,” I say, 
“Then you do not need any change nor 
repentance. But you ought to act like 
a Christian, if you cannot see that you 
are a sinner. Do you pray?” “Well, I 
—yes.” “Do you enjoy prayer?” “I 
cannot say that I do.” “But why not?” 
“Well, my thoughts wander, and I do 
not seem to be speaking to anybody, 
and nobody seems to hear me.” “Ha! 
you do not think that you are sinful; 
but the moment you attempt to speak to 
God He is nothing to you, and you are 
nothing to Him. You are from Him; 
and your breath is from Him; the boun- 
ties that every day shower upon you are 
from Him; and yet, according to your 
own admission, nothing is so foreign to 
your nature as communion with Him; 
and when you address a few words to 
Him, your thoughts are roving from one 
end of the earth to the other!” “And 
how is it,” I say, “in respect to Christ, 
His sacrifice, His resurrection and His 
ascension? What are your feelings to- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ward Him?” “Well, I want to love the 
Saviour.” “Do you love the Saviour?” 
“I cannot say that I do.” “You protess 
to have no sense of sinfulness, and yet 
you admit that you have no love toward 
the Saviour who died for you, and who, 
having ascended to heaven, there inter- 
cedes in your behalf!” But I say still 
further, “Take the idea of a Christian 
life as the rule of your conduct, and at- 
tempt to govern yourself by the law of 
gentleness, meekness, and love for one 
day.” The moment he does this he finds 
himself in difficulty; and at the end of 
the day he comes back and says, “Oh, 
I broke it here, and I broke it there. I 
found myself unequal to the task.” I 
do not care which one of the fundamen- 
tal precepts of Christ a man undertakes 
to follow, he needs undertake to follow 
it but one day to have revealed to him . 
the barrenness of his spiritual life and 
the sinfulness of his nature.—Beecher. 


594—— 
AN UNEXPECTED QUESTION. 


One morning about twenty years ago 
a lawyer on the way to his office stop- 
ped outside a barber’s shop door to get 
a “shine.” 

The little bootblack who plied his 
trade there was no stranger to him, al- 
though he knew him only by his street 
name. This morning the boy was un- 
usually silent. The lawyer missed his 
bright remarks, and began to rally him 
a little, when suddenly the boy looked 
up in his face and said: 


“Mr. Bartlett, do you love God?” 
The lawyer was an upright, self-re- 
specting man, but neither a church at- 
tendant nor much given to religious 
thought, and he took the question at 
first as an attempt at a joke on the part 
of the boy; but he soon found that it 
was meant in all seriousness. No one 
had ever asked him the question before 
the same way, and it staggered him. 
“Why do you ask me that, Bat?” he 
said, after a rather awkward pause, 
“What difference does it make to you?’ 
“Well, I’! tell you, sir. Me mothe: 
an’ me’s got to get out; for the place 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


we live in ’ll be tore down pretty soon, 
an’ a feller like me can’t pay much rent. 
Mother does all she can, but you see 
there’s three of us, an’ me grandmother’s 
lame. I dunno what to do. Yesterday 
I heard two men talkin’, an’ one of ’em 
said God would help anybody that loved 
Him, if they’d tell Him they was in the 
hole. I thought about it ’most all night, 
an’ this mornin’ I made up my mind I’d 
lay for somebody that knew Him well 
enough to ask Him.” 

The lawyer was embarrassed. All he 
could say to the threadbare little boot- 
black was that he had better ask some- 
one else. He had better keep inquiring, 
he told him, for in a city of so many 
churches he would surely find the sort 
of person he wanted. He thrust a dol- 
lar into the boy’s hand and hurried 
away. 

But all that day he found his thoughts 
reverting to the bootblack and his 
strange question. “A fine position for an 
educated man in a Christian country!” 
he said to himself. “Struck dumb by an 
ignorant street arab! I could not an- 
swer his question. Why not?” 

The lawyer was an honest man, and 
his self examination ended in a resolu- 
tion to find out the reason why. That 
evening he went, for the first time in 
many years, to prayer-meeting, and 
frankly told the whole story, without 
sparing himself. From that day life 
had a new meaning for him, and a 
higher purpose. 

A few days later, at a conference of 
ministers of different denominations in 
the same city, the lawyer’s strange ex- 
perience was mentioned by the pastor 
who gave him his first Christian wel- 
come. Immediately another minister 
told of a young man of his congregation 
who had been awakened to a religious 
life by the same question put to him 
by the same little bootblack. The in- 
terest culminated when a third declared 
that he had a call from the bootblack 
himself, who had been brought to his 
study by a man who had appreciated 
his unexpected question, and knew how 
to befriend him. 

Such an incident could not be allowed 


ANECDOTES 317 
to end there. The boy was helped to 
good lodgings, and to patronage which 
enabled him to provide better for his 
“family.” At last he had found some- 
body who loved God; and in time he 
had learned to love Him himself, and 
“know Him well enough to ask Him.” 
Opportunities for a decent education 
were opened to him, and he showed so 
much promise that his lawyer friend 
took him in, first as an office-boy, and 
finally as a student. 

Many would recognize the bootblack 
today if his name were given, not only 
as a member of the bar in successful 
practice, but as a church member and a 
worker in Sunday Schools. He loves 
boys, and the few who knew that he 
was once a bootblack understand his in- 
terest in little fellows who need a friend. 
Helping them is for him loving God in 
the most effectual way.—Youth’s Com- 
panion. 


—— 595 —— 


AN ARTIST’S FIND 


Do you remember the story of the 
portrait of Dante which is painted on 
the walls of the Bargello, at Florence? 
For many years it was supposed that 
the picture had utterly perished. Men 
had heard of it but no one living had 
ever seen it. But presently came an 
artist who was determined to find it 
again. He went into the place where 
tradition said that it had been painted. 
The room was used as a storeroom for 
lumber and straw. The walls were 
covered with dirty whitewash. He had 
the heaps of rubbish carried away, and 
patiently and carefully removed the 
whitewash from the wall. Lines and 
colors long hidden began to appear, 
and at last the grave, lofty, noble face 
of the great poet looked out again upon 
the world of light. 


“That was wonderful,” you say; “that 
was beautiful!” Not half so wonder- 
ful as the work which Christ came to 
do in the heart of man—to restore the 
forgotten image of God and bring the 
divine image to the light—Van Dyke. 


318 


mam 596 —— 


AGASSIZ AND OKEN DINING 
ON POTATOES 


An interesting fact, not without its 
moral, is told by Agassiz, of his visit, 
when a young man, to the great Ger- 
man naturalist, Professor Lorenz Oken. 
The professor received his guest with 
warm enthusiasm, but with apparent 
embarrassment. He showed his visitor 
the laboratory, and the students at work; 
also his cabinet; and lastly, his splen- 
did library of books pertaining to zoo- 
logical science, a collection worth some 
seven thousand dollars, and well worthy 
the glow of pride which the owner 
manifested as he expatiated on its ex- 
cellence. The dreaded dinner-hour came, 
and now the embarrassment of the great 
German reached its maximum point. 
“M. Agassiz,” said he, with evident per- 
turbation, “to gather and keep up this 
library exacts the utmost husbandry of 
my pecuniary means. To accomplish 
this, I allow myself no luxury what- 
ever; hence my table is restricted to the 
plainest fare. Thrice a week our din- 
ners boast of meat; the other days we 
have only potatoes and salt. I very 
much regret that your visit has occurred 
on a potato day.” And so the splendid 
Switzer and the great German, with his 
students, dined together on potatoes and 
salt—New York Independent. 


597 —— 


THE SPOILED PICTURE. 


Sir James Thornhill was the person 
who painted the inside of the cupola 
of St. Paul’s, London. After having 
finished one of the compartments, he 
stepped back gradually to see how it 
would look at a distance. He receded 
so far (still keeping his eye intently 
fixed on the painting), that he got al- 
most to the very edge of the scaffolding 
without perceiving it; but he continued 
to retreat, half a minute more would 
have completed his destruction, and he 
must have fallen to the pavement un- 
derneath. A person present, who saw 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the danger the great artist was in, had 
the happy presence of mind to suddenly 
snatch up one of the brushes, and spoil 
his painting by rubbing it over. Sir 
James, transported with rage, sprang 
forward to save the remainder of the 
piece. But his rage was soon turned 
into thanks, when the person told him, 
“Sir, by spoiling the painting I have 
saved the life of the painter. You had 
advanced to the extremity of the scaf- 
fold without knowing it. Had I called 
out to you to apprise you of your dan- 
ger, you would naturally have turned 
to look behind you, and the surprise of 
finding yourself in such a dreadful sit- 
uation would have made you fall in- 
deed. I had, therefore, no other method 
of retrieving you but by acting as I did.” 
Similar, if I may so speak, is the method 
of God’s dealing with His people. We 
are all naturally fond of our own legal 
performances. We admire them to our 
ruin, unless the Holy Spirit retrieve us 
from our folly. This He does by marr- 
ing, as it were, our best works; by show- 
ing us their insufficiency to justify us 
before God. When we are truly taught 
of Him, we thank Him for His grace, 
instead of being angry at having our 
idols defaced. The only way by which 
we are saved from everlasting destruc- 
tion, is by being made to see that “b 
‘tthe deeds of the law no flesh shall be 
justified.”—Salter. 


598 —— 
THE NEGRO’S ADVICE. 


A young minister received a call from 
two different societies at once, to be- 
come their pastor. One was rich, and 
able to give him a large salary, and 
was well united; the other was poor, 
and so divided that they had driven 
away their minister. In this condition 
he applied to his father for advice. An 
aged negro servant who overheard what 
they said, made this reply: ‘Massa, 
go where there is the least money and 
the most devil.” He took the advice, 
and was made the happy instrument of 
uniting a distracted church, and con- 
verting many souls to Christ.—Selected. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


‘eo SITE TATY 599 WIEST IR: 


THE WORTH OF IMPRESSIONS. 


An old reader of The Christian 
living in Newburyport, Mass., recently 
told us the following incidents in his 
experience. He said: 

Some three or four years ago I was 
riding on my bicycle down the street 
on which my factory is located, when 
I saw a man with bent head walking 
slowly in front of me. He was a strang- 
er, but I somehow felt the impression 
that he was in trouble, and so I jumped 
off my bicycle at once, stepped up be- 
hind him, and putting my hand on his 
shoulder, said: 

“Is there anything the matter with 
you?” 

He turned around with a white face 
and said: 

“Yes, there is.” 

“Well,” said I, “come right into my 
office and tell me about it.” 

I took him into the office, and he 
told me he was a stranger in town, hav- 
ing just come there on the previous 
day; that his wife was sick, and they 
had no money and nothing to eat in the 
house. This was about nine o’clock in 
the morning. I gave him four dollars 
myself, and afterwards telephoned to 
friends of mine so that we were able to 
make up about eighteen dollars for him; 
but after I had given him the four dol- 
lars he said to me: 

“Do you believe in prayer?” 

I told him yes, and he said: 

“Well, I want to tell you something. 
This morning about four o’clock my 
wife and I got out of bed and got down 
on our knees and asked God to send us 
some help to-day.” 

‘The other incident related by our 
friend was of a somewhat different char- 
acter. 

He had occasion to borrow large 
sums of money during the year, and on 
one of these occasions he tried to get a 
thousand dollars from the bank, but 
they talked the matter over with him 
and said, “We ‘think you are in too 
many things, and unless you can get 
out of some of them we do not feel like 


ANECDOTES. 319 
increasing your loans. We know you 
are all right, but we doubt your ability 
iy carry so much as you are trying to 

0.” 
_ “Well, it was a pretty serious situa- 
tion for me, and I went down to my 
factory, and as I always took the Lord 
into my partnership, I got down on my 
knees and said, ‘Now, Lord, I have got 
to ave this money, and they won’t 
give it to me at the bank, and you'll 
have to furnish it.’ ” 

“It wasn’t very long before I saw a 
man coming down the street, and he 
came into my office and said, ‘Is your 
name B—?’ TI said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Well,’ he 
said, “I am a stranger in this town, but 
everyone I have talked with speaks 
well of you, and I have a little money 
that I want to place in good hands, and 
I want to know if you can use it’ I 
asked him how much he had, and he 
said a thousand dollars. I took it and 
it has been paying him interest ever 
since.” 

A successful business man used to 
give to every boy in his employ a pocket 
copy of the book of Proverbs, saying 
that it was the best collection of busi- 
ness maxims he knew. The wise au- 
thor of that collection tells us, “In all 
thy ways acknowledge Him, and He 
shall direct thy paths,” and that “All” 
applies to business methods as well as 
other “Ways.”—The Christian. 


—— 600 


“MOVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.” 


Over the door of a church in Ham- 
burg is a piece of statuary. In a mar- 
ble chair sits a man upon whose knee 
rests a parchment. On this parchment 
his eyes are fixed, and in his right hand 
he holds a pen with which he seems 
to be writing. It is John, the evangel- 
ist. He thinks himself alone. Yet 
he is not. An angel stands behind him 
gazing intently over his shoulder upon 
the parchment, and with his right hand 
he guides the pen. Without the Holy 
Spirit’s guidance man’s work is but as 
the morning cloud and the early dew. 
— G. Frederick. 





320 


—601— 
THINGS WROUGHT BY PRAYER. 


James has a most remarkable passage 
on prayer, and the Revised version 
gives an excellent rendering. It reads: 
“The supplication of a righteous man 
availeth much in its working.” Elijah, 
a man of like passions, is cited in illus- 
tration of a man who “prayed fervent- 
ly,” and who obtained an answer to his 
prayers. 

God works mysteriously, and prayer 
is answered in unanticipated ways. 
Chaplain McCabe was taken from Libby 
Prison to the hospital, being ill with 
typhoid fever. After he had been made 
as comfortable as possible, Major Gen- 
eral Powell, a dear friend, said: “Chap- 
lain, there is a letter for you; would you 
like to hear it read?” The letter was 
written by Dr. Isaac Cook, a member 
of the same Conference as the Chaplain. 
The writer said that a session of the 
Conference had just been held, and that 
when McCabe’s name was called some- 
one answered, “He is in Libby Prison.” 
The bishop who was presiding spoke of 
the time when Paul and Barnabas were 
prayed out of prison, and suggested 
that prayer be offered for Chaplain Mc- 
Cabe. ‘Two hundred and fifty preach- 
ers then went down on their knees and 
asked for the release of their brother. 
Chaplain McCabe said: “I was used to 
suffering; I could endure loneliness 
without tears, but I was not used to 
tenderness, and that tender letter broke 
me down. The tears rolled down my 
cheeks like rain. As soon as I could 
control myself, I began to sing. I broke 
out into a profuse perspiration and the 
tide was turned. In the evening the 
doctor came and felt my pulse and start- 
ed back in surprise. ‘Why,’ said he, 
‘there’s a big change in you. That last 
medicine has helped you wonder- 
fully.” The recovery was rapid. 
Twelve days later he was informed that 
he had been exchanged, and was able 
to leave the hospital. 

Henry M. Stanley has said: “When 
oft-repeated instances of the efficacy of 
prayer were remembered, I have mar- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


veled at the mysterious subtleness with 
which the answer has been delivered.” 
Then there is an illustration from his 
own experience: “Constrained at the 
darkest hour to humbly confess that 
without God’s help I was helpless, I 
vowed a vow in the forest solitudes that 
I would confess His aid before men. A 
silence, as of death, was round about 
me; it was midnight; I was weakened 
by illness, prostrated by fatigue, and 
‘worn with anxiety for my white and 
black companions whose fate was a 
mystery. In this physical and mental 
distress I besought God to give me back 
my people. Nine hours later 
we were exulting with rapturous joy. 
In full view of all was the crimson flag 
with the crescent, and beneath its 
waving folds was the long-lost rear 
column.” 

Abraham Lincoln, in the dark hour 
of the Nation’s history, said to Bishop 
Simpson, who had called upon him: 
“Bishop, I feel the need of prayer; will 
you pray with me?” The two men fell 
on their knees before God, and implored 
His help in that time of peril. Audible 
“Amens” were uttered by Lincoln re- 
peatedly while the bishop was praying. 
The great President also said that he 
felt confident that things would go ail 
right at Gettysburg. Said he to Gen- 
eral Sickles: “I told God if we were to 
win the battle He must do it, for I had 
done all I could. I told Him that this 
was His war, and our cause was His 
cause.” Then, having laid the mat- 
ter before God, he admits that confi- 
dence and peace came to him. 

D. L. Moody went to England in 
1872, and was determined, his son said, 
mot to get into work, if he could help 
it. But at the close of a service in the 
Old Bailey prayer meeting, the Rev. 
Mr. Lessey, pastor of the church in the 
morth of London, asked him to preach 
the next Sunday. He consented, and 
preached twice. At the close of the 
evening service he asked those who 
would like to become Christians to rise. 
It looked as if the whole congregation 
rose to its feet. Mr. Moody was stag- 
gered, and thought he was not under- 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


stood. The pastor of the church could 
afford no explanation, for never before 
had he seen it in this wise. Then Mr. 
Moody invited all who wanted to be- 
come Christians to step into the inquiry 
room, ‘The people went in, and crowd- 
ed the room, so that extra chairs had to 
be taken in to seat them. Neither Mr. 
Moody nor the pastor had expected such 
a blessing. “They had nct realized that 
God can save by hundreds and thous- 
ands as well as by ones and twos.” 


Meetings were held for ten days and 
four hundred persons were received into 
the membership of that church. _ 

Later the secret of this phenomenal 
success was discovered. ‘There was a 
woman belonging to that church who 
was bedridden, but she had been earn- 
estly praying that God would revive her 
church. When her sister told her, at 
the close of the morning service, that 
Mr. Moody, of America, had preached, 
the sick woman said: “I know what 
that means; God has heard my prayers!” 
Great was her faith, and many were 
blessed. Truly, in ways unnumbered 
and in such a manner as He sees best, 
God answers prayer—New York Ob- 
server. 


—602— 
THE PEDDLER’S WINDOW. 


It was a long time age, some cen- 
turies in fact, that a peddler, with his 
pack and dog, sought shelter from the 
rain, at the close of a summer day, in 
an angle of St. Mary’s Church, Lam- 
beth, England. 

“Come in out of the rain,” said the 
hospitable curate. “Stay for vespers, 
and I will talk with you.” The invi- 
tation was as thankfully accepted as it 
had been kindly given. 

“How are you getting on?” asked 
the minister, when the service was over. 

“Not at all well. I am having a 
hard time of it, and am ready to give 

Ds 
“Well, but do you ask God to help 
you in your business?” 

When the “outdoor merchant” an- 
_ swered “No,” the minister said: “Try 
doing that and see what it will accom- 


ANECDOTES 321 
plish for you. Each morning, before you 
start out, ask God’s blessing on your 
work.” 

Years afterwards the same peddler re- 
turned to St. Mary’s to thank the cur- 
ate for having so hospitably entertained 
him, and even more, for the good ad- 
vice with which he had sent him on his 
way. He had followed the advice, and 
had been successful; and as an expres- 
sion of his gratitude for what had been 
done for him, he gave to the church a 
parcel of land, not far away and on the 
same shore of the Thames, accompany- 
ing the gift with the condition that 
there should be placed in the church a 
window of stained glass representing a 
peddler with his pack and dog. 

The “Peddler’s Acre,” now a closely 
built part of the city of London, is still 
owned by the church, to which it yields 
a handsome annual revenue; and the 
token of the peddler’s devout thankful- 
ness for his prosperity, the quaint por- 
trait of peddler and dog, still glows in 
colored glass above the south aisle of 
old St. Mary’s Church.—The Youth’s 
Companion. 


—603— 


HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR SOUL? 


One day as Felix Neff was walking in 
a street in the city of Lausanne, he saw, 
at a distance, a man whom he took for 
one of his friends. He ran up behind 
him, tapped him on the shoulder before 
looking in his face, and asked him: 

“What is the state of your soul, my 
friend?” 

The stranger turned. Neff perceived 
his error, apologized, and went his way. 
About three or four years afterward, a 
person came to Neff and accosted him, 
saying that he was indebted to him for 
inestimable kindness. Neff did not rec- 
ognize the man and begged he would 
explain. The stranger replied, 

“Have you forgotten an unknown 
person, whose shoulder you touched in 
a street in Lausanne, asking him, ‘How 
do you find your soul?” It was I; your 
question led me to serious reflection, 
and now I find it is well with my soul.” 
—Selected, 


322 | 


—604— 


SCRATICHING THE SCALES OFF 
THE DRAGON’S BACK. 


Nestling in a valley of western China 
is the glorious village of Tai-wan. Just 
over the hills, which crowd about the 
green valley, flow the wide, muddy 
waters of the Yangtse. Every morning 
the inhabitants of the village pour 
down from the heights to the river 
banks, to fill their water buckets. Then 
back again, each trudges, toiling up over 
the ascent, and down again into the 
valley. 

For one thousand years this weary, 
climbing route has marked the path of 
Tai-wan’s water system. 

One autumn a boy went out from 
the mission primary school in the vil- 
lage to enter advanced institutions fur- 
ther down the river. When he returned 
to his village, schooled in the science 
and learning of the West, he was given 
a civic reception. 

Chen, the young scholar, regarded his 
home village with new eyes. The mayor 
of the town was present at the recep- 
tion, and it was to him that Chen spoke. 

“Do you see that long line of water 
bearers climbing the hills from the 
river?” he asked. 

“I see,” answered the mayor, 
what of it?” 

“They work too long and too hard,” 
Chen announced. “Their backs are bent 
with toil. The long, tiresome walk 
keeps them so worn that they are fit for 
nothing but to carry their buckets of 
water twice each day.” 

“But what would you do?” asked the 
mayor. “They must have water.” 

“I would cut a road straight through 
the hill from the village to the river,” 
said Chen. “Then the work of the car- 
riers would be light, and they could 
give extra time to other tasks. The 
whole village would benefit by the sav- 
ing of toil and labor.” 

“A wonderful idea! Wonderful!” 
gasped the mayor. “T’ll order the road 
cut at once.” 

And he did. 

For months the coolies dug that path 


“but 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


through the hill, carrying away the 
earth in their little shoulder baskets. 
Finally the road was completed, and 
all the village flocked through the cut 
to the river’s edge. Beside the easy 
journey, they had now an open outlet 
to communication with the rest of the 
people who lived along the mighty 
Yangtse. 

For two months the village of Tai- 
wan light-heartedly made the shortened 
trip for water. 

Then one day the mayor woke up with 
a boil on his nose. 

“Aha!” cried the old native doctor. 
“You have a boil on your nose!” 

“Yes,” admitted the mayor, “I have 
a boil on my nose.” 

“And it is a deadly boil,” announced 
the old doctor. “It is the kind the 
Dragon sends when he is angry.” 

“What have I done to arouse the 
Dragon?” asked the trembling mayor. 

“You dug a road through the hill,” 
answered the doctor. “You dug deep, 
and you scraped some of the scales 
from the Dragon’s back as he lay buried 
beneath the earth.” 

“But what can I do to put back the 
scales?” 

“There is but one thing,” replied the 
doctor. “Order the road filled up, or 
you will not only have a boil on your 
nose, but you will be covered with 
boils.” 

The earth was carried back in the 
little shoulder baskets by the coolies. 
And to-day if you go to the village of 
Tai-wan you will see a line of men and 
women trudging up and over the hill to 
fill their two buckets with river water, 
and toiling wearily back up again, and 
down the slope into the village.—James 
Lewis, in World Outlook. 


—605— 


You do not need to defend the Bible 
any more than a poodle dog need defend 
a lion. Unchain the lion and he will 
defend himself. So give the Bible freely 
to the people, and let them read it, and 
it will impress upon their minds the 
great truth: it is the “word of the Lord, 
which liveth and abideth forever.” © 


bd 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


706s 
CAREY AND MISSIONS IN INDIA. 


Few biographers are more crowded 
with instruction for us than the life of 
William Carey, the greatest pioneer of 
modern missions. When it is studied, 
how it dwarfs into insignificance the 
petty lives of the world’s Napoleons 
and Alexanders. 


One of the first things worth imitat- 
ing in it is the fact that he was a shoe- 
maker; but he was a shoemaker in the 
same way that Jesus was a carpenter. 
He kept on cobbling shoes even after 
he became a preacher, for his preacher’s 
salary was only $50 a year; but he said, 
“My business is preaching the gospel. 
I cobble shoes to pay expenses.” 

The next fact to notice is that he did 
not confine his thoughts to a narrow 
village round, but he was a world- 
brooder. He hung a map of the world 
by the side of his cobbler’s bench, and 
filled it with information of foreign 
lands. In those days, when British 
foreign missions lived only in his own 
mind, he became a missionary enthu- 
siast. 

Then, he knew how to make his own 
great idea the thought of others. His 
chance came to preach before his asso- 
ciation of preachers at Nottingham, and 
he chose the text which is our scripture 
lesson for the day, developing it under 
the two famous heads, “Attempt Great 
Things for God,” “Expect Great Things 
from God.” Carey knew how to 
set men to thinking, and the result 
of that sermon was the first British for- 
eign missionary society, with Carey and 
a ship’s surgeon, John Thomas, as its 
first missionaries, They set sail for 
India on ‘June 13th, 1793—a historic 
date. 

For more than four decades Carey’s 
life was given heroically and success- 
fully for India. Like Paul, his “one 
thing I do” included many things. 
His mission was self-supporting. For 
a time he managed an Indigo factory. 
The greater part of his life, however, 
he was professor of Indian languages 
in the government college. His salary 


323 


was $7,500; but he and his family lived 
on $200, and he gave all the rest to the 
various missionary enterprises in which 
he was engaged. 


Dr, Carey or the “consecrated cob- 
bler” (as Sydney Smith derisively dub- 
bed him) was deservedly given the de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity at Brown 
University and was one of the world’s 
greatest linguists. His first notable 
achievement was the translation of the 
entire Bible into Bengali, and he trans- 
lated the Bible, in whole or part, into 
twenty-four Indian languages or dia- 
lects. In addition, he established many 
schools, and a college. His natural 
history studies were extensive, and were 
very beneficial to Indian agriculture. 

Among Dr. Carey’s noblest accom- 
plishments was the ending of the sacri- 
fice of children, and of the infamous 
“sutte,” the burning of widows upon 
the funeral pyres of their husbands. It 
was during his life also that freedom 
to do missionary work was granted 
throughout India.—Amos R. Wells. 


—607— 


LIBERAL TO THE DEVIL, STINGY 
WITH GOD 


A man once said to Sam Jones: 
“Jones, the church is putting my assess- 
ment too high.” Jones asked, “How 
much do you pay?” “Five dollars a 
year,” was the reply. “Well,” said 
Jones, “how long have you been con- 
verted?” “About four years,’ was the 
answer. “Well, what did you do before 
you were converted?” “I was a drunk- 
ard.” ‘How much did you spend for 
drink?” “About $250 a year.” “How 
much were you worth?” “I rented land 
and plowed a steer.” “What have you 
got now?” “I have a good plantation 
and a pair of horses.” “Well,” said Sam 
Jones, “you paid the devil $250 a year 
for the privilege of plowing a steer on 
rented land, and now you don’t want to 
give God who saved you, five dollars a 
year for the privilege of plowing horses 
on your own plantation. You are a 
rascal from the crown of your head to 
the sole of your foot.”—Selected. 


324 ILLUSTRATIVE 


—608— 
GENUINE REPENTANCE. 


An instructive example in the rec- 
ords of genuine repentance was that 
of a Kaffir soldier who came to mission- 
ary Clarke some time ago to inquire 
how he could obtain peace of mind. He 
was a young man, a strong young man, 
a hero in South African wars, and his 
body was marked with many scars. His 
abundant woolly hair was built up in 
an enormous cone like a helmet on the 
top of his head. Great heavy rings hung 
in his ears, and around his neck, and on 
his breast and arms and ankles were 
fantastic chains and bracelets and rings 
and gree-gree charms, carved by him- 
self with superstitious labor and pains, 
out of metal and bone. 

He was a thoughtful idolater, con- 
scious of wrong-doing and the need of 
every way he knew to appease the dark 
deities whom he supposed he offended. 
He told the missionary so, and that all 
he had done only made him more dis- 
satisfied and wretched. 

“My soul is empty,” he said. “There 
is nothing in the old religion that can 
fill it.” 

“Come to the great God who made 
heaven and earth. His pardon will give 
you peace,” said Mr. Clarke. 

“Tell me about Him, I want to know.” 

“He sent His Son into the world to 
give His life for you and me, because 
all are sinners and must have a Sav- 
ior. Jesus Christ is that Savior, the 
only One who can help you.” 

“What does He want me to do?” 

“He wants you to believe that He is 
your Savior, and give yourself up to 
Him, and throw all your old gods 
away.” 

The missionary spoke solemnly and 
tenderly, and the Kaffir sat in deep 
thought. A struggle was going on with- 
in him, and tears began to roll down 
his cheeks. 

“It is not your oxen,” continued Mr. 
Clarke, “nor costly presents, nor great 
deeds, that can bring you the forgive- 
mess of God. All your sins, all your old 
life, must be put away, and you must 


ANECDOTES. 


begin anew. It is your heart that Christ 
wants. It has been bound by a slave 
of Satan, the father of sin, and until you 
get loose from him and give yourself 
to Christ, you can have no peace.” 

The poor African prayed, in a voice 
broken by sobs, “O God help me to 
break the bonds of Satan!” 

“And now, if you wish to be the dev- 
il’s servant no longer, are you willing 
to be Christ’s? Can you say, ‘Lord, 
take me, take me all.’” After a moment 
of silence the Kaffir raised his head, and 
showed an altered face. The look of 
trouble was gone. 

“I do,” he said. “I give myself up to 
God, give Him all.” 

“Then you are a new man?” 

eso 

“A Christian, you are not a heathen 
any more?” 

SNo 

“Then you give up everything that 
is heathen, the wild dances, the fight- 
ing, and the beer drinking, and the gree- 
grees?” 

The Kaffir looked at his barbarous 
ornaments. 

“Yes, master, I now throw them all 
away,” and forthwith he began to tug 
at his bracelets. The chains from his 
neck, and the rings from his ears. His 
mind, enlightened by grace, had trav- 
eled faster that the missionary led 
him. He saw the cords of Satan, not 
only in his vices but in his decorations. 
They meant idolatry, and he hated them 
now. One thing more remained—his 
tall head-dress, It was so packed and 
woven that it could not easily be pull- 
ed down. The converted Kaffir drew 
his knife from his belt to cut it off. Mr. 
Clarke told him that if the head-dress 
seemed to him to be really a part of 
his old pagan life and habit, it was 
right to sacrifice it, and he would help 
him. Nothing short of this would sat- 
isty the young man, and a pair of 
Scissors was brought, by the aid of 
which he was very soon eased of what 
was no longer a pride but a_ burden. 
There could be no greater proof of sin- 
cerity. Almost the last thing a South 
African heathen will part with is his 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


braided pyramid of hair. 

And now the man was free. He felt 
free. Shorn of all his former pride and 
trust, he said, “I am only a little child.” 

“The very words of your heavenly 
Master,” replied the missionary. “You 
have them in your heart, though you 
have never heard them. ‘Except ye be- 
come as little children ye cannot see the 
kingdom of God.’” 

It was the true experience of trans- 
forming grace. The wild Kaffir warrior 


was a new-born Christian —Theron 
Brown. 
—6§09— 
“CASTING BREAD UPON THE 
WATERS”, 


From the Raleigh (N. C.) “News and 
Observer” we clip the following: 

“Rev. Charles Jones Soong, of 
Shanghai, China, died of Bright’s dis- 
ease in Shanghai on May 4, 1918, so Gen. 
Julian S. Carr has just learned from 
a letter received from the daughter of 
Rev. Mr. Soong, Mrs. Rosamonde Sen, 
the wife of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, who was 
the President of the first Republic of 
China. 

“This announcement carries more 
than ordinary interest to the people of 
this community ‘by reason of the fact 
that the gentleman whose death is men- 
tioned, known here as Charlie Soong, 
was educated by Trinity Sunday School 
in conjunction with Gen. Julian S. Carr 
and returned to China more than thirty 
years ago. 

“Charlie Soong was a friendless Chi- 
nese boy taken from aboard a revenue 
cutter in the port of Wilmington and 
brought to Durham and installed in the 
home of General Carr. After six years 
of training and education, he returned 
to China to achieve great success and 
became one of the influential and lead- 
ing men of the community in which he 
lived, Shanghai. 

“On his return to China he married 
the daughter of a native mrssionary and 
reared five children, three girls and two 
boys. Four of the children have already 
been educated in this country, and the 
fifth was prepared to enter Harvard 


325 


University and was to have come to the 
United States in September. The three 
girls received diplomas from Wesleyan 
Female College, Macon, Ga. The two 
eldest, Virginia Lee and Rosamonde, re- 
turned to China after graduation; the 
youngest, Mayling, chose to go to Wel- 
lesley College and take a post graduate 
course, from which institution she grad- 
uated just a year ago. General Carr, on 
his return from China, brought in his 
baggage a white silk gown that was sent 


‘by Mayling’s parents for her graduating 


exercises. . 

“This young girl came to America 
when she was nine years old and entered 
Wesleyan Female College, returning to — 
China at the age of nineteen, taking 
with her two diplomas, one from Wes- 
leyan Female College and the other 
from Wellesley College, Massachusetts. 
The oldest son graduated from Harvard 
and then took a post-graduate course at 
Columbia University returning home at 
the same time with his sister, carrying 
with him two diplomas, one from Har- 
vard and the other from Columbia. 

“The youngest boy was graduated 
from the University of Shanghai and ex- 
pects to enter Harvard at the fall term. 

“When General Carr was in the 
Orient, some eighteen months ago, it 
was a great pleasure to him to visit the 
home and family of his former protege, 
Charlie Soong. His second daughter, 
Rosamonde, was the wife of the first 
President of the Republic of China, and 
General Carr believes she was the hand- 
somest young woman he saw in China. 
The oldest daughter, Virginia Lee, had 
married Dr. Kuhn, who is president of 
a college of high grade and of more than 
four hundred students up near Pekin, 
the capital of China. Dr. Sun Yat Sen, 
the husband of Rosamonde, was, per- 
haps, the first man in China. In fact, 
the former Consul General of the United 
States Hon. Thomas J. Jernigan, ap- 
pointed under the Cleveland administra- 
tion, in a conversation with General 
Carr, pronounced Dr. Sen the first citi- 
zen of China. 

“Certainly this was an instance of, 
‘casting bread upon the waters.’ ” 


326 


—610— 
THE SPIRIT’S GUIDANCE. 


The last Sabbath of August, 1911, it 
was the writer’s privi‘ege to attend a 
camp meeting at Alton, N. Y. In the 
audience, which gathered at the morn- 
ing service, it was good to see the faces 
of many whom he had known for thirty 
or forty years. At the close of the ser- 
vice he accepted the cordial invitation 
of Mrs. Gardner Barrett, to go home 
with herself and husband and take din- 
ner. In the course of the meal mention 
was made of an experience connected 
with Mrs. B.’s conversion, which occur- 
red more than thirty years ago and which 
illustrates how the free Spirit of God 
may sometimes be pleased to work. 

In the winter of 1879 religious meet- 
ings were being held at York Settle- 
ment. The services continued night 
after night. Much prayer had been 
offered for the salvation of sinners, and 
a feeling of seriousness pervaded the 
meetings, and the impenitent were in- 
terested, but none of them had yet 
yielded to Christ. Mrs. B., then a 
young woman and not long married, 
had not attended the services. But one 
afternoon she felt strangely drawn to 
go to the meeting that evening, and 
after a little persuasion her husband ac- 
companied her. 

At the beginning of the service that 
evening several prayers were offered, 
and the writer prayed that God would 
in that meeting bring some soul to re- 
pentance. After he arose from his 
knees he felt a persuasion, amounting 
to certainty, that some one would come 
to Christ before the meeting closed. 
And furthermore he felt impelled to 
stand up and declare it. A natural dis- 
inclination to do a thing so strange 
caused him to hesitate. And then the 
thought came, “If you, a Christian, 
hesitate to stand up and make yourself 
conspicuous by declaring that some one 
will come to Christ before this meeting 
closes, how can you expect that person 
to have the courage to publicly take 
such a stand for Christ?” With that 
thought, up he got and declared that 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


some one would come to Christ before 
the meeting closed. 

Having done this he had not the 
least anxiety regarding the outcome, 
that he would be found a false prophet, 
although he had no idea who the re- 
pentant person would be. In fact what 
he had done seemed to have passed out 
of his mind, so interested was he in the 
services of the evening which followed. 


When the opportunity was given for 
any who would come to Christ to mani- 
fest it by coming forward, Mrs. B. arose 
and went across the room to where her 
husband sat, and urged him to come 
with her. When he declined, she ex- 
claimed aloud, “I must die alone, and 
I will seek the Lord alone!” She went 
forward, kneeled down, yielded herself 
to Christ, and was soon rejoicing in 
Him as her Saviour. And during all 
these years since she has lived a con- 
sistent Christian life—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


—611— 
JUDGE CRANE’S OPINION. 


Something has got to be done in re- 
gard to curbing the evil that is menac- 
ing the very manhood of the race—the 
cigarette. If it is not taken hold of and 
checked we shall no longer rear a race 
of men, and when the generation that 
is growing up comes to take charge of 
the government of this country they 
will be found incapable of doing so. 


I believe that the cigarette question 
should be made a national one, and the 
fathers and mothers of the land should 
be aroused to the danger and join to- 
gether to stamp out the evil. 

There is no one so capable of realiz- 
ing an existing condition of this sort as 
a magistrate, and I shail only say that 
of three hundred boys that have recently 
appeared before me charged with every 
crime, from the most petty to murder, 
two hundred and ninety-five were cigar- 
ette smokers. At least, this means 
that the boys who do not smoke cigar- 
ettes do not fall into ways that lead 
to the criminal courts.—Leroy Crane. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 327 


—612— 
WON BY LOVE. 


I used to have a friend in Chicago— 
he is in heaven now—Colonel Clarke, 
a man who lived entirely for others, 
and especially for the poor and outcast 
—a rich man, who gave up all his 
money for the poor. He lived very 
plainly. He literally worked himself 
to death. He worked at his business 
six days every week, and he preached 
the Gospel seven nights every week. 
He worked at his business to make 
money to run his mission and feed the 
poor. And the poor loved him, and the 
outcast loved him, and everybody that 
had any sense and knew him loved him 
—one of the loveliest men that ever 
walked God’s earth. 


One night there came into the Pacific 
Garden Mission—his mission—a man 
who had for fourteen years been a hope- 
less slave to whiskey and alcohol in ail 
its forms, and opium and morphine. The 
man had been crippled in early child- 
hood. He had been in a railroad acci- 
dent, was all smashed up, and lost the 
use of both legs. He dragged himself 
along as best he could on his crutches. 
He was not able to stand on his feet. 
He sort of balanced himself as he 
dragged himself along on his crutches. 


This night, when he came into the 
mission, Colonel Clarke saw him. I 
suppose he was the most miserable- 
looking man in the mission and Colonel 
Clarke went up to him, and tried to 
persuade him to take Christ and to be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus. But he would 
not. The next day Colonel Clarke was 
going down La Salle Street, one of our 
busiest business streets, and right ahead 
of him he saw this poor opium fiend 
dragging himself along on his crutches. 
Colonel Clarke hurried up, put his hand 
on his shoulder, and took him into an 
alleyway, where he told him about 
Jesus. Then he said, “Let us_ kneel 
down.” And the strong man put his 
arm around that poor wretch of a crip- 
ple, helped him down on his knees and 
prayed for him. This poor man in rags, 


4a 


a wretch, a cripple, an opium fiend, a 
whiskey fiend, an alcohol fiend, knelt 
there in the alleyway, put his confi- 
dence in Jesus Christ, and when Col- 
onel Clarke helped him on his crutches 
he was a child of God, and to-day he is 
a preacher of the Gospel.—Rev. R. A. 
Torrey, D. D. 


—613— 
HIS NAME LIVES. 


There are about 150,000 George 
Washingtons living at the present time. 
The Bible speaks truly when it says 
that the righteous shall be in everlast- 
ing remembrance. It says, too, that the 
name of the wicked shall rot. Benedict 
Arnold lived at the same time that 
Washington did, but we have no cities or 
children named in his honor. Aaron Burr 
is a well known historic figure, but there 
are no sons named in his honor. 


We find Davids, Solomons and Heze- 
kiahs, but we travel a long ways before 
discovering an Ahab, an Annaias or 
Judas. People are attracted to that 
which is good. They honor patriotic 
and upright men by using their names 
over from generation to generation. 
“The name of the wicked shall rot,” 
is a part of the scripture which is be- 
ing fulfilled every day. Long live the 
name of George Washington! It is a 
proof that we esteem his life and the 
principles for which he stood.—Selected. 


—614— 


WORDLY LOSS. 


A bankrupt merchant returning home 
one night said to his noble wife, “I am 
ruined, everything I have is in the hands 
of the sheriff.” After a few minutes of 
silence his wife looked into his face and 
said, “Will the sheriff sell you?” “Oh, 
no.” “Will he sell me and the chil- 
dren?” “Oh, No.” “Then do not say 
that we have lost everything. All that 
is most valuable remains to us—man- 
hood, womanhood and childhood. We 
have lost but the result of our skill and 
industry. Hope on, and look up.’-— 
Selected, - 


328 


—615— 


‘PERSONAL TESTIMONY AS TO 
ANSWERED PRAYER. 


A letter recently received from a cler- 
gyman of this city says: “Your answers 
to prayer interest me much. Why 
should you object to my request that 
you proceed to do as George Muller did 
—namely: Give ‘an account of the 
Lord’s dealings’ with your own soul, 
and with the souls of others in your 
mission work. It would be strengthen- 
ing to others who lack your simple- 
hearted faith.” 


I would consider myself unfaithful to 
God and ungrateful, were I unwilling to 
comply with such a request as the 
above, especially when I remember how 
I have been helped by the experiences 
narrated by others. And in the future 
I mean to tell more freely of God’s 
gracious dealings with me _ personally 
than I have done in the past. 


Many persons have spoken of my 
well-preserved eyesight. I use no 
glasses and in good light am still able, 
without difficulty, to read diamond type. 
My sight has been excellent all my life, 
but only in the last twelve or fifteen 
years, when ordinarily I would have 
been using spectacles, have I taken par- 
ticular note of it. Many times in these 
years have I spoken of a special bless- 
ing which I once received in answer to 
prayer, which in my opinion helps to 
account for my unimpaired sight. And 
now for the glory of God and to en- 
courage His people to make all their re- 
quests known to Him, I give our read- 
ers an account of this experience. 


On the fourth day of January, 1880, 
about three years after my conversion, 
I definitely sought and received the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit. (Of this I 
mean to speak more fully at some future 
time). Immediately after this experi- 
ence a revival broke out in the “Spunk” 
school house, two miles west of Rose 
Valley, N . Y., where I had been hold- 
ing meetings. Instead of teaching 
school, as I had formerly done for sev- 
eral winters, I devoted myself without 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


reserve to the carrying on of these 
meetings. 

During the day I visited from house 
to house among the people and preached 
as best I could every evening of the 
week excepting Saturday. It was 4a 
farming community, and the people 
were so aroused that some came a dis- 
tance of several miles to attend the 
meetings. The small school house was 
crowded night after night, and some- 
times there was hardly room for the 
speaker to stand. Christians were re- 
consecrating themselves to the Lord’s 
work, and sinners were coming to 
Christ. 

The meeting seldom closed before ten 
o’clock, and at times continued later 
than that. I was devoting myself with 
such earnestness to the work that after 
several weeks certain ones cautioned me 
to look out for my health or I would 
break down. I thought there was no 
fear of that, and so did not relax my 
efforts. But after the meetings had 
continued about six weeks, and some 
thirty-five had professed conversion, I 
began to feel seriously the mental and 
physical strain of this night and day 
work. I was fatigued in body, and my 
eyes began to distress me. 

The room in which the meetings 
were held was lighted with kerosene oil 
lamps, and I suppose the unshaded, 
glaring lights, reflected by the white 
walls, had affected my eyes. The or- 
dinary light of day pained them, and I 
was so tired in body that I knew that 
I could not continue much longer as I 
had done. But the interest of the meet- 
ings was at its height, and I did not be- 
lieve that it was God’s will for them to 
stop. 

One way of promoting the work was 
the holding of prayer meetings in the 
homes of the people in which earnest 
Christians would gather to pray for the 
continued outpouring of the Holy Spir- 
it. Finally a day came when I was so 
wearied that it occurred to me that I 
better not go to that afternoon meeting, 
but stay home and try to rest up for the 
evening service, and then the thought 
came: “I could not rest enough to do 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. — 


much good were I to try, and the Lord 
is able if He pleases to bless me phys- 
ically, and so fit me for His service.” 

So I determined to go to the prayer 
meeting which was held that afternoon 
in the home of Mr. and Mrs. William 
Glen, a godly couple who lived a short 
distance west of the school house. Up 
to that time the burden of my prayer 
had been for others, but now I felt that 
God must help me in a special manner, 
or the work so far as I was concerned 
would have to stop. So I prayed God 
to strengthen me in body, and take 
away that pain from my eyes. I knew 
the Lord was able to do what I asked, 
and it was not hard for me to believe 
that it was reasonable to expect Him to 
do it. 

The meeting closed, and the people 
dispersed to their homes, and I lay 
down on a sofa in the parlor in which 
the meeting was held, and fell asleep. 
I slept an hour or so, and when I awoke 
I discovered that God had answered my 
prayer. ‘The pain was entirely gone 
from my eyes, and I felt so different in 
body! That tired feeling was all gone! 
I praised God for His goodness, and 
that night told the people what the 
Lord had done for me. 

As further evidence to any who may 
doubt the reality of the change wrought, 
and who may attribute the result to 
imagination, I would say that the meet- 
ings continued for five weeks longer 
under the same conditions, making 
eleven weeks in all, and I had no re- 
currence of trouble with my eyes, and I 
felt as well when the meetings closed 
as I did when they began. During 
their continuance about seventy per- 
sons professed conversion, and soon af- 
ter their close I went to another school 
house, and held meetings for two weeks 
longer. 

What the Lord does is well done, 
and I have often thought perhaps He at 
that time made my eyes better than 
what they were naturally. Certain it 
is that that experience showed me what 
God may be willing to do for one phys- 
ically, and it has been of life-long ben- 
efit to me. 


329 


To the above, first published in the 
“Little Evangelist” in 1911, I may now 
add: By continuing to seek the blessing 
of God, my eyesight has continued re- 
markably good to the present. 

My friend, Dr. W. H. Bates, the emi- 
nent oculist of this city, had asked mea 
number of times to come to his office 
that he might look into what he called 
my “wonderful eyes.” I did so, De- 
cember 7th, 1917. After various tests, 
including both distant and close read- 
ing, he said that in his more than thirty 
years practice, I was the first person he 
had found having normal vision at my 
age.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


—616— 
EASE-LOVING PROFESSORS. 


Years ago a Christian woman not 
connected with any church said to me: 
“I would not like to join your church 
now, but when you get a church build- 
ing then I will join.” 

There are many persons who are will- 
ing to pluck and eat the luscious stems of 
grapes who are not so willing to assist in 
vine-planting. They are willing that 
others should bear alone the burden and 
heat of the day, but they want their 
names on the pay roll at night. 

They are willing that the toil and 
sacrifice of others should build a church, 
and then they will consent to come in 
and recline upon a soft cushion, and 
listen to a comfortable sermon.—Rev. 
H. M. Tyndall. 


617 
THE UMBRELLA WAS NEEDED. 


In a time of great drought in Scot- 
land, Dr. Guthrie had in his Sabbath 
morning service prayed for rain. As 
they went to church in the afternoon, 
little Mary, his daughter, said: “Here 
is the umbrella, papa.” “What do we 
need it for?” he asked. “You prayed 
for rain this morning, and don’t you 
expect God will send it?” They car- 
ried the umbrella, and when they came 
home they were glad to take shelter un~ 
der it from the drenching storm. 

—Selected. 


330 


——§18— 
“NO THOROUGHFARE HERE.” 


For many years the winding road 
along the little tumbling river had run 
through Farmer Grant’s land. People 
who were more interested in having a 
pretty view than in getting somewhere 
at a particular time were very likely to 
choose this route. At length travel grew 
so common that Farmer Grant became 
tired of the continued passing and re- 
passing, and resolved to close the road. 

All at once a locked gate barred out 
those who wished to take the way by the 
stream, and a placard in big letters an- 
nounced that it was not a thoroughfare. 
But the public was not disposed to sub- 
mit quietly to the loss of this privilege, 
and in the discussion that followed 
Farmer Grant made a discovery. In al- 
lowing the townpeople the right of way 
through his land year after year, he had 
lost his right to shut them out. The 
public which had traveled this road so 
long had come to have a claim upon it. 
The putting up of the gate was declared 
illegal, the placards were taken down, 
and again carriages followed the wind- 
ing road of the river. 

Farmer Grant is not the only one who 
has made such a mistake. A_ great 
many times when young people give 
wrong thoughts the right of way 
through their hearts they flatter them- 
selves that it will only be temporary. 
They give way to fits of impatience. 
They speak unkindly and irritably, they 
allow gloomy fancies to linger in their 
minds. And all the time they make 
themselves believe that when they get 
ready to turn the intruders out, they 
have only to set up a barrier at the en- 
trance of their hearts, and the trouble 
is ended. 


Nature’s law is very much like that 
which surprised the New England farm- 
er. The habits which year after year 
are given the right of way in the heart, 
grow in time to have certain claim upon 
the road. They are not frightened at 
the sight of a good resolution warning 
them away. It is very difficult to set up 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


a barrier that will keep them out. They 
have made a highway of the heart so 
long that in a sense it has become theirs. 
They, as well as the owner, have rights 
there.—Selected. 


—619— 


NOBLE UNSELFISHNESS. 


On the 27th of December, 1885, one 
of the American line of steamers, the 
Lord Gough, while on its way from 
Liverpool to Philadelphia, sighted a 
Gloucester fishing schooner in distress. 
The wind was blowing a gale, and the 
schooner, almost disabled, and with 
three or four of her crew already washed 
into the ocean, was flying the signal 
for help. Captain Hughes, of the steam- 
ship, saw the fearful peril which a res- 
cuing party must encounter, but his call 
for a volunteer was promptly answered 
by the mate and a crew of brave men, 
and preparations were made for the des- 
perate trip. 


To the astonishment of all, while the 
boat was being lowered, the flag of dis- 
tress on the schooner’s mast was hauled 
down. Perplexed at this movement, 
the hardy rescuers hesitated; but it was 
finally decided that the boat should go. 
With great difficulty the schooner was 
reached, and on her deck were found 
twelve men utterly without hope except 
from outside aid. It was necessary to 
make two trips, and the bold sailors of 
the Lord Gough took half the suffering 
men and toiled through the wild waters 
to their own ship, and returned as soon 
as possible for the others. 


When all were safe on the steamer, 
Captain Hughes asked the schooner’s 
master, Captain George W. Pendleton, 
why he had lowered the distress flag. 
The reply was: “We saw that you were 
preparing to make an attempt to save 
us, but we saw, also, that it was a sea 
in which it was very doubtful whether 
a boat would live. I said, then, to my 
men, ‘Shall we let those brave fellows 
risk their lives to save ours?’ and they 
answered, ‘No!’ ‘Then I hauled down 
the flag.” —-Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—620— 


HOW RUSSELL SAGE HELPED. 


A prosperous New York merchant 
narrated in the University Club the 
other day an interesting anecdote about 
himself and Russell Sage. 

“My first years in New York were 
not successful ones,” he said. “I 
came down from the upper part of the 
State determined to get along; but 
somehow, after a brief experience of 
city life, I became discouraged and lax. 
There were no positions but clerkships 
to be gotten, and to work my way up 
to the top from an army of young clerks, 
all as efficient as myself, seemed hope- 
less. 

“I changed my job now and then. 
Sometimes I bettered myself; some- 
times I didn’t. Sothe years passed. I 
had come to New York at twenty, and 
now, at twenty-five, I was making only 
four dollars a week more than when I 
started, and I hadn’t a cent to my credit 
in the bank. 

“One day, scared and desperate about 
my future, I called to see Russell Sage. 
Sage came from my part of the country, 
and he had known my father well. 

“He was glad to see me. He lis- 
tened to my narrative with kindly in- 
terest. At the end, tilting back in his 
chair, he put his finger-tips together 
and pursed up his lips, nodding to him- 
self thoughtfully. 

“In a minute he came briskly out of 
that spell of meditation. 

““Do you drink?’ he asked. 

“*Yes, sir; moderately,’ said I. 

““Well, stop it. Stop it for a year. 
Then come see me again,’ said Mr. 
Sage. 

“I stopped drinking for a year, and 
at the end I paid my second visit to the 
millionaire. He remembered all about 
me. He chatted a little while. Then 
he said: ‘Do you gamble?’ 

“<“Ves,’ I said, ‘I sometimes gamble.’ 

“Well, give up gambling for a year, 
and then come and see me.’ 

“So I stopped gambling, and the year 
went by, and for the third time I ap- 
peared in Mr. Sage’s office. 


331 


““Do you smoke?’ he said, after we 
had had a third discussion of my affairs. 

“*Yes, sir,’ said I. 

“Stop smoking,’ said he. ‘Come 
back after you have stopped smoking 
for a year.’ ” : 

The speaker laughed. One of his 
auditors said impatiently: “Well, when 
you went back what happened?” 

“I never went back,” was the reply. 

“You never went back? Why?” 

“Because, if I had, Mr. Sage would 
only have told me that now that I had 
given up drinking and gambling and 
smoking I must have saved enough 
money to start myself in business. It 
was true; I had saved enough money 
to start myself in business. That shrewd, 
wise man had set me, almost without 
my knowing it, on the road to success.” 
—Philadelphia Bulletin. 


—621— 


BENJ. FRANKLIN’S OPINION IN 
CONVENTION, 1789. 

I have lived for a long time (eighty- 
one years), and the longer I live the 
more convincing proofs I see of this 
truth, that God governs in the affairs of 
man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to 
the ground without his notice, it is not 
probable that an empire can rise with- 
out his aid. We have been assured in 
the sacred writings, that “Except the 
Lord build the house, they labor in 
vain that build it.” I firmly believe 
this; and I also believe that without 
his concurring aid we shall proceed in 
this political building no better than 
the builders of Babel; we shall be 
divided by our little, partial, local in- 
terests; our prospects will be con- 
founded; and we ourselves shall become 
a reproach and a byword down to future 
ages. And what is worse, mankind 
may hereafter, from this unfortunate 
instance, despair of establishing govern- 
ment by human wisdom, and leave it 
to chance, war or conquest. I there- 
fore beg leave to move that henceforth 
prayers, imploring the assistance of 
heaven and its blessings on our deliber- 
ations, be held in this assembly every 
morning before we proceed to business. 


332° 


—622— 
THE NINE OUTSIDE. 


While I was conducting a mission in 
the city in which I lived for fourteen 
years, which is Manchester, where I 
hold my church connection today (and, 
by the way, I belong to a church that 
has never known a Sunday in twenty- 
one years without a conversion), and 
one night had just finished with a great 
midnight meeting, a little, frail woman, 
who had been brought up in a lovely 
home in the west of England, and who 
had just become a sister, giving her life 
to the work of soul-saving, came up to 
me, and said, “I’ll try to hold a mid- 
night meeting tonight of my own.” She 
engaged a little chapel or small church 
building just on the suburbs of Man- 
chester, and gathered the people to her, 
and they filled that little place. 

Among them was a prize-fighter. He 
came, he said, to take care of the little 
woman, for he did not know what those 
drunken fellows would do to her. He 
watched her as she moved around, and 
said, “I did not know what would hap- 
pen.” In the middle of the meeting he 
said, “Don’t be afraid, I’m _ here.” 
But she did not need his help. Those 
drunkards in that midnight service were 
quieted as she told the story of Jesus 
and His love, and when she invited 
them to kneel to seek Jesus, the place 
was crowded. Among them was a 
woman, a drunkard, who came forward. 
When she got on her knees she was 
sober enough to say to the sister: “Sis- 
ter, my husband is in jail, and he is 
there through me. I helped to make 
him drunk.” And then she said, “We 
got to fighting, and he is in jail because 
he thrashed me. He is coming out on 
Tuesday, and I wish you would meet 
him, and oh, if we could only get hold 
of him and make him sober! I have 
given my heart to God, and I would 
like him to do the same.” (One of the 
surest evidences of the new birth is a 
desire for someone else to come to Him.) 
Sister Marion said, “I’ll go and see 
him.” The woman told her that nine 
of his companions said they were going 
to meet him and make him drunk be- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


fore they get home. Sister Marion was 
at the prison gates at six o’clock on 
Tuesday morning. She happened to 
know the governor, and so got through 
the little gate. She found the nine men 
outside and as she went through the 
little door within the big door, the gov- 
ernor said, “Whom are you waiting to 
see?” She said, “I have come to 
meet So-and-so.” “Well,” he said, 
“there are nine men out there waiting 
for him.” She said, “Yes, I know it; 
but those who are with me are more 
than all that can be against me.” He 


said, “You are only one, visibly, and I 


am just wondering what you are going 
to do with those nine men.” He ad- 
vised her to go away for a while, and he 
would do what he could with the men. 
She went away, and came again to the 
gates. Those nine men said, “Let’s 
hand out the beer, sister. We have 
given up a day’s work to come and get 
him.” She said, “Well, that was very 
kind of you, but you deciare he shall 
go home drunk, and I declare he shall 
go home sober.” ‘They stared at her. 
The thought came to Sister Marion, 
“Why not try to save these nine as 
well as the one inside?” and so she 
said, “Men, if I go and get him out 
will you come, all of you, and have 
breakfast with me?” 

They looked at one another. Break- 
fast on a cold morning for nine fellows 
who had been sleeping as they had, 
meant a great deal. They said they 
would come. She got the man out of 
jail and away they marched, and when 
they had their breakfast she said, “Now, 
men, come; may I read to you?” They 
could not say no. So she opened to 
that wonderful story, the Prodigal Son, 
and she read to them, and they listened 
with bowed heads. Then she asked if 
they might not sing, and they said, 
“Well, Miss, we are not much at sing- 
ing. She said she would sing if they 
would join her. And she sang: 

“When I survey the wondrous cross 

On which the Prince of Glory died, 

My richest gain I count but dross, 

And pour contempt on all my pride.” 

At the end of the song every man was 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


on his knees, and every man signed the 
pledge before she left them. Every 
man, in less than three weeks, was 
brought to Jesus Christ by the act of 
that one frail little woman. 

That’s the way to fish, and that’s the 
way to catch. That’s angling.—Gypsy 
Smith. 


—623— 
PERSECUTORS SILENCED AND 
CONVERTED. 


The following is from the Autobiog- 
raphy of that wonderful revivalist, 
Charles G. Finney. The circumstances 
as related occurred early in his ministry, 
at Gouverneur, N. Y.: 

I have said that there was a Baptist 
church, and a Presbyterian, each hav- 
ing a meeting-house standing upon the 
green, not far apart; and that the Bap- 
tist Church had a pastor, but the Pres- 
byterian had none. As soon as the 
revival broke out, and attracted general 
attention, the Baptist brethren began to 
oppose it. They spoke against it, and 
used very objectionable means indeed 
to arrest its progress. This encouraged 
a set of young men to join hand in hand, 
to strengthen each other in opposition 
to the work. The Baptist church was 
quite influential; and the stand that 
they took greatly emboldened the oppo- 
sition, and seemed to give it a peculiar 
bitterness and strength, as might be ex- 
pected. Those young men seemed to 
stand like a bulwark in the way of the 
progress of the work. 


In this state of things, Brother Nash 
and myself, after consultation, made up 
our minds that that thing must be over- 
come by prayer, and that it could not 
be reached in any other way. We 
therefore retired to a grove, and gave 
ourselves up to prayer until we pre- 
vailed; and we felt confident that no 
power which earth or hell could inter- 
pose, would be allowed permanently to 
stop the revival. 

The next Sabbath, after preaching 
morning and afternoon myself—for I 
did the preaching altogether, and Broth- 
er Nash gave himself up almost con- 


333 


tinually to prayer—we met at five 
o’clock in the church, for a prayef- 
meeting. The meeting house was filled. 
Near the close of the meeting, Brother 
Nash arose, and addressed that com- 
pany of young men who had joined 
hand in hand to resist the revival. I 
believe they were all there, and they 
sat braced up against the Spirit of God. 
It was too solemn for them really to 
make ridicule of what they heard and 
saw; and yet their brazen-facedness and 
stiff-neckedness were apparent to every- 
body. 

Brother Nash addressed them very 
earnestly, and pointed out the guilt and 
danger of the course they were taking. 
Toward the close of his address, he 
waxed exceedingly warm, and said to 
them: “Now, mark me, young men! 
God will break your ranks in less than 
one week, either by converting some of 
you, or by sending some of you to hell. 
He will do this as certainly as the Lord 
is my God!” He was standing where 
he brought his hand down on the top 
of the pew before him, so as to make it 
thoroughly jar. He sat immediately 
down, dropped his head, and groaned 
with pain. 

The house was as still as death, and 


_most of the people held down their 


heads. I could see that the young men 
were agitated. For myself, I regretted 
that Brother Nash had gone sofar. He 
had committed himself, that God would 
either take the life of some of them, 
and send them to hell, or convert some 
of them, within a week. However, on 
Tuesday morning of the same week, the 
leader of these young men came to me, 
in the greatest distress of mind. He 
was all prepared to submit; and as soon 
as I came to press him, he broke down 
like a child, confessed, and manifestly 
gave himself to Christ. Then he said: 
“What shall I do, Mr. Finney?” I re- 
plied: “Go immediately to all your 
young companions, and pray with them, 
and exhort them, at once to turn to the 
Lord.” He did so; and before the 
week was out, nearly if not all of that 
class of young men, were hoping in 
Christ. 


334 


e524 


A GOOD AUDIENCE. 


Rev. Lyman Beecher was once en- 
gaged to preach, by way of exchange, 
for a country minister, and the day 
proved to be very cold and stormy. It 
was midwinter and the snow was piled 
in heaps all along the roads so as to 
make the passage very difficult. Still 
the doctor urged his horse through the 
drifts till he reached the church, put 
his horse into a shed and went in. 


As yet there was no person in the 
house, and after looking about he took 
his seat in the pulpit. Soon the door 
opened and a single individual walked 
up the aisle and took a seat. 


The hour came for opening the ser- 
vice, but there were no more hearers. 
Whether to preach to such an audience 
or not was only a momentary question 
with Lyman Beecher. He felt that he 
had a duty to perform and that he had 
no right to refuse to do it because one 
man only could reap benefit, and ac- 
cordingly he went through all the ser- 
vice, praying, singing, preaching and 
benediction, with one hearer. And 
when all was over he hastened down 
from the desk to speak to the “congre- 
gation,” but he had departed. 


So rare a circumstance was, of course, 
occasionally referred to, but twenty 
years after a very delightful discovery 
came to light in connection with his 
service. Dr. Beecher was traveling in 
Ohio, and on alighting from a stage in a 
pleasant village a gentleman stepped up 
to him and called him by name. 

“I do not remember you,” said Dr. 
Beecher. 

“I suppose not,” said the stranger, 
“but we spent two hours together in a 
house alone once in a storm.” 

“I do not recall it, sir,’ replied the 
old minister; “pray, where was it?” 

“Do you remember preaching twenty 
years ago in such a place to a single 
person?” 

“Yes, I do, indeed, and if you are 
the man, I have been wishing to see you 
ever since.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


“fT am the man, sir, and that sermon 
made a minister of me, and yonder is my 
church. The converts of that sermon 
are all over Ohio.” 

In telling the story Dr. Beecher would 
add: “I think that was about as satis- 
factory an audience as I ever had.”— 
Youth’s Companion. 


—625— 
‘THE NARROW PASSAGE. 


In one of the coal-pits of the north, 
while a considerable number of the 
miners were down below, the top of the 
pit fell in, and the shaft was completely 
blocked up. Those who were in the 
mine gathered to a spot where the last 
remains of air could be breathed. There 
they sat and sang and prayed after the 
lights had gone out because the air was 
unable to support the flame. They 
were in total darkness, but a gleam of 
hope cheered them when one of them 
said he had heard that there was a con- 
nection between that pit and an old pit 
which had been worked years ago. He 
said it was a long passage through which 
a man might get by crawling all the 
way, lying flat upon the ground; he 
would go and see if it were possible. 
The passage was very long, but they 
crept through it, and at last they came 
out to light at the bottom of the other 
shaft, and their lives were saved. 


If my present way of access to Christ 
as a saint is blocked up by doubts and 
fears, if I cannot go straight up the 
shaft and see the light of my Father’s 
face, there is an old working, the old- 
fashioned way by which sinners have 
gone of old, by which poor thieves go, 
by which harlots go. I will creep along 
it, lowly and humbly; I will go flat 
upon the ground. I will humble my- 
self till I see my Lord, and cry, “Father, 
I am not worthy to be called Thy son, 
make me as one of Thy hired servants, 
so long as I may but dwell in Thy 
house.” In our very worst case of 
despondency we may still come to Jesus 
as sinners. “Jesus Christ came into the 
world to save sinners.” Call this to mind 
and you may have hope.—Spurgeon. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


—626— 
SEED SOWN IN GOOD GROUND. 
A young man came into the service 


in one of our churches and heard a. 


message that interested him so that he 
continued to return. Then he brought 
another young man with him. After 
a little this second one was sick and in 
the hospital. When his friend visited 
him they talked of the services, and the 
sick man said: “I suppose the preacher 
thought that what he said did not do 
much good; that we went away and 
forgot all about it. But it has changed 
my life.” He died giving evidence that 
he was a Christian. 

The young man asked another of his 
acquaintances to go with him to church, 
and he, too, became interested. He 
had led a life far away from Christ, but 
a short time since from another State 
he wrote his friend, asking him to come 
and see him. “You took me to your 
church; come out here, and © will take 
~ you to mine.” 

In the meantime the young man him- 
self went away from the city for a time 
without having made known to the 
minister anything about himself. Now 
he has returned, and has made the min- 
ister his pastor, and on last Sabbath he 
coufessed his faith in Christ in the pres- 
ence of the congregation. He first led 
others, and now follows those whom he 
led. And all the time the preacher, 
whose words were life, did not know 
the history of any of those who were 
being brought into the kingdom by 
his ministry.—The United Presbyterian. 


—627— 
THE NEEDED WOOD CAME. 


I recollect hearing my father say that 
once, when he came home from a jour- 
ney on a Saturday night in the dead of 
winter, mother met him at the door, 
and said, “We have just enough fuel for 
this evening, but none for tomorrow.” 
Anybody that ever lived on Litchtield 


Hill in winter knows that a Sunday 


there and then would not suggest sum- 
mer. 


335 


for money in those days, and in this in- 
stance he had none, and did not know 
where to get any. And, in telling of it, 
he said, “I felt like a child, and I in- 
wardly prayed God to help me.” And 
he said he had hardly finished praying 
before an old farmer, who had never 
been particularly friendly, and who did 
not come to church very often, drove 
up to the door with a load of wood, 
which he said he “took it into his head 
he would like to give to the parson.” 
Do you ask me if that was an answer 
to prayer? Well, although I would not 
attempt a philosophical explanation of 
it, it is so pleasant to think it was an 
answer to prayer, and the circumstances 
point so strongly in that direction that 
I prefer to think it was. I do not be- 
lieve it will do anybody any hurt to be- 
lieve that God loves us, that His ear 
is ever open to our cry, and that, while 
we use all lawful and known means in 
our own behalf, He stands ready to 
succor us in the day of trouble. I 
would not for anything have my mouth 
stopped so that I could not go to Him 
in my extremity, and say, “I am poor 
and wretched; oh, help, help !”— 
—Beecher. 


—628— 


SHE WORKED AT CHRISTIANITY 


__A faithful Bible woman in Korea was 
ill and went to a Japanese hospital for 
treatment and stayed the entire summer. 
The Japanese physician in charge was a 
man of high rank, decorated by the em- 
peror for bravery in the Russo-Japanese 
War. When the Korean woman was 
cured, she asked for her bill. The doctor 
said, “I am a Buddhist, but you are a 
Christian, but I see that you are working 
at your religion, so there is no bill.” The 
Korean woman wondered how she ever 
could repay his kindness. She resolved 
to pray for him and pray that he might 
become a Christian. The doctor had 
been deeply impressed by the little 
woman's religion. He began to read 
the New ‘Testament, to learn English, 
and soon was an earnest enquirer as to 
the way to Christ——The Wellspring. 


336° 


en6 20 
GIVE GOD THE BEST. 


Speaking of the sacrifices that the 
heathen of India are willing to make for 
the sake of their religion, some years 
ago at Northfield, Massachusetts, I 
heard a returned missionary from that 
land relate the following incident: 

In the course of her visits the mis- 
sionary called at the humble home of 
a poor woman, and observing twin 
babies, beautiful in form and feature as 
she thought, she exclaimed to the moth- 
er, “What two beautiful babes God has 
given you!” “Do you think so?” said 
the sad mother. “You better look 
closer!” 

The visitor drew nearer, and then she 
discovered that one of the children was 
blind. After a few words of sympathy 
for the mother she went on her way. 

Some time later the missionary called 
again on the same woman and seeing but 
one child she asked the mother about 
the absent babe and the sorrowful 
woman replied, “I have given him to 
Junger.” 

Supposing of course that it would be 
the blind baby that would be cast into 
the Ganges if any was, the missionary 
was surprised, as she stepped over to 
where the child lay, to discover that the 
blind baby was left, and she exclaimed, 
“Why, you did not give your baby that 
could see to Junger, did you!” 

“Yes,” replied the sad-hearted mother, 
“Junger must have the best.” 

That mother’s intention was right, 
but her method was all wrong. God 
is indeed entitled to the best we have, 
and nothing is dearer to us, nor to Him, 
than our children. But He wants not 
the sacrifice of their bodies, but the 
yielding up of our and their hearts to 
Him in loving service, as living sacri- 
fices—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


—630— 
A BOY’S FUTURE IN DANGER. 


John Willis Baer tells the Christian 
Endeavor World of an impressive little 
incident which occurred on one of his 
journeys, and which forcibly illustrates 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


how many parents endanger the future 
moral character of their children: 

Sitting back of me in a train the other 
day were a mother and her promising 
boy. The conductor had punched the 
mother’s ticket, and, as a ticket had 
not been provided for the lad, the con- 
ductor, looking at the boy, politely 
said, “Is your boy under five, madam?” 

“Yes,” was the prompt reply. 

The conductor moved on, and then 
I heard the youngster say, “Why, 
mamma, I am past six.” 

Instantly, with frowning face, and a 
countenance blazing with wrath, the 
mother said: 

“Don’t you ever contradict me again. 
I know what I am saying. If the con- 
ductor had heard you say that, he would 
have made me pay half-fare for you. 
Don’t ever say again on the train that 
you are past six. If you do, I’ll whip 
you when we get home.” 

The boy was still and thoughtful for 
a moment. Then I heard him say, 
“But, mamma, I am past six.” <A 
slap followed; the child cried; the 
mother looked like a tempest; and I 
fairly boiled with indignation. 


It it just an incident on a railroad 
train, yet possibly one that will be more 
harmful to a boy morally than an or- 
dinary railroad accident might have 
been to him physically. One such ex- 
perience in a boy’s life may mar his 
whole career. Then think of the moth- 
er’s personal sins. She lied to the con- 
ductor; she lied to her own boy; she 
cheated the railroad; she abused her 
child. And all that to save one dollar 
and twenty-five cents, the price of a 
half-fare ticket from New York to 
Philadelphia. May God pity the boy 
and forgive the mother.—Selected. 


—631— 
EACH TO HIS OWN PLACE. 


It is related of Casper Hauser that, 
having been born in a dungeon and 
confined there without light from the 
outer world until his seventeenth year, 
he was then released only to find that 
the light smote upon his eyes with an 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


insufferable pain, and the sounds of 
the streets fell like a crash of thunder 
in his ears; so that he begged to be 
taken back to prison, because the dis- 
mal silence and solitude were more toler- 
able than the comforts of freedom and 
normal life. | 

The reason why the thought of death 
is terrible to many is not because it 
ushers us into the unknown, but because 
it ends probation by crystallizing char- 
acter and so “fixes us in an _ eternal 
state.” As the tree falleth, so also 
must it lie. Eternity finds us as death 
leaves us. The soul must needs, there- 
fore, go to its own place. ‘The gates of 
Heaven are always open; but those 
who wander in outer darkness would 
only find an added misery were they to 
enter in. To such as are confirmed in 
sin there must, of necessity, be one 
place more insufferable than Hell, that 
is Heaven, where truth and righteous- 
ness prevail and all are engaged in the 
pure worship of God.—Rev. David 
James Burrell, D. D. 


—632— 
GIVE WHILE YOU CAN. 


“After the Chicago fire three friends 
met, two of whom had been burned out 
of house and home, and the immense 
accumulations of successful lives. One 
of the unfortunates said to the other 
two, ‘Well, thank God, there was some 
of my money placed where it could not 
burn,’ saying which, he turned upon 
his heel cheerfully and went to work at 
his new life. His brother in misfortune 
turned to his companion and _ said, 
‘That man gave away last year nearly 
a million of dollars, and if I had not 
been a fool I should have done the same 
thing.’ ” 

That man called himself a fool for 
hoarding up wealth that might have 
been devoted to the service of the Lord. 
A higher authority confirms the justice 
of the title; for to the man who had 


much goods laid up for many years God 


said, “Thou fool, this night thy soul 
shall ‘be required of thee: then whose 
shall those things be which thou hast 
provided?”—Dr. J. G. Holland. 


337 


—633-—= 
CATCHING MONKEYS. 


It is said one way that the natives in 
Africa catch monkeys is to take a large 
pumpkin and cut a hole in it large 
enough for a monkey to get his hand in 
and after taking out the seeds they 
partly fill it with corn. The monkey 
then puts his hand in and takes as much 
corn in it as he can possibly hold. He 
then cannot getit out. The native who 
is somewhere close in hiding then comes 
with his club and kills it. In spite of 
death starring him in the face, the mon- 
key will not let go of his corn, but will 
fight and scold and chatter until a blow 
from the native’s club put him beyond 
the need of corn. 

How truly this can be compared to 
some people. They are as greedy after 
the things of this world as the monkey 
is after corn. They will grab and hold 
fast in spite of all the warning in God’s 
Word and faithful ministers give them. 
They hold fast in spite of eternal dam- 
nation staring them in the face. The 
devil who uses this for a trap is in hid- 
ing and when the time comes he claims 
them and they are left without God and 
without hope. We ought to give heed 
to the Scripture, “Set your affections 
on things above, and not on things on 
the earth,” and that in time while there 
is room for escape.—F. C. Rosentrater. 


—634— 
THE ART OF LIVING LONG. 


Thomas A. Edison’s_ great-grand- 
father once happened to read the book, 
“The Art of Living Long,” by Cornaro, 
an Italian nobleman. He adopted the 
rules regarding eating, drinking and 
fresh air laid down in that book and 
lived to the age of 102 years. Edison’s 
grandfather also following the same 
rules, attained to the age of 103 years; 
and all of his seven sons, pursuing the 
same course of abstemious living, 
rounded out the goodly age of more 
than ninety years each. One of them, 
Edison’s father, reached the age of 
ninety-four, and passed away without 
apparent illness —Rev. Henry M. Tyn- 
dall. 


338 


m9 5 
“SAVED FROM SUICIDE. 


: Will you let me give an incident that 
I heard from a friend whom some of 
you perhaps know. He was an officer 
in the Swedish army. Away over in 
India I heard him teil this story of his 
own experience, tell how he had run 
the whole gamut of vices, how, wealthy 
and popular, he had gone into every 
form of sin, until he had gotten down 
to the deepest dregs. Tasting of its 
bitterness and having no hope of any- 
thing beyond, he determined to put an 
end to his life. He had a cousin who 
was a Christian. He went to say good- 
by to him, and as he started to leave 
him, his cousin got between him and 
the door, and plead with him, “For 
God’s sake turn to Jesus Christ.” He 
laughed at him and said: “Your Jesus 
can’t save me. ‘There is no Jesus. 
There is no God. There is no here- 
after. I have tasted all that the world 
has to give, and it is worse than noth- 


ing. This life is a bitter sham, and I 
am going to be done with it.” His 
cousin plead with him still, “Try 


Jesus; put Him to the test to-night; 
see if He can save you.” The officer 
hesitated a moment and then turned 
to his cousin and said very earnestly: 
“Well, old fellow, for your sake I will 
do it; and if I do it at all, I am going 
to do it honestly.” He dropped on his 
knees and said: “Lord Jesus, if thou 
canst save sinners, save me; for if ever 
aman needed saving, I do.” For an 
instant he paused, and then a wonder- 
ful smile broke over his face as he 
turned to his cousin and said: “It is 
true! It is true! He has saved me! 
He has forgiven my sins!” And the 
years of his life since have proved the 
truth of that experience. 

O my brethren, if there be one here 
who is yet in sin and under condemna- 
tion, going down inevitably to ever- 
lasting death, put Jesus to the test now! 
He will answer. He never has failed 
anyone who ever came to Him. “Him 
that cometh unto me I will in no wise 
cast out.”’—Rev. C. A. R. Janvier. 


ILLUSTRATIVE “ANECDOTES 


—636— 
FRANKLIN’S ILLUSTRATION. 


It is recorded of Franklin, that when 
a young man expressed his surprise that 
a gentleman well known to them, of 
unbounded wealth, should appear more 
anxious after business than the most 
assiduous clerk in a counting-house, 
the doctor took an apple from the fruit- 
basket and presented it to a little child 
who could just totter about the room. 
The child could scarcely grasp it in his 
hand; he then gave it another, which 
occupied the other hand. Then choos- 
ing a third, remarkable for its size and 
beauty, he presented that also. The 
child, after many ineffectual attempts 
to hold the three, dropped the last on 
the carpet and burst into tears. “See 
there,” said Franklin, “there is a little 
man with more riches than he can en- 
joy.” The increase of painful care, 
anxiety and trouble, generally bears at 
least an equal proportion to the increase 
of riches. The peace of the child was 
not broken until the attempt was made 
to obtain the grasp of the third apple; 
had but two been thought of, its happi- 
ness would have been great.—Selected. 


—637— 


EARNESTNESS. 


Rev. Rowland Hill, once addressing 
the people of Wotton, exclaimed, “Be- 
cause I am in earnest, men call me an 
enthusiast. When I first came into this 
part of the country, I was walking on 
yonder hill, and saw a gravel-pit fall 
in and bury three human beings alive. 
I lifted up my voice for help so loud, 
that I was heard in the town below, at 
a distance of near a mile; help came, and 
rescued two of the sufferers. No one 
called me an enthusiast then; and when 
I see eternal destruction ready to fall on 
poor sinners, and about to entomb them 
irrecoverably in an eternal mass of woe, 
and call aloud on them to escape, shall 
I be called an enthusiast now? No, sin- 
ner, I am no enthusiast in doing so: and 


I call on thee aloud to fly for refuge to 


the hope set before thee in the Gospel.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—638-— 
STORIES OF INDULGENCES. 


The dealers in indulgences had estab- 
lished themselves at Hagenau in 1517. 
The wife of a shoemaker, profiting by 
the permission given in the instruction 
of the commissary-general, had gotten 
against her husband’s will a letter of 
indulgence, and had paid for it a golden 
florin. Shortly after she died; and the 
widower omitting to have mass said for 
the repose of her soul, was charged by 
the curate with contempt of religion, 
and the judge of Hagenau summoned 
him to appear before him. The shoe- 
maker put in his pocket his wife’s in- 
dulgence, and repaired to the place of 
summons. “Is your wife dead?” asked 
the judge. “Yes,” answered the shoe- 
maker. “What have you done with 
her?” “I buried her, and commended 
her soul to God.” “But have you had a 
mass said for the salvation of her soul?” 
“I have not; it was not necessary; she 
went to heaven at the moment of her 
death.” “How do you know that?” 
“Here is the evidence of it.” 

The widower drew from his pocket 
the indulgence and the judge, in the 
presence of the curate, read, in so 
many words, that in the moment of 
death the woman who had received it 
would go, not into purgatory, but 
straight into heaven. “If the curate 
pretends that a mass is necessary after 
that,” said the shoemaker, “my wife has 
been cheated by our holy father the 
Pope; but if she has not been cheated, 
then the curate is deceiving me.” There 
was no reply to this defence, and the ac- 
cused was acquitted. It was thus that 
the good sense of the people disposed of 
the impostures. 

A Saxon gentleman had heard Tetzel 
at Leipsic, and was much shocked by 
his impostures. He went to the monk 
and asked if he was authorized to par- 
don sins in intention, of such as the ap- 
plicant intended to commit. “Assured- 
ly,” answered Tetzel, “I have full power 
from the Pope to do so.” “Well,” re- 
plied the gentleman, “I want to take 
some slight revenge on one of my ene- 
mies, without attempting his life. I 


ANECDOTES 339 


will pay you ten crowns if you will give 
me a letter of indulgence that shall bear 
me harmless.” Tetzel made some 
scruples; they struck their bargain for 
thirty crowns. Shortly after, the monk 
set out from Leipsic. The gentleman, 
attended by his servant, lay wait for 
him in a wood between Jutterboch and 
Treblin; they fell upon him, gave him 
a beating, and carried off the rich chest 
of indulgence-money the inquisitor had 
with him. Tetzel clamoured against 
this act of violence, and brought an ac- 
tion before the judges. But the gentle- 
man showed the letter signed by Tetzel 
himself, which exempted him _ before- 
hand from all responsibility. Duke 
George, who had first been much in- 
censed at the action, upon seeing this 
writing, ordered that the accused should 
be acquitted—D’Aubigne’s History of 


the Great Reformation of the Sixteenth 
Century. 


ae is 
JEWELS FROM MUD. 


John Ruskin was one day walking 
along the streets of London. The 
weather had been very wet, and the mud 
was most plentiful. The thought oc- 
curred to him that he would have the 
mud analyzed to find out exactly the 
inorganic elements in it. This was ac- 
cordingly done, and the London mud 
was found to consist of sand, clay, soot, 
and water. Musing upon that fact, it 
struck him that these are the very sub- 
stances from which our precious jewels 
and gems are formed. From the sand 


or silica come the onyx, chrysolite, 
agate, beryl, cornelian, chalcedony, 
jasper, sardius, amethyst; from the 


clay come the sapphire, ruby, emerald, 
topaz; and from the soot is formed the 
diamond. London mud composed of 
priceless jewels! Man cannot trans- 
form the mud into those glittering points 
of light, but God transforms and re- 
creates the mud—-poor, sinful, wayward 
humanity into the glory of redeemed 
and beautiful souls that sing the new 
song, and carry with them glad tidings 
of great joy.—Selected. 


340 


—640— , 
MYRON P. TYNDALL’S HEALING. 


In 1883 I was a member of the grad- 
uating class at the Normal School at 
Albany, N. Y., and my brother, Charles 
H. Tyndall, was a student in the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Auburn, N. Y. 
Near the close of April the shocking in- 
telligence was received from him that 
father had been seriously injured. He 
had been kicked on the back of the head 
by a young horse which he had led to 
water. Father lived two miles east of 
Alton, near Great Sodus Bay, N. Y.., 
and my brother could easily go there 
and keep me informed as to his condi- 
tion. 

But I knew that such an injury at the 
back of the head was especially dan- 
gerous, and my heart sank within me 
at the sad news received. The burden 
on my heart was inexpressibly heavy 
all that day. But at family worship 
that evening I laid the matter before 
God in earnest prayer, and entreated 
him for Christ’s sake to spare father’s 
life if possible. It pleased God to give 
me the assurance that my prayer was 
answered, and that father should re- 
cover. After we arose from our knees 
I told my wife and a cousin, who was 
boarding with us, that father was going 
to get well; and I felt to thank God 
and rejoice. 

Had I been asked how I knew this I 
could not have told. But it was en- 
ough for my comfort that I knew it bes 
yond all question. 

He was hurt April 27th, and with the 
passing of the days the information re- 
ceived was not encouraging. 

In spite of the lack of good news from 
father, I had not the slightest doubt but 
that he would finally get well; but as 
time went on I began to feel that I 
ought to go to him. My presence I 
thought would at least be a comfort to 
him, and perhaps the Lord might be 
pleased to use me to encourage father’s 
faith in God, and so help to his res- 
toration. 

My brother had preached at Rose, 
N. Y., on Sunday, and had driven on 
from there to see father, and on Mon- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


day he ventured to return to Auburn. 
But on Tuesday night he received a 
message, saying, “Come home at once.” 
When he reached there on Wednesday 
he saw at a glance that a change for the 
worse had taken place; and Dr. York 
said to him, “Your father can live but a 
little while!” 

About that time, May 4th, I also 
started for home, two hundred miles 
away, to see father. I reached the resi- 
dence of my wife’s mother in Rose that 
evening, and stayed over night. The 
next morning I set out for the home of 
my father, which was five or six miles 
farther north. 

At the home of an aunt at York Set- 
tlement I stopped and took dinner. And 
there I learned the particulars of father’s 
injury, and of his condition. A cousin 
said to me, “Your father cannot get 
well.” I told her I knew he would get 
well. She said I was mistaken, and 
thought he would recover because I 
wanted it so. But I did not know how 
dreadfully he was hurt, and furthermore 
both doctors had said there was no hope 
for him. I told her that God had given 
me the assurance that He would restore 
father, and I was as confident of his re- 
covery as though it had already oc- 
curred. 

Some may read these lines to whom 
this seems very strange and unreason- 
able, but there are many others who 
will understand it, for they too have 
prayed until made to know that they 
should have the blessing desired. 

My brother, .who for twenty-two 
years has been pastor of the Reformed 
Church at Mt. Vernon, N. Y., speaking 
of this matter, said that he met me at 
the door of father’s home on my ar- 
Yival that afternoon, and he remarked 
to me, “Father is alive!” When I re- 
plied, “Yes, and he is going to live!” he 
was surprised, and thought I did not 
know how bad his condition really was. 

Entering the sick chamber, father 
recognized me. His sufferings were 
most intense. Every few moments a 
pain would start at the place of injury 
and traverse his whole spinal column, 
and his distress was so terrible that the 
doctors had to keep him under the in- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


fluence of opiates continually. 

I assured him of my great sympathy 
for him, and told him that God was 
going to raise him up to health again. 
And to encourage his faith I directed 
his attention to many precious promises 
of the word of God. 

Although he believed the Bible, yet 
he was not able to claim these promises 
for himself. His condition continued 
just the same the remainder of that 
day, and also all the next day. While 
I had no doubt of his ultimate recovery, 
the delay was a trial of my faith and I 
wondered why God did not interpose. 
For I was expecting that his recovery 
would be gradual, and perhaps it might 
be due in part to the curative proper- 
ties of the medicines used. 

But there was no sign of improve- 
ment. Father’s sufferings continued as 
intense as ever. Someone had to sit 
at his bedside continually to prevent his 
getting into so profound a slumber from 
the effect of the morphine administered 
that he could not be awakened. Arous- 
ing him when he began to breathe too 
heavily at one time, he said to me, 
“What a horrible dream I had! I 
thouzht I was a saw-log, and men were 
cutting me up with cross-cut saws!” 


It was the second night after my ar- 
rival, and I was sitting up with father 
and the other members of the family 
were in bed. About midnight I had left 
his room to go to the kitchen to get a 
hot flatiron to put to his feet. I was 
gone probably five minutes. When I 
entered his room, father exclaimed, 
“Henry, I have not had one of those 
pains since you left the room. And I 
am not going to have them any more 
either! I asked Jesus to take them 
away, and he has! Bless his name!” 
Of course we rejoiced, and praised God 
together. 


In a few minutes I awakened the 
other members of the family. My 
brother has told me that when aroused 
his first thought was, “Father is dying.” 
He came down stairs, and seeing father 
sitting up in bed, he exclaimed, “Father, 
what is the matter?” “Matter,” he re- 
plied, “Jesus has just healed me! Bless 


341 


his name!” And then he said, “I would 
not have suffered what I have for the 
whole state of New York, but I am now 
glad this happened to me. I now sce 
that it is not for the sake of the right- 
eousness of any man. It is for Christ’s 
sake that God will help us.” 

He said he had felt too unworthy to 
believe that the Lord would hear him. 
But in a moment the thought came, 
“What did Christ come into the world 
for, if not to save sinners?” And he 
asked in faith and at once received. He 
said he was perfectly well, and wanted 
to get up and dress. We told him it 
was only about two o’clock and per- 
suaded him to remain in bed. 

That morning he arose and dressed, 
ate breakfast and led the family wor- 
ship. When Dr. York, now of Newark, 
N. Y., called to see him he was aston- 
ished to see the change which had taken 
place, and when father testified that 
God had healed him, the doctor could 
not but admit that there was something 
wonderful about it. 

A little later in the day my brother 
went to Alton, and calling to see Dr. 
Ostrom he said to him, “Doctor, what 
do you think of father’s condition?” 
The old physician replied, “My boy, 
your father will die of acute congestion 
of the brain in spite of all we can do.” 
But when my brother said, “Doctor, 
father is sitting up, and says he is well!” 
the physician was amazed and could 
not understand it. 

Father had no relapse, and lived for 
eighteen years longer, and as a farmer 
did some of the hardest work of his life. 
He fell asleep in Jesus, May 6th, 1901, 
lacking eight days of 71 years. Spirit- 
ually his last days were the best of his 
life. And he was greatly enriched in 
faith and love because of this exper- 
ience of God’s grace and power. 

It is needless to say that his three 
sons, now preaching the gospel, all of 
whom participated in a measure in this 
experience of God’s healing grace, have 
been blessed by it, and while not des- 
pising the use of any other remedies, 
they earnestly recommend the sick to 
pray that they may be healed.—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


342 


—641— 
THE LEFT-HANDED LETTER, 


A student in a college one day took a 
letter from the office, and as he glanced 
at the post mark and the handwriting, 
there was suddenly suggested to his 
mind a question that startled him. He 
had been expecting a letter from his 
mother, but the one he received, al- 
though it bore the post mark of home, 
was certainly not directed in his 
mother’s familiar hand. Had anything 
happened to his dearly beloved parent? 
In that moment of suspense it seemed 
as if all her incessant love and many 
admonitions rushed to his mind. 
Through his whole life he had been 
surrounded by her influence and 
prayers. 

His mother had with deep earnest- 
ness told him when he was leaving 
home that she believed that the crisis in 
his life had come, and she implored him 
to choose Christ for his portion. But 
his heart was full of worldly ambition. 
His studies engrossed his whole atten- 
tion, and he turned a deaf ear to the 
most important of all subjects. The 
second week of school he received a 
letter from her, urging him, with all the 
intensity of her love, not to make the 
fatal delay; but the letter was put care- 
lessly aside, and he turned to his ab- 
sorbing studies. Weeks and months 
had passed, and letter had followed let- 
ter, but the young man had read each 
without heeding the faithful pleadings 
of the mother whom he dearly loved. 
There was a revival in the school, but 
he did not attend the meetings. His 
classmates went, and were saved; but 
he had no time to spare, so completely 
was he immersed in his books. Would 
nothing arouse him? It would seem as 
if everything had failed. 

But God’s ways are not our ways. 
That letter did the work. The question, 
“Has anything happened to mother? Is 
she dead and all her fearful prayers un: 
answered?” the inquiry so full of fear— 
prepated his heart for what was to fol- 
Ow. 

With trembling fingers he tore open 
the envelope. No, his mother was not 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


dead; but a serious accident had de- 
prived her of her right hand. The hard- 
est thing for the mother was the 
thought that she could not write to her 
absent son, and still entreat him to be 
wise in time. Nay, but she must. 

Immediately she began a letter with 
her untaught left hand. Slow and pain- 
ful as the process was, she did not fal- 
ter until it was completed. But when 
the awkward hand had finished its un- 
accustomed task, it was so different 
from the fair writing of former days, 
that the poor mother could not restrain 
her tears over the crooked, miserable- 
looking letter. But it was the best that 
the faithful mother could do, and weep- 
ing, she knelt and implored God to ac- 
cept her offering, and “make the 
crooked straight.” 

How little she thought that even the 
address that she penned with her trem- 
bling hand was to awaken conscience. 
Slowly and thoughtfully her son deci- 
phered the contents of the scarcely legi- 
ble letter. It was full of the one theme 
—his salvation; and as he read the 
earnest appeal that had been written 
with such difficulty, every word touched 
the chords of his heart. He said: “If 
my salvation makes my dear mother so 
anxious, I will attend to it now.” 

That night he was found in the re- 
vival meeting; and among those who 
were converted at that time, he became 
one of the brightest lights of the Chris- 
tian church. He always attributed his 
conversion, through God, to his mother’s 
left-handed letter.—Tales of Trust. 


—642— 
GIVING AS TO THE LORD. 


It is told of Andrew Fuller that he 
once asked a friend for a contribution 
to foreign missions and received the 
reply, “I will give five pounds, Andrew, 
seeing it is you.” But the preacher re- 
fused the proffered gift, and his friend, 
studying his face fora moment, amend- 
ed his offer. “Well then, seeing it is the 
Lord, I will give ten pounds.” Not 
a few of our gifts would change in 
amount and spirit if they were really 
offered to the Lord. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


—643— 
GOD’S CHASTENING. 


Some years ago there was found in an 
African mine the most magnificent dia- 
mond in the world’s history. It was 
presented to the King of England to 
blaze in his crown of state. The king 
sent it to Amsterdam to be cut. It was 
put in the hands of un expert lapidary. 
And what do you suppose he did with 
it? He took this gem of priceless value. 
He cut anotch init. Then he struck it 
a sharp blow with his instrument, and 
lo! the superb jewel lay in his hand, 
cleft in twain. What recklessness! what 
wastefulness! what criminal careless- 
ness! Not so. For days and weeks that 
blow had been studied and planned. 
Drawings and models had been made of 
the gem. Its quality, its defects, its 
lines of cleavage had all been studied 
with minutest care. The man to whom 
it was committed was one of the most 
skilful lapidaries in the world. Do you 
say that blow was a mistake? Nay. It 
was the climax of the lapidary’s skill. 
When he struck that blow he did the 
one thing to bring the gem to its 
most perfect shapeliness, radiance, and 
jewelled splendor. That blow which 
seemed to ruin the superb precious 
stone was in fact its perfect redemption. 
For from these two halves were 
wrought the two magnificent gems 
which the skilled eye of the lapidary 
saw hidden in the rough, uncut stone 
as it came from the mines. 


So, sometimes, God allows a stinging 
blow to fall upon your life. The blood 
spurts. The nerves wince. The soul 
cries out in an agony of wondering pro- 
test. The blow seems to you an ap- 
palling mistake. But it is not. For 
you are the most precious jewel in the 
world to God. And He is the most 
skilled lapidary in the universe. Some 
day you are to blaze in the diadem of 
the King. As you lie in His hand now 
He knows just how to deal with you. 
Not a blow will be permitted to fall 
upon your shrinking soul but that the 
love of God ever rules it, and works out 
from it, depths of blessing and spiritual 


ANECDOTES 343 


enrichment unseen and unthought-of by 
you.—James H. McConkey: 
—644—- 

THE DRAGON OF THE ABYSS. 

Important and striking truth is often 
conveyed to the mind by fable, and en- 
forced on the attention with great 
power, as in the following eastern story. 
‘A man was traveling in Syria, leading 
his camel by the bridle. Suddenly, the 
animal is seized with a panic of fear; 
he raises himself with impetuosity, 
foams and bounds in a manner so hor- 
rible that his master abandons him in 
anguish, and tries to save himself. He 
perceives at a distance from the road 
a deep stream; and as he still heard the 
frightful neighings of the camel, he 
sought a refuge there, and fell over a 
precipice. But a shrub held him up. 
He clung to it with both hands, and 
cast on every side his anxious eyes. 
Above him is the terrible camel, of 
which he does not lose sight for a mo- 
ment. In the abyss below is a dragon 
who opens his monstrous jaws, and 
seems waiting to devour him. At the 
side of him he sees two mice, one white 
and the other black, who gnaw in turn 
at the foot of the shrub which serves 
him for support. The unfortunate man 
remains there frozen with terror, and 
seeing no retreat, no means of safety. 

Suddenly on a little branch of a shrub, 
he sees some fruit. At that moment he 
ceases to observe the rage of the camel, 
the jaws of the dragon, and the fright- 
ful activity of the mice. He reaches 
out his hand toward the fruit, he gath- 
ers it, and in the sweet taste forgets his 
dangers. Do you ask who is this mad- 
man, who can forget so quickly a mor- 
tal peril? That man is thyself. The 
dragon of the stream is the ever-open 
abyss of death. The camel represents 
the sorrows of life. The two mice who 
are gnawing at the roots of the shrub 
are day and night. And in this situa- 
tion the fruit of pleasure attracts you. 
You forget the anxieties of life, the 
threatenings of death, the rapid succes- 
sion of day and night, to seek the plant 


of voluptuousness on the borders of the 
tomb.—Selected, , 


344 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—645— 
A STRIKING INCIDENT. 


The following, taken from the “Pion- 
eer Preacher,’ by Rev. Sherlock Bris- 
tol, recounts an experience of his stu- 
dent days at Oberlin. He was former- 
ly a home missionary in the Northwest, 
and resided the last we knew at Saticoy, 
Cal. We most emphatically believe 
that God often thus influences the minds 
of men to provide for those who trust 
in Him. But for this faith we should 
be burdened with anxiety from which 
we are now happily free: 


“Nothing special occurred during my 
Junior year, save that I was wonder- 
fully provided for financially. Strange 
it was, but true, that when I came to 
need money or books, or clothing, some- 
how they came. And I noticed, too, 
that God held them back just long en- 
ough to enable me to appreciate their 
value, and thus properly estimate the 
love of the giver. And I used often to 
wonder if the commandment to pray 
and to pray often did not arise in part 
from the yearnings of the great pater- 
nal heart for converse with his children. 

“I ought not here to omit the mention 
of a special providence, supplying spe- 
cial need of so marked a character that 
I was compelled to say, “This is the fin- 
ger of God.’ 

“T had borrowed five dollars of a Mr. 
Penfield, a student. One day he came 
to me in haste and said, ‘My people are 
sick and I must start for home this 
noon, and shall need that five dollars 
to pay my fare.’ I went at once to get 
it, but I could neither get it where 
it was due me nor _ borrow it. 
Just then money had become very 
scarce in Oberlin. The bell rang for 
twelve o’clock, the stage threw off its 
mails at the post-office and was rushing 
to the hotel to change horses, then to 
rush back, take its mails and go on. 
I was returning to Tappan Hall and 
saw Mr. Penfield standing in the south 
door waiting for his money. What 
should I say to him? That the Lord 
had failed me this time? What a dis- 
appointment to him, and what influence 
yytey AU UO OAL oIN[Iey Fey} prNom 


and his? But I saw a man running to- 
ward the hall, who reached it simul- 
taneously with myself. Before I had 
time to speak to Penfield the stranger 
cried out, ‘Is there a man by the name 
of Bristol here?? ‘That is my name,’ I 
said, ‘and I am the only one of that 
name in college.’ ‘Well,’ said he, hand- 
ing me five dollars, ‘I suppose this be- 
longs to you.’ ‘Who gave it to you?’ 
‘Don’t know. Just as I left Cleveland 
a gentleman handed me this and said to 
give it to a man in Oberlin by name of 
Bristol. That is all I know about it,’ 
and he turned and ran back to the post- 
office. I handed it over to Penfield, 
and went to my room to thank God for 
the gift, and also for this helper of my 
faith. 

“Years after, in passing through 
Cleveland, I met a lawyer by the name 
of Sterling, and he asked, ‘Did you, 
some two years ago, receive five dollars 
from me?’ I said I had no recollection 
of it, but told him of receiving five dol- 
lars of a stranger as narrated above. “Do 
tell!’ said he, ‘I sent that five dollars and 
it has troubled me more than any five 
I ever lost or thought I lost. Thus it 
was: I was standing by the Weddle 
House as the stage was starting off one 
morning, gazing upon the passengers 
filling up the coach. As the driver was 
gathering up his lines a passenger thrust 
his head out of the window and asked, 
“Does this coach pass through Oberlin?’ 
‘Yes,’ said the driver. At once I drew 
out my purse, and handing the stranger 
five dollars said, ‘Give this to a student 
by the name of Bristol there; they all 
know him.’ The driver cracked his 
whip and the stage was off. I was con- 
founded at what I had done, and said 
to myself, ‘What a fool I was to give 
that five dollars to a total stranger! He 
will forget the name, and if he don’t 
he will have no time to look up Mr. 
Bristol; the stage only stops to change 
horses. Ten to one he will keep it. 
Surely Iam a fool. A hundred times I 
said this of my action, and wondered 
at its precipitancy. It seemed as if for 
an instant another will had control of 
my hand and my purse. So you re- 
ceived it after all, and just when you 


—L—e se 


me, ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


needed it, too,’ and he went away in 
deep meditation. Of course such sing- 
ular interpositions are rare, but do not 
some such occur in every life, enough 
to startle us out of our materialism, 
with the conviction, ‘Thou God seest 
me’?” 
—646— 
RETURNING GOOD FOR EVIL. 


A settler in South Africa who lived 
some distance up the country, one day 
found a native lurking about his stable. 
He accused the man of trying to steal 
a horse. The captive reiterated his in- 
nocence, and explained that he was go- 
ing home to his kraal. Despite his 
frantic struggles and efforts to escape, 
the poor Kaffir was dragged to a tree, 
and there, with one blow of an ax, his 
tight hand was severed from his wrist. 

It was about three months after this 
tragic event that the settler found him- 
self benighted while still far away from 
his home. He came to a Kaffir hut and 
asked admission. A tall native desired 
him to enter, and food was placed be- 
fore him. Next morning when he arose 
to depart, his host confronted him, and 
holding up his arm asked the white man 
if he knew it. The squatter turned pale 
—the hand was gone! He knew he had 
been at the mercy of the man he had 
treated so cruelly. 

The Kaffir continued: “You were in 
my power, I could have killed you. Re- 
venge said, ‘Kill the man who has 
maimed you for life,’ but I replied, ‘No, 
I am a Christian, and I will forgive.’ ” 
—Selected, 

—647— 


SECRETS OF STRENGTH. 


It is noted that George Muller, 
though a man always of delicate con- 
stitution physically, began evangelistic 
tours at the age of 70 involving a period 
of seventeen years, and of travel aggre- 
gating a distance of eight times around 
the world, and he continued to carry 
much of the responsibilities of the Or- 
phanages besides, until beyond the age 
of 90. As a young man his frequent 
and serious illnesses and general debil- 
ity had apparently disqualified him from 


345 


all military duty and many prophesied 
early death or hopeless succumbing to 
disease; yet at the age of 92 he is quoted 
as saying, “I have been able, every day 
and all the day, to work, and that with 
ease, aS seventy years since.” He as- 
cribed his marvelous preservation to 
three causes: (1) The exercising him- 
self to have always a conscience void 
of offence both toward God and toward 
men. (2) To the love he felt for the 
Scriptures, and the constant recupera- 
tive power they exercised upon his 
whole being. (Prov. iv:20); and, (3) 
To the happiness he felt in God and His 
work, which relieved him of all anxiety 
and needless wear and tear in his labors. 
—Selected. 


—648— 
WHY THEY COULD NOT SLEEP. 


Two missionaries went to a village in 
Korea in which the gospel had never 
been preached. It was noised abroad 
that they had come, and practically the 
whole population gathered. The inter- 
est of the people was so great that the 
meeting continued until a late hour. 
Finally, the missionaries, weary after 
the day’s journey, closed the meeting 
and were shown into an adjoining room 
for the night. But the people did not 
go away, and the murmuring of their 
voices kept the missionaries from sleep- 
ing. Along about two o’clock, one of 
them went back and said to the people: 
“Why don’t you go home and go to 
sleep? Itis very late and we are tired.” 
The head man of the village answered 
in substance: “How can we sleep? You 
have told us that the Supreme Power 
is not an evil spirit trying to injure us, 
but a loving God Who gave His only 
begotten Son for our salvation, and that 
if we will turn away from our sins and 
trust in Him, we may have deliverance 
from fear, guidance in our perplexities, 
comfort in our sorrows. How can we 
sleep after a message like this?’ How 
could they indeed? And the mission- 
aries forgetting their weariness, sat 
down by those poor people and com- 
muned with them until the morning 
dawned.—Rev. Arthur J. Brown, D. D. 


346 


—649— 
A SOLITARY CHRISTIAN. 


In one of my early journeys I came 
with my companions to a heathen vil- 
lage on the banks of the Orange River. 
We had travelled far, and were hungry, 
thirsty, and fatigued; but the people of 
the village rather roughly directed us 
to halt at a distance. We asked for 
water, but they would not supply it. I 
offered the three or four buttons left on 
my jacket for a little milk, and was re- 
fused. We had the prospect of another 
hungry night, at a distance from water, 
though within sight of the river. 

When twilight drew on, a woman ap- 
proached from the height beyond which 
the village lay. She bore on her head 
a bundle of wood, and had a vessel of 
milk in her hand. The latter, without 
opening her lips, she handed to us, laid 
down the wood, and returned to the vil- 
lage. A second time she approached, 
with a cooking vessel on her head, and 
a leg of mutton in one hand, and water 
in the other. She sat down without 
saying a word, prepared the fire, and 
put on the meat. We asked her again 
and again who she was. She remained 
silent, till affectionately entreated to 
give us a reason for such unlooked for 
kindness to strangers. Then the tears 
stole down her sable cheeks, and she re- 
plied, “I love Him whose servants you 
are; and surely it is my duty to give 
you a cup of cold water in His name. 
My heart is full; therefore I cannot 
speak the joy I feel to see you in this 
out-of-the-world place.” 


On learning her history, and that she 
was a solitary light burning in a dark 
place, I asked her how she kept up the 
light of God in her soul, in the entire 
absence of the communion of saints. 
She drew from her bosom a copy of the 
Dutch New Testament, which she had 
received from Mr. Helm, when in his 
school, some years before. “This,” said 
she, “is the fountain whence I drink; 
this is the oil which makes my lamp to 
burn!” {ff looked on the precious relic, 
printed by the British and Foreign Bi- 
ble Society; and the reader may con- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ceive my joy while we mingled our 
prayers and sympathies together at the 
throne of our heavenly father.—Robert 
Moffat. 


—650— 
THE GREATER FOOL. 


In a sermon preached by Bishop Hall, 
upon his eightieth birthday, he relates 
the following story: 


There was a certain lord who kept a 
fool in his house; as many a great man 
did in those days for their pleasure; to 
whom this lord gave a staff, and 
charged him to keep it till he should 
meet with one who was a greater fool 
than himself; and if he met with such a 
one, to deliver it over to him. Not 
many years later, his lord fell sick; and 
indeed was sick unto death. His fool 
came to see him; and was told by his 
sick lord that he must now shortly leave 
him. 

“And wither wilt thou go?” said the 
fool. 

“Into another world,” said the lord. 

“And when wilt thou come again?— 
within a month?” 


“No.” 

“Within a year?” 

“No.” 

“When then?” 

“Never.” 

“Never! And what provision hast 


thou made for thy entertainment there 
whither thou goest?” 

“None at all.” 

“No!” said the: fool, “none at ali? 
Here, take my staff, then. Art thou 
going away for ever, and hast taken no 
order, whence thou shalt never return? 
Take my staff for I am not guilty of any 
such folly as this.” 


— 651 — 
GOD SEEN IN HIS WORKS. | 


__Too many people have a microscopic 
idea of the Creator. If they would only 
study his wonderful works, as shown in 
nature herself and the natural laws of 
the universe, they would have a much 
broader idea of the Great Engineer. 
Indeed I can almost prove his existence 
by chemistry.—Thomas A. Edison. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


652 
CHRIST SEEN IN A CHRISTIAN. 


Some years ago I was preaching in 
one of the hospitals in East Arabia, and 
spoke of the love of Christ—its length 
and breadth and depth and height—us- 
ing the words of the Apostle as the 
basis of my talk. I endeavored to pre- 
sent the subject simply so that it could 
be understood by the uneducated peo- 
ple who had gathered in the waiting 
room. At the close of the address a 
Moslem, unprepossessing in appearance, 
who had evidently not been to the hos- 
pital before, stepped forward and with 
Bedouin bluntness exclaimed, “I under- 
stand all you told us, because I have 
seen that sort of man myself.” 

In the conversation that followed, this 
Arab, who came from a city about five 
hundred miles distant, began to de- 
scribe, in response to inquiries, a 
stranger who had come to his city and 
taken up his residence there. “Why,” 
he said, “he was a strange man. When 
people did wrong to him, he did good 
to them. He looked after sick folks and 
prisoners, and everybody who was in 
trouble. He even treated negro slave 
boys and sick Arabs kindly. He was 
always good to other people. Many of 
them never had such a friend as he was. 
He used to take long journeys in the 
broiling sun to help them. He seemed 
to think one man was as good as an- 
other. He was a friend to all kinds of 
people. He was just what you said.” 

To my surprise, this rude, uneducated 
man had recognized, in the description 
which I had given of the love of Christ, 
a Christian missionary, and greater was 
my surprise later to find that it was my 
brother, Peter J. Zwemer, who in 1893 
opened work in Muscat, and died in the 
Presbyterian Hospital, New York, in 
1898. That Mohammedan had not only 
heard the word of the missionary, but 
had seen it exemplified in the mission- 
ary’s life. What higher tribute could 
be paid to the daily life of one of God’s 
servants than the fact that an ignorant 
Mohammedan, studying him day by 
day, recognized Christ?’”—Rev. Samuel 
M. Zwemer, F. R. G. S. 


ANECDOTES 347 


— 653 — 
WEAK THINGS. 


__ On the shore of the harbor of New 
York one autumn day, the hand of a 
little two year old pressed upon an elec- 
tric key. It was a light thing to do; it 
required not half the strength of that 
infant’s finger; but that touch closed 
an electric current and drove a fiery 
spark down under the deep waters, and 
along the radiating wires, and, sudden 
as a lightning flash, whole acres of solid 
rock leaped from their eternal founda- 
tions, and thus opened the way for the 
tides of commerce and travel to pour 
through those dangerous narrows which 
had so long been the terror of the sailor. 

What power had that infant? What 
was there in that tiny hand that could 
produce such great results? Nothing. 
But down beneath those waves for 
months and years men had been labor- 
ing and excavating and storing their 
dynamite and other explosive com- 
pounds, and it needed but the touch of 
little Mary Newton’s finger to make the 
connection which linked together the 
mightiest forces of nature, and heaved 
from their base those rocks that had 
stood since the world was made. 


So he who does the work of God may 
be but a child. He may be one of the 
weak things, the base things, the fool- 
ish things of this world; but his faith 
takes hold upon eternal realities; his 
confidence grasps the everlasting arm; 
it is no power of his that does the work, 
but. his touch; his word, his testimony 
may close the circuit between a soul and 
God, and bring the accumulated forces 
of omnipotence to bear upon a human 
heart.—H. L. Hastings. 


654 


“John McNeill tells how, lying awake 
in the early morning, he used to hear 
his father opening the door to go to his 
humble, difficult work, saying in a firm 
voice, ‘I go forth today in the name of 
God.’ So may we all live. Seek first 
the kingdom of God, and all things will 
find their places.” 


348 


— 655 — 
THE STORY OF MARTIN BOOS. 


Among the students at Dillengen, 
there had been one too noticeable to be 
soon forgotten. Martin Boos had been 
dropped into the world apparently by 
mistake. He was the fourteenth child 
of a small farmer—a “Christmas child,” 
yet born in so cold a night that the 
water in the room froze. An orphan at 
four, his eldest sister’s first thought was 
to dispose of him with due regard to 
economy. Being a sturdy girl, she set 
him on her shoulders, and started for 
Ausburg; but getting tired, she flung 
him into a corn-field by the way, where 
he soon cried himself asleep. How- 
ever, in the afternoon she returned, laid 
him at an uncle’s door in the city, and 
went her way. The lonely child man- 
aged to grow up in some fashion in this 
surly uncle’s house, saved himself by 
his scholarship from becoming a shoe- 
maker, and went to Dillengen, where, 
a brilliant, handsome student, he car- 
ried off the first honors. Sailer’s teach- 
ing had more influence than he knew; 
and when his uncle had celebrated his 
first mass by giving a three days’ shoot- 
ing party, he thankfully subsided into 
a quiet parish priest, cultivating, in 
thorough Romish fashion, holy affec- 
tions, and yearning after that calm 
mystic relation to Christ that had been 
pointed out in the lectures. 

“T lay,” he says, “for years upon the 
cold ground, though my bed stood near 
me; I scourged myself until the blood 
came, and clothed my body with a hair 
shirt; I hungered, and gave my bread 
to the poor; I spent every leisure mo- 
ment in the precincts of the church; I 
confessed and communicated every 
week.” He “gave himself an immense 
deal of trouble to lead a holy life,” and 
was unanimously elected a saint; but 
the saint was miserable, and cried out, 
“O wretched man that I am! who shall 
deliver me?” 

Going to see a pious old woman on 
her death-bed, he said wistfully, “Ah, 
you may well die in peace!” “Why?” 
“You have lived such a godly life.” 
“What a miserable comforter!” she 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


said, and smiled; “if Christ had not 
died for me, I should have perished for- 
ever, with all my good works and piety. 
Trusting in Him, I die in peace.” And 
from this time the light fell in upon 
his soul; the dying woman had an- 
swered his miserable cry. 


He stayed some months with Fene- 
berg, at Seeg, as voluntary chaplain, 
with Sailer; was one of those who ac- 
companied the good man on the first 
Sunday he went out with his wooden 
leg; then received a curacy at Wiggens- 
bach near Kempen, and began preach- 
ing Christ. “Flames of fire darted from 
his lips, and the hearts of the people 
burned like straw.” He declared their 
sins, and when they cried, “What shall 
we do?” he gave them no answer. “Re- 
pent?” no answer. “Confess?” no an- 
swer. “Good works?” no answer; 
until the question was driven deep into 
their souls, and then they knew how 
vain was any answer but one—Christ. 


Moreover, he had a terse, original 
way of putting things, and a power of 
homely—some may think too homely— 
illustration. One or two examples may 
be given at hazard:—“They are dearer 
to God who seek something from Him 
than those who seek to bring something 
to Him.” “He that says he is pious is 
certainly not.” “The most read their 
Bibles like cows that stand in the thick 
grass, and trample the finest flowers and 
herbs.” “People think it a weakness 
to forgive an insult. Then God would 
be the weakest in heaven and on earth, 
for no one in heaven or on earth for- 
gives so much as He.” “Death strips . 
us of this world’s glory, as a boot-jack 
draws off your boots. Another wears 
my boots when I am dead, and another 
wears my glory. It is of very little 
value.” 

_A preacher of this stamp would make 
himself heard anywhere; and it is little 
wonder that great excitement gathered 
about the little country chapel in Ba- 
varia. Many found the Saviour when 
he preached; persons came long jour- 
neys to hear so strange and blessed a 
doctrine ; and the chapel was thronged 
with men and women who had gone 


—_— 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


about anxious, heavy laden, and. hope- 
less for years. Feneberg heard of it, 
longed for more than he had yet found, 
and wrote that he was like Zaccheus 
waiting in the tree till Christ should 
pass by. “Then wait quietly in the 
tree,’ Boos wrote back; “Christ will 
soon enter thy house and thy heart.” — 
Stevenson’s Praying and Working. 


— 656 — 
THE BIBLE WORKS WONDERS. 


About the year 1905 a political refu- 
gee, named Manoel Bispo, was wander- 
ing on the frontier of the State of Sao 
Paulo in Brazil. He was afraid to go 
into the towns, and kept to the woods 
and fields. Among the peasants he 
heard talk of a wonderful book, the 
Word of God, which certain men from 
Rio de Janeiro had distributed in the 
district. There were only a few scat- 
tered copies of it, but many men were 
studying it, and following its wonderful 
precepts. 

Manoel, hiding in the forest, lonely 
and anxious, was greatly helped and 
comforted by certain words that he was 
told were in the book. He made up his 
mind that he must have one for him- 
self. So he made the journey to Rio 
de Janeiro, a thousand miles, as best 
he could, and sure enough the book was 
to be had. With his precious copy he 
made his way back to the remote in- 
terior village from which he had come, 
and where he felt safe at last. 

Four years later, so the American Bi- 
ble Society records show, a colporteur 
reached this village for the first time. 
No missionary had ever set foot there. 
The colporteur hardly expected anyone 
to listen to him. Sut he found not only 
that the villagers had heard of the Bible, 
but that they had adopted it as the 
guide of their lives. Manoel, on his 
arrival, had read his book to his neigh- 
bors, and they had received its teach- 
ings gladly. So the colporteur was 
able to organize a little church, and 
now, in this remote place, the gospel is 
preached and lived in sincerity and 
faithfulness. The refugee’s Bible was 
worth journeying a thousand miles for 
—was it not? 


349 


— 657 — 
PRAYER FOUND THE REMEDY. 


A correspondent of The Illustrated 
Christian Weekly states that a mother 
of her acquaintance had a child taken 
alarmingly ill. She sent for the phy- 
sician. The child was in convulsions. 
The doctor began at once vigorously to 
apply the customary remedies—cold 
water to the head, warm applications 
to the feet, chafing of the hands and 
limbs. All was in vain. The body lost 
nothing of its dreadful rigidity. Death 
seemed close at hand, and absolutely in- 
evitable. At length he left the child, 
and sat down by the window, looking 
out. He seemed, to the agonized 
mother, to have abandoned her darling. 
For herself, she could do nothing but 
pray; and even her prayer was but an 
jnarticulate and unvoiced cry for help. 
Suddenly the physician started from his 
seat. “Send and see if there be any 
jimsom weed in the yard,” he cried. 
His order was obeyed; the poisonous 
weed was found. The remedies were 
instantly changed. Enough of the seeds 
of this deadly weed were brought away 
by the medicine to have killed a man. 
The physician subsequently said that 
he thought that in that five minutes 
every kindred case he had ever known 
in a quarter century’s practice passed 
before his mind. Among them was 
the one case which suggested the real, 
but before hidden, cause of the pro- 
tracted and dreadful convulsions. And 
the child was saved. 

Now is there anything inconsistent 
or unphilosophical in the belief that at 
that critical moment, a loving God, 
answering the mother’s helpless cry, 
flashed on the mind of the physician 
the thought that saved the child? Is it 
any objection to that faith to say, the 
age of miracles is past? If the mother 
may call in a second physician, to sug- 
gest the cause and the cure, may she 
not call on God? What the doctor can 
do for a fellow-practitioner, cannot the 
Great Physician do? Though the doc- 
tor had often tried and thought, yet it 
was not till the last prayer and call on 
God that the remedy was brought to 
his mind. 


350 
— 658 — 
THE INDIANS AND THE GREAT 
BOOK. 


“At Norway House, on a certain oc- 
casion,” says Rev. Egerton Young, “a 
number of Indians came into my room, 
noiselessly, after a fashion, so that the 
room was filled with them before I 
knew it. When I became aware of their 
presence I asked whence they were. 
‘From a journey of fourteen nights,’ 
they replied. For they reckon distance 
by the number of nights they are de- 
layed to sleep. ‘We have got the Kes- 
senaychen—the Great Book—but we 
don’t understand it, although we can 
read it.’ I thought they were joking 
for the Indians cannot read unless some- 
one has taught them; and I knew from 
their account they must live far away 
from any missionary; but I asked them, 
‘From what missionary did you learn?’ 
‘We never saw a missionary nor a 
teacher.’ 

“TI took down from my shelf our Bible, 
printed in the beautiful syllabic char- 
acter for the Cree language, and opened 
to Genesis; they read it with ease and 
correctness. I turned the pages and 
they read in many places. I was 
amazed, and asked them again where 
they lived. They described it to me; 
it was far away, north of Hudson’s 
Bay, hundreds of miles from any mis- 
sionary. Their hunting grounds, it 
seems, adjoin those of some Christian 
Indians—they cover great distances in 
hunting—‘and,’ continued my visitors, 
‘we visited your Indians and found 
that they had the Kessenaychen. We 
got them to read it and then to teach 
it to us, and we were so pleased with 
it that we all learned to read it during 
the winter.’ 

“Every soul in a village of three hun- 
dred population had thus actually 
learned to read the Bible without ever 
having seen any white teacher; and 
having providentially come into pos- 
session of some copies that happened to 
be in the hands of the Hudson Bay 
Company’s agent, these heathen Indians 
had journeyed through the snows four- 
teen nights distance that to them might 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


be given instruction in the Book they 
had thus learned to love.” 


— 659 — 


INFLUENCE OF GOOD BOOKS, 


Next to reading the Bible, the read- 
ing of good books, that tell of the lives 
of great and noble men and women, are 
helpful in building Christian character. 
“Give attention to reading,” was Paul’s 
admonition to Timothy. In these days 
when there is so much trashy literature 
afloat, we need to pay special attention 
to selecting our reading. More than 
one life has been fashioned by thoughts 
imbibed in reading a good book. It is 
said of the Scotchman, Alexander 
Mackay who established a native Chris- 
tian state in Uganda, that when a little 
boy he read of David Livingstone, and 
with his father looked over the maps of 
Africa and traced the travels of the ex- 
plorer. One night while his father was 
away preaching and his mother was 
telling him stories of the heathen lands, 
he said to her, “Would you like me to 
go to Africa, mother?” “Not unless 
God prepares you for it, my boy, but if 
the call comes, see that you do not re- 
ject it,” was the answer. 

When he grew up a call did come, 
and he went, and God did use him to do 
a great deal of work in His name. 

Mr. Arnot, who has been named little 
Livingstone by the natives beyond the 
Zambesi, through whose labors and 
prayers a number of mission stations 
have been established in central Africa, 
also received his missionary inspiration 
by hearing and reading of David Living- 
stone, and it was he who in after years 
had the honor of nailing a brass plate 
to the tree where the heart of Living- 
stone was buried. 

These two lives were both used in 
gathering many heathen souls into the 
kingdom, and both found inspiration in 
reading the life of a great and good 
man. ‘There are many others who have 
likewise been influenced for good and 
usefulness. Reading of good and noble 
men is like making them our compan- 
ions and has a tendency to make our 
spirits like unto theirs—Ida Worcester. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ims 660 — 
THE DEBASEMENT OF SIN. 


There is no contact that leaves its 
mark more distinctly upon the human 
features than the disfiguring touch of 
sin. It can mar the fairest counte- 
nance, quench the light from the bright- 
est eyes, steal the freshness and bloom 
from the sweetest cheek, and so mar 
and distort every lineament as to make 
the whole unrecognizable even to the 
mother, whose eyes are the last to be 
deceived. There is no incident that 
could more forcibly illustrate this than 


that connected with the painting of 


Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Sup- 
per.” It is familiar to many, but may 
be new to some. Long and in vain 
had the artist sought for a model for his 
Christ. “I must find a young man of 
pure life,” he declared, “before I can 
get that look on the face I want.” At 
length his attention was called to a 
young man who sang in the choir of 
one of the old churches, Pietro Bandi- 
nelli by name. He was not only a 
young man of beautiful countenance, 
but his life was as beautiful as his face. 
The moment he looked upon this pure, 
sweet countenance the artist cried to 
himself in his joy: “At last I have the 
face I wanted.” So Pietro Bandinelli 
_ sat as the model for the picture of 

Christ. 

Years passed on and still the great 
painting of “The Last Supper” was not 
finished. The artist was hunting for a 
model for his Judas. “I must find a 
man whose face sin has hardened and 
distorted,” he said; “a debased man, 
his features stamped with ravages only 
wicked living and a wicked heart can 
show.” ‘Thus he wandered in search of 
his Judas, until one day in the streets 
of Rome he came upon a wretched 
creature—a beggar in rags, with a face 
of such hard, villainous stamp that even 
the artist was repulsed; but he knew 
that at last he had found his Judas. 

And so it came about that the beggar 
sat as the model for the face of Judas. 

As he was dismissing him, da Vinci 
said: “I have not asked your name yet, 
but I will now.” 


ANECDOTES 351 


“Pietro Bandinelli,” replied the man, 
looking at him unflinchingly, “I also 
sat for your model of Christ.” 

The artist was so overcome by this 
startling declaration that he would not 
at first believe it, but had at last to do 
so, through incontrovertible proof. The 
young man had fallen into evil ways, 
at first only a little so. Time after time 
he yielded, and at last had become the 
debased creature the artist had found. 

O young reader, beware of the first 
disfiguring touch !—Selected. 


— 661 — 


A SERVANT GIRL’S INFLUENCE. 


I believe it was John Wesley, who, 
when told that his congregation con- 
sisted largely of servant girls, replied 
that he was glad of it, as they had the 
care of the children, and if the servant 
girls were converted they would train 
the children in the fear of the Lord. 

A most notable illustration of this 
truth is found in a case of one of Eng- 
land’s most honored noblemen, A half 
a century or more ago his mother had 
a servant maid and housekeeper, named 
Mary Millas. She had the care of this 
child, and trained him up until he was 
seven years of age, when she died. But 
the seed which she had sown was not 
lost. She had set an indelible mark 
upon the tender mind of the young 
nobleman, and her example, precepts, 
and prayers, remembered by him, fixed 
and formed his character for good at 
that-early age. Today that little child is 
known and honored throughout Eng- 
land, by every class from the beggar to 
the prince, and his name is graven upon 
the hearts of the poor throughout the 
length and breadth of the land. 


Let those who deem their position 
lowly and their work obscure, take 
courage and be faithful; and if at any 
time their hearts despond or repine, let 
the name of Lord Shaftesbury, with all 
the nobility of his consecrated and gen- 
erous life, encourage them to toil on, as 
Mary Millas did, assured that God shall 
give the increase, and that their labor 
is not in vain in the Lord.—Selected., 


352 


662 
AWAITING AN INHERITANCE. 


It was at Field, British Columbia, 
that we made a pleasant acquaintance 
in a lady who, like ourselves, was trav- 
eling through this wonderful land of 
majestic beauty. In the course of a 
ramble to the Natural Bridge, she told 
us a little of her life history, which was 
so interesting that we repeat it here to 
prove that truth is often as interesting 
as fiction, and that her life is a proto- 
type of that of every true Christian. 

“Early in life,’ she said, “I was 
married to a young man who had few 
near relatives, save a wealthy uncle, 
whom he seldom saw. Of course, we 
sent him an invitation to our quiet little 
wedding, but he neither came to the 
wedding nor noticed, in any way, the 
invitation. 

“A year or so after this, our baby boy 
came, and my husband said, ‘I am 
going to name this boy after Uncle 
George; it is a good name, and it may 
please Uncle George to have me do it. 
He has never married, and some day he 
may take a notion to do something for 
the boy.’ 

“So the child was named after the 
uncle, and my husband wrote and told 
him of it. No notice, in any way, was 
taken of the letter, and I said, ‘I am 
sorry you named the child after him. 
I wish you had not done so.’ 

“Several years rolled by, and again 
a little child came into our home, this 
time a girl; but when she was only six 
weeks old, my husband was taken ill of 
small-pox, and the boy, too, and in a 
few days they were both dead, and the 
baby girl lay ill with the same disease. 

“I was so stunned with grief that 
when the physician told me that the in- 
fant would live, I felt, utterly indiffer- 
ent. Word had been sent to Uncle 
George of the double ‘funeral, but no 
message of sympathy was received from 
him. I did not know how, in my weak 
condition, to face the world and make a 
living for myself and child. By and by, 
however, I rallied, and found a way in 
which I could do so. 

“Years rolled by, and my daughter 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


grew to young womanhood. About 
seven years ago she married, making a 
very wise choice. When arranging for 
her wedding, she suggested sending an 
invitation to Uncle George. I objected; 
I said, ‘You do not know how he has 
treated all the letters that have been 
sent him in the past. He has ignored 
them all.’ 

“ ‘Well, mother, I want to send it. 
We might as well let him know that he 
has some relatives in the world.’ So 
the invitation was sent. 

“To our great surprise, he acknowl- 
edged the invitation, and enclosed a 
check as a wedding gift. It proved to 
be for one hundred dollars, and my 
daughter was delighted at the response 
to her invitation. 

“About two years ago, I received 
a letter from an attorney, stating that 
George S. Stevenson had died, and his 
last will and testament directed that his 
entire estate should be equally divided 
between his only sister and the widow 
of his nephew. No mention was made 
of my daughter, who, of course, is of 
his blood, but the fortune was left abso- 
lutely to me. 

“My first act on coming into posses- 
sion of the money was to buy a home, 
and then a burial lot, two things I had 
always longed to have. I established 
my daughter in the home, and I live 
with her. She has a dear little boy, 
who is the sunshine of the home, and 
we are a happy family. I am spending 
some of my income in travel, which is 
something I never before had an oppor- 
tunity to do. I have just been through 
Colorado, the Yellowstone Park, Cali- 
fornia, Portland, Seattle, and am now 
returning home by way of these grand 
Canadian Rockies.” 

This is a true story, and its lessons 
are not hard to find. There is One 
whose name we bear, who “is rich in 
houses and lands, he holdeth the wealth 
of the world in his hands,” and to whom 
we turn in our time of sorrow and joy. 
Often it seems as though he paid no 
heed to our prayers; at other times, the 
answer comes, and we are thankful but 
surprised, for our faith is small. Some 


day, however, we shall be summoned 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


by the great Advocate of souls, and we 
shall find that during all these years of 
trial, he has been watching us and prov- 
ing us, and in the meanwhile preparing 
us for a mansion that shall be ours for- 
ever, and in which we shall gather to- 
gether with our loved one, and go no 
more out forever.—Mary Ella Cornell. 


— 663 — 
A PICTURE’S INFLUENCE. 


Some years ago I read a story of a 
widowed mother in England who had 
seven sons. These boys had grown up 
under her care, and one after another, 
as fast as they had reached the age of 
maturity, left home and went to sea. 
When the last boy had gone she called 
in her pastor, who was a common-sense 
man, and she told him the story of how 
all her boys, one after another, had gone 
as sailors, how she had never taught 
them along this line, and that they had 
never even seen the sea. As she was 
talking the old pastor’s eyes rested upon 
a beautiful painting that hung above 
the mantelpiece. It was the picture of 
a ship in full sail. The merry pas- 
sengers were standing upon the deck, 
waving their handkerchiefs in glad re- 
joicing and great glee to friends who 
had come to greet them from the shore. 
It was a beautiful sight, and the old 
pastor said, “How long have you had 
that picture in the room?” “Oh,” she 
said, “it was given to us as a bridal 
present when we were married.” “And 
you have raised up every one of your 
children in this room?” “Yes. This 
was the nursery.” “And they have 
had their eyes on that picture all along 
through the years?” “Yes.” “Well, 
that’s the explanation.” And I do not 
at all doubt that it had a great deal to 
do with it. 

Nor do I doubt that the conduct of 
people today in the great round world 
is to a large extent to be traced back to 
some simple thing like that, perhaps to 
some picture, or book, or person, that 
they came in contact with in the form- 
ative period of their life, and that 
stamped their character forever. And 
if that be true, how careful Christian 


353 


people should be about the kind of pic- 
tures that adorn their walls! How care- 
ful we should be about what is in the 
boy’s room. In order to be perfectly 
practical, let me say, How careful we 
should be to see to it that the boy does 
not carry about in his pocket those 
abominable pictures they give with cig- 
arette packages in this country. We 
talk a great deal about the evil effects 
of the cigarette. I do not believe that 
cigarettes, harmful as they are and 
much as I hate them, have done any 
more harm than have the pictures that 
go with them.—Rev. Len G. Broughton, 
Ded: 


— 664 — 
“ALWAYS BEFORE GOD.” 


In some personal recollections of a 
minister’s life, recently published in 
The Christian Endeavor World, F. D. 
Power, of Washington, gives this ex- 
perience. 

“Riding one day on a train, I was 
half asleep in the seat, having been up 
all the night before, when I overheard 
the conductor talking to someone just 
behind me, and using every little while 
an oath. 

“Turning about, I faced him, and 
said, ‘Captain, are there any regulations 
on this road with respect to the use of 
profanity on the part of its employees?’ 

“ “How is that, sir?’ he asked. 

“I repeated. 

“*Yes sir,’ he slowly answered. 

“I resumed my silence, and there was 
silence everywhere. 

“Presently the conductor approached 
me and said: ‘I hope you will excuse 
me for using profanity in your presence. 
IT did not know you were a minister.’ 

“*You do not know I am a minister,’ 
I said, ‘nor does that make any dif- 
ference. Do you talk that way before 
your wife and children, or your mother?’ 

“No, sir, I do not.’ 

‘Well, remember, you are always 
before God.’ 

“I never saw a word have greater 
effect.” 

If Christian men would bear similar 
witness much might be accomplished 
toward the lessening of this present evil. 


$54 


— 665 — 
GOD SENT A FUR CAP. 


A widow once told the writer of the 
turning point in her Christian life, when 
God’s love was so shed abroad in her 
heart that she had been enabled to go 
on through all her trials rejoicingly con- 
scious of God’s presence, and casting 
all her burdens upon Him. She was 
driven to seek God by great need. Her 
husband’s death left her destitute, with 
little children to provide for, and few 
friends to whom to look for contin- 
uous aid. 

Winter drew on, and, one day, her 
little boy came in shivering with cold 
and asked if he could not have a fur 
cap, as his straw hat was very cold and 
none of the boys at school wore straw 
hats. She was without a cent in the 
world. She gave a hopeful answer to 
the boy and sent him out to play, and 
then went to the bedroom and knelt 
and wept in utter desolation of heart be- 
fore God, praying most earnestly that 
God would give her a token that He 
was her God and was caring for her by 
sending her a cap for her boy. While 
she prayed the peace of God filled her 
soul. She was made to feel the pres- 
ence of her Saviour in such a way that 
all doubts as to his love for her and his 
fulfillment of all his promises to care 
for her vanished away, and she went 
out of her room, rejoicing in the Lord 
and singing his praise. 

She had no burden about the cap, and 
was quite content for God to send it 
or not as it pleased Him; and, in the 
afternoon, when a neighbor called, oc- 
cupied with the Lord and His wonder- 
ful love, the thought of the cap had 
gone from her mind. When the neigh- 
bor rose to depart, she said, “You know 
my little boy died last fall. Just before 
he died I bought him a fur cap; he 
only wore it two or three times. After 
his death I put away all his things and 
thought I could never part with any of 
them. But, this morning, as I went to 
the drawer to look them over, I felt that 
I should give you this cap for your 
little boy. Will you take it of me?” 
As she took the cap and told her neigh- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


bor of the morning trial, prayer and 
blessing, two souls were filled with the 
sense of the reality of prayer and the 
love of God for his children. “My 
little boy,” said the widow, “wore that 
cap for three winters. And often, when 
sorely tried by my circumstances, has 
God lifted the burden from my heart, 
by my just looking at it, and remem- 
bering the blessing that came with it.” 
—Major W. D. Whittle. 


— 666 — 


A BRAVE CHINESE BOY. 


Dr. Griffith John, the eminent Eng- 
lish missionary who has labored long in 
China, sends to a mission band of chil- 
dren in England the following story 
from Hankow: 

“It is the story of a brave boy—a 
Chinese boy, of course. Ai little boy 
who had been in a Christian school had 
made up his mind that he would wor- 
ship idols no more. Some of his rela- 
tions were very angry because of this 
and were determined to force him to 
worship them again. They beat him, 
but it was of no use; he only became 
more determined in his mind that he 
would never worship them again. One 
day they took him to a temple and tried 
to force him to go on his knees and 
knock his head to the idol, but, he 
stoutly refused. 

“At last they threatened to throw 
him into the river which was flowing 
near by. ‘Throw me,’ said he, ‘if you 
like; but I will never worship wood and 
stone again. Jesus is the true Saviour, 
and I will worship Him only.’ They 
took hold of him and pitched him into 
the water. One of his relatives, how- 
ever, rushed after him and picked him 
up again. When out of the water the 
first thing he said was, ‘you have not 
succeeded. While in the water I never 
prayed to the idols; I only prayed to 
Jesus.” A brave little boy, that! May 
you all be as brave—brave for God; 
brave for Jesus; brave for righteous- 
ness; brave for the missionary cause; 
brave for the salvation of the world. 
Such bravery will make you a great 
power for good.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


a BOF ie 
THE TOBACCO EVIL. 


As we stood talking with a man a few 
days ago, we observed smoke coming 
from the region of one of his pockets. 
He noticed it at the same instant, and 
hastily withdrawing from the pocket a 
lighted pipe proceeded to beat out the 
fire it had started. This was quickly 
extinguished, but a hole in his blouse 
testified that it had been afire. This 
incident brought to the remembrance of 
the writer a few lines, taught him many 
years ago, by his aged grandmother. 
He recited the verse to the man, and 
will pass it on to the boys and girls who 
may read these lines, in the hope that 
they too will memorize it and then pass 
it on to others: 


“Tobacco is a nasty weed; 

From the devil it doth proceed; 

It picks your pockets, burns your 
clothes ; 

And makes a chimney of your nose.” 


There may be more truth than poetry 
in this verse. ‘Tobacco is indeed a pick- 
pocket. The tobacco users of our coun- 
try spend more money for it every year 
than all the people of the land pay for 
bread. ‘Tobacco weakens the heart and 
helps to shorten the life of all who use 
it; and yet the people of the United 
States burn up and spit out annually 
more than $600,000,000 worth of this 
vile weed. 


The accumulative effect of poison 
taken in small doses becomes great 
enough at last to weaken the constitu- 
tion even if it does not destroy the life. 
That tobacco is a poison no one of in- 
telligence will deny. It is said that 
there is sufficient nicotine poison in one 
cigar if extracted and administered to a 
man to kill him. = Two or three years 
ago a little child living within a block 
of the Tabernacle was taken strangely 
ill. A doctor was called to treat the 
sufferer, but he was unable to determine 
the cause or the character of the com- 
plaint. At last in what was thrown off 
the child’s stomach shreds of tobacco 
were found; and then the physician 


355 


knew it was a case of nicotine poison- 
ing, and treated the child accordingly. 
But in spite of all he could do the child 
died from the poison of the tobacco 
swallowed. It seems that the little boy 
had found the remains of a cigar left by 
his father in the parlor, and had nibbled 
and swallowed a very little of it, but 
enough to cause his death. Rev. Henry 
M. Tyndall. 


— 668 — 
THE BOOK THAT MAKES THINGS 
SAFE. 


A young infidel years ago was 
traveling in the West with his uncle, a 
banker. They were not a little anxious 
for their safety when they were forced 
to stop for a night in a rough wayside 
cabin. There were two rooms in the 
house; and when they retired for the 
night they agreed that the young man 
should sit up with his pistols, and 
watch until midnight, and then awaken 
his uncle, who should watch until morn- 
ing. Presently they peeped through 
the crack and saw their host, a rough- 
looking old man, in his bear-skin suit, 
reach up and take down a book—a 
Bible. After reading it awhile, he knelt 
down and began to pray. Then the 
young infidel began to pull off his coat 
and get ready for bed. The uncle said, 
“I thought you were going to sit up 
and watch.” But the young man knew 
there was no need of sitting up, pistol 
in hand, to watch all night long in a 
cabin that was hallowed by the Word of 
God, and consecrated by the voice of 
prayer. Would a pack of cards, a rum 
bottle, or a copy of the “Age of Rea- 
son” have thus quieted this young in- 
fidel’s fears? 


All countries without the Bible are 
good countries to move away from. 
Countries where the Bible is read and 
obeyed are good countries to move into. 
Those who study and love the Bible 
will know the reason why. Those who 
hate the Bible can easily find some 
countries where it is not read. Why 
do they not move there and see how 
they like it?—Selected. 


356 


— 669 — 
SOME REMINISCENCES. 


The work of the People’s Tabernacle 
was begun the first Sunday of October, 
1892, and in January following we pub- 
lished the first issue of the little paper 
now known as the “Little Evangelist.” 
For the first three years it made its ap- 
pearance every two months; but since 
the 18th of January, 1896, twenty-three 
years, the paper has been published 
weekly. We have nine neatly bound 
volumes containing all the issues of the 
paper for the first twenty-two years 
after the starting of the work; and if we 
wish to be humbled before God, and 
made deeply sensible of His goodness, 
we have only to take one of those vol- 
umes and review some of the expe- 
riences of past years. 

Our readers may be interested In 
some extracts from the first issue of the 
paper. In the Financial Report we see 
that the receipts from all sources totaled 
$103.16. ‘This was for the maintenance 
of the work for the first three months 
of its existence. Of this sum $47.56 
was from the offerings of the Sunday 
School and religious meetings. Dona- 
tions amounting to $48.50 had been re- 
ceived from five persons, the pastor’s 
brother contributing more than half of 
the amount. Through the kindness of 
our landlord, Mr. John H. Haar, banker 
and broker of 100 Broadway, we had no 
rent to pay for those three months, but 
the other expenses amounted to $85.37. 
We quote: “From the above it will be 
seen that there was a balance of $17.79 
as the Pastor’s salary for the three 
months. It will be apparent how in- 
adequate this was for family support 
when it is known that $69 was paid dur- 
ing the same time for house rent alone.” 

Regarding the religious destitution 
of this part of the city previous to our 
venture itis said: “There were swarms 
of children on the streets, and no Sab- 
bath School to which they could be in- 
vited. One Christian lady who was 
anxious for me to do what I could to 
start a Sunday School told me she had 
taken one of her children to the nearest 
school, and the superintendent said to 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


her he was sorry to say so, but the fact 
was that the Sunday School was already 
so full that not another child could be 
received. In half of the block in which 
I lived I knew of five practicing physi- 
cians looking after the bodily needs of 
the people, but on all these seventeen 
streets I did not know of more than one 
minister attending to their spiritual 
needs.” 

“I tried in vain to get other parties 
sufficiently interested in this uptown 
field, so that they would go to the ex- 
pense of opening a place where a 
Sunday School could be started. The 
only hindrance seemed to be the lack of 
money. From my salary of $1,500, by 
economy, I had been able to save several 
hundred dollars the previous year; and 
believing that God often wants us to do 
all we can, after much prayer, I decided 
to resign my field downtown and start 
the work myself.” 

As to the support of the work this 
item occurs in that first paper: “I mean 
to trust God and the public for help to 
carry on this work. And before I will 


incur debt to continue it I shall believe 


it is God’s will for me to give it up. 
Furthermore, while I mean to let our 
readers know of our needs, it is my in- 
tention to solicit aid from no one. I 
trust that He who made me willing to 
sacrifice to start the work will, in au- 
swer to prayer, make others willing to 
help it on. ‘It is better to trust in the 
Lord than to put confidence in man.’” 

In that first paper, it is said, “We 
hope to see a church erected here. A 
suitable site can be bought for $10,000. 
I judge a corrugated iron church, which 
might answer our purpose, could be put 
up for $1,500.” 

How much better was God to us than 
our highest expectations! Eventually 
$27,000 was paid for the site, and here 
we have not a temporary iron church, 
but three substantial brick and stone 
buildings, without a dollar of indebted- 
ness. When the Jews have tried to buy 
this property, as they have sought to do 
a number of times, the only encourag- 
ment they received was to be told that 
the price was five hundred thousand dol- 
lars. And all this came from voluntary 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


offerings in answer to prayer. Surely, 
“it is better to trust in the Lord than 
to put confidence in princes.”—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 670 — 
FISHING, NOT ACCOUNTING. 


There is a story of an old physician 
whose recreation, when he found him- 
self worn with duties and overburdened 
with cares, was to escape from them all 
for a day of fishing. There was rest 
in the silence and calm of the wood, 
healing in the voice of the wind through 
the trees and the murmur of the moun- 
tain brook, and he came back fit for life 
and its work again. Once he took with 
him an eager-hearted young student 
who he thought would be benefited by 
his own remedy. But the younger man, 
though enjoying his surroundings, was 
inclined to make them a study. 

“Doctor, where does this stream come 
from? You say you have known it a 
long time, and its volume of water 
seems unaffected by heavy rains or long 
droughts. How do you account for 
ted 

“IT don’t,” answered the doctor, with 
twinkling eyes; “I just fish in it.” 

There was wisdom in the reply. Life 
holds many a blessing, many a truth 
that is ours for rest and comforting, if 
we will simply appropriate and use it, 
but which eludes us and becomes only 
a vexing puzzle if we insist upon analy- 
sis. We are surrounded by mysteries. 
Love and faith can never be wholly 
understood or explained; the divine and 
the human alike baffle us. The very 
life we live will not reveal to us whence 
it comes or whither it goes, but it is 
ours for our using.—Forward. 


—= 671 — 


ALLSTON’S PRAYER ANSWERED. 


Washington Allston, the famous poet 
and artist, was once in financial straits 
in London, where he had gone to prac- 
tice his profession. Almost in despera- 
tion he meditated on his deplorable con- 
dition, when the hope was suddenly 
forced upon him that God could and 
would help him if he would ask. He 


357 


locked the door, fell upon his knees and 
cried to the Lord for help, and while he 
was praying he was aroused by a knock 
at the door. He opened it and met a 
stranger who announced himself by 
name as a British nobleman. He had 
come to inquire about the artist’s paint- 
ing of the angel Uriel, which he pur- 
chased for $2,000. He was so well 
pleased with it that he introduced the 
young man to many nobles and men of 
wealth, and to fame and fortune. He 
had ell the success he desired after that. 
Mr. Allston regarded this as a direct in- 
terposition of God in behalf of needy, 
suffering man, and ever after he was a 
devout and earnest Christian. There 
are multitudes of cases like this. Noth- 
ing is too small for God to notice, and 
nothing is too hard for him to manage. 
—Selected. 


— 672 — 
WHY CHRIST DIED. 


“Well, I cannot understand why a 
man who has tried to lead a good moral 
life should not stand a better chance of 
heaven than a wicked one,” said a lady 
recently, in a conversation with others 
about the matter of salvation. 

“Simply for this cause,” answered 
one. “Suppose you and I wanted to go 
to a place of amusement where the ad- 
mission was a dollar. You have half a 
dollar and I -have nothing. Which 
would stand the better chance of ad- 
mission?” 

“Neither.” 

“Just so; and therefore the moral 
man stands no better chance than the 
out-breaking sinner. But now, sup- 
pose a kind and rich person, who saw 
our perplexity, presented a ticket of ad- 
mission to each of us at his own ex- 
pense! What then?” 

“Well, then, we should both go in 
alike. That is clear.” 

“Thus, then, the Saviour saw our per- 
plexity; he came, he died, and thus ‘ob- 
tained eternal redemption for us,’ and 
now he offers you and me a free ticket. 
Only take care that your half-dollar 
does not make you proud enough to re- 
fuse the free ticket and be refused ad- 
mittance at last.”—Selected. 


358 


— 673 — 
A BLANKET STORY. 


It is hard to make some people be- 
lieve that anyone wishes to do them 
good. They suspect all offers, they re- 
pel all advances, Their hearts are so 
closed and soured and chilled that they 
are closed against all comers. 


Mark Guy Pearse tells a story which 
a Newcastle gentleman told him on the 
railway train. 

A friend of his, living some few miles 
from Newcastle, was walking along a 
railroad siding going from the main line 
to a colliery, when he looked down up- 
ona roughly built cottage, and no- 
ticed that the daylight showed through 
the loose tiles on the roof. He won- 
dered if anybody could be living in a 
place that looked so cheerless, and com- 
ing round to the front he found an old 
woman and her grown up daughter. At 
once he said within himself that he 
would see the place was made more 
comfortable before the winter came, and 
then he hurried on his way. 

But the good purpose was forgotten, 
and he never thought of the place again 
until one morning, some weeks aiter, 
he drew up his blinds and looked out to 
find some two or three inches of snow 
onthe ground. At once his heart smote 
him for his forgetfulness. He had that 
day to go to Newcastle, and it oc- 
curred to him that at any rate a pair 
of blankets would do something towards 
adding to the comfort of the couple. 


He reached his house with the big 
brown paper parcel, and thought he 
would have the pleasure of taking them 
himself. As he passed the window the 
old woman was looking out, and he 
held up the parcel, thinking that she 
would understand that he was bringing 
something for her. However, she only 
frowned angrily and shook her head. 
He opened the door, when the old 
woman bade him angrily begone; she 
did not want to buy any of his goods, 
she said, and slammed the door against 
him. 

“Why,” he said, “she thinks that I 
want to sell them! No wonder she is 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


so vexed, needing them so badly. I 
must make her understand that it is a 
gift.” He opened the door again and 
got in. 

More fiercely than ever she bade him 
begone! He saw that she was stone- 
deaf, and that her daughter was not at 
home. What could he do? To leave 
the parcel would only be to have it 
flung after him in the snow. 


“TI will show her what it is,” he said 
to himself, “perhaps she will under- 
stand then;” and he untied the parcel. 
But the sight of the warm blankets only 
made her more conscious of her need 
and poverty, and she turned away in- 
dignantly. 

“Why don’t you go away? 
told you I don’t want them.” 

What could he do? He took up one 
and held it up full length and breadth, 
and smiled, and nodded his head, but it 
seemed only like the wiles of some 
resolute peddler, and aggravated her the 
more. 

“Why don’t you go away when I tell 
you?” she cried. 

Then yet another effort suggested it- 
self. Taking the blanket, he threw it 
right around her, and burst into a 
hearty laugh. 5 

Then the meaning of it all flashed 
upon her. Looking up, almost afraid to 
ask the question, she said: “For me!” 

He nodded his head and smiled. 

“A gift?” she asked again, her hope 
growing bolder. 

Again he nodded his head. 

“A gift for me!” she repeated to her- 
self. She stroked it with her hands and 
felt the warmth of it, then laughed and 
cried for very joy, and grasped his hands 
and thanked him with all her heart, 
while the tears streamed down her 
wrinkled cheeks. 


Alas, that our blessed Master should 
have such trouble to force his gifts 
upon us! Alas, that we are so deaf, so 
blind to His great love. “I will give 
you rest,” said He. Take it. Wrap 
it about you. Rest in it with adoring 
gratitude. “A gift—a gift for me.”— 
Selected. 


I have 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 674 — 


WHAT A HELPLESS CRIPPLE 
DID. 


The New York Christian Advocate 
tells of a little old German shoemaker 
at Brillion, Wisconsin, who died last 
month. In babyhood he had lost the 
use of his lower limbs, and never was 
able to walk. His parents had him 
learn the shoemaker’s trade, that he 
might earn his daily bread. He did 
this, and something more, as appears in 
the sequel, for the Advocate says: 

“This crippled Wilhelm Persohn did 
not allow physical misfortune to shrivel 
and destroy his life. A German Meth- 
odist preacher traveling through that 
region placed Christ’s hand in his and 
lifted him’ out of the shadow of his in- 
firmity. He joined the German Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and by his 
earnestness and intelligence won a 
license as local preacher. As time went 
on, he found places of usefulness as 
trustee, organist, and choir leader. 
Shoemaking was his handicraft, but his 
observant mind did not stop with 
shoe-pegs and waxed ends, and he de- 
veloped unusual business judgment, 
buying and selling land until he ac- 
quired a considerable fortune. 

The idea that he was only a steward 
of these riches took strong hold upon 
him, and he would often say, “It be- 
longs to the Lord, and I shall return 
it.’ He chose to do this by helping 
a great many of the benevolent Boards 
of the Church, devoting fully $65,000 to 
their interests, upon the annuity plan, 
which secured to him comfortable sup- 
port without risk of loss during his de- 
clining years, and insured the ultimate 
reversion of his property to the socie- 
ties. The largest of his gifts was $25,- 
000 to the Endowment Fund of the 
General Board of Conference Claimants, 
where it will remain as a perpetual 
blessing to the retired ministers among 
whom the interest will be divided. And 
so this man, who is described in his 
memoir as a helpless cripple, sets an 
example of enduring helpfulness to 
thousands of able-bodied men and 
women,”—The Presbyterian. 


ANECDOTES. — 359 


— 675 — 


ROOM IN LINCOLN’S PEW. 

A member of the New York Avenue 
Church, Washington, which Mr. Lin- 
coln attended while living at the Cap- 
ital, told me of a Sunday morning when 
Mr. Lincoln was in his pew and there 
happened up the aisle slowly an oldish 
man, evidently a stranger, waiting for 
an usher to find a seat for him in the 
crowded church. He paused every two 
or three steps after getting well for- 
ward and then turned to walk back. 
Just as he was passing Mr. Lincoln’s 
pew (now marked with his name), Mr. 
Lincoln stretched out that long arm of 
his and said to the stranger: 

“Come in here with me.” 

With the greatest war the nation had 
(up to that time) upon his hands and 
heart, he never lost sight of individual 
needs, and big and great as he was, he 
never failed to stretch out a helping 
hand to do even little things. 

There is an imperishable influence in 
the lives of such as try every day to do 
good in ways either large or small.— 
John Wanamaker. 


— 676 — 


HER FAITH WAS UNSHAKEN. 


The Rev. S. A. Keen gives an ac- 
count of a Christian wife whose hus- 
band was an officer on a Mississippi 
steamer, which was burned. The wife, 
not knowing of the disaster, prayed that 
her husband’s life might be preserved 
and his soul converted, and was as- 
sured that he would be preserved and 
saved. The day following she received 
a telegram stating that her husband had 
perished, but she folded the paper and 
said, “It is not so. He is saved from 
the flames and waves, and shall be from 
his sins.” A few days later he arrived 
safely at home, and soon afterward was 
converted. 

The faith of this Christian wife, after 
earnest prayer, was like that of Knox, 
who, after praying with some friends 
nearly all night for God’s intervention, 
exclaimed, “Deliverance has come! De- 
liverance has come!”—Rev. H. M. Tyn- 
dall. 


360 


— 677 — 
ASHAMED OF HIS MOTHER 


The story is told of a boy leaving his 
old-fashioned mother in the country, 
while he went to London to live, where 
he became the wealthy Dr. Carter. He 
sent her presents, but never went to see 
her. She arranged to visit her “laddie,” 
and was gfeatly pleased with the pros- 
pect of so soon seeing him, for she 
thought that he would be glad to see 
her again. 

She went to his fine home. When 
he saw her, she was so old and peculiar 
that he was ashamed of her. She 
greeted him joyfully and told him that 
she had come to live with him now. But 
he feared that Violet, his future bride, 
would be ashamed of her, and so he 
tried to persuade his mother to live in 
a little cottage in the country, where 
he said that he could visit her every 
day. 

That night, in her room, the mother 
thought of how her son had received 
her; and as she looked into the mirror 
and saw how old and wrinkled she was 
she said, “My laddie is ashamed of me, 
and I will go away.” And so she left 
the house in the night. In the morning 
she was not found, and then it dawned 
upon the son how he had treated her. 
He went and told all to Violet. 

Instead of being ashamed of his old 
mother, she said that she wanted a 
mother ‘to love, as her mother had died. 

Then they sought her, and at last 
found her in a hospital, where she had 
been placed; for she had been run over 
and injured. Dr. Carter begged his 
mother’s forgiveness, and he and Violet 
tenderly cared for her the few hours she 
lived. He was grief-stricken to think 
he had so treated his mother. As 
he needed more love for her so that 
he would not be ashamed of her, so we 
must truly love God, or we shall many 
times be ashamed to confess Him.— 
Rev. C. H. Tyndall, D. D. 


— 678 — 


A SEAT IN HEAVEN. 
Frederick the Great was at his Cleves 
palace with Voltaire, the noted French 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


philosopher, as his guest. At the din- 
ner table the philosopher began to mock 
at God and good people, and said, “T 
will sell my seat in heaven for a Prus- 
sian thaler.” Among the many guests 
present was a councilor, who was a 
very modest devout Christian. He was 
very much shocked at Voltaire’s words, 
and he at once arose and plainly spoke 
his mind. 

“My dear sir,” he said, “you age in 
Prussia where we have a law, accord- 
ing to which any one who wishes to 
sell anything must prove his ownership. 
Will you be kind enough, therefore, to 
prove that you have a seat in heaven 
and I will take it at any price.” Those 
words had a wonderful effect upon all 
present. Voltaire did not prove his 
ownership, but he had nothing more to 
say. His lips were sealed. 

When the seventy returned to Jesus 
with joy, because even the devils were 
subject unto them through his name, 
He said, “Rejoice not that the spirits 
are subject unto you; but rather re- 
joice because your names are written in 
heaven.” | God’s children can prove 
their case, which is a great one. Their 
names are in the Lamb’s Book of Life, 
and His name shall be in their fore- 
heads.—Religious Telescope. 


— 679 — 


ROBERT McINTYRE’S FIRST 
BATTLE. 

Robert McIntyre was once a poor boy 
apprenticed to a bricklayer in Philadel- 
phia. He has risen to the position and 
influence of a bishop in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. A week or two ago 
he turned aside from other duties to 
spend a Sunday in the city where he 
had his first great trial and won his 
first great victory. While there he 
told of that event in his life. He said: 

I came to Philadelphia today because 
I wanted to pay tribute to a man long 
dead and gone. More than forty years 
ago I was a boy in Hunter’s mill. My 
overseer was Frank Ferguson, whose 
memory I shall ever revere. I remem- 
ber one winter when a revival was in 
progress along Lancaster Pike, the in- 
fluence of which spread to the mill in 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


which I was employed. It was then 
that Mr. Ferguson took me into a tem- 
perance meeting held at 52nd Street 
and Lancaster Pike, and at his sug- 
gestion I took a pledge to abstain at 
all times from taking any alcoholic bev- 
erages. 

Shortly after that my father informed 
me that it was time to choose a trade. 
Some of my chums had gone into brick- 
laying, so I selected that. One night 
my father came home and told me he 
had apprenticed me to a certain brick- 
layer by the name of George. Almost 
immediately, however, he regretted his 


action as the man was known to be of 


intemperate habits. My father’s health 
was declining, and we ail knew that 
the time was near at hand when my 
mother and my brothers and sisters 
would have to depend on what money I 
could earn. 

On the following day I began my ap- 
prenticeship. The noon hour arrived 
and my boss said: “Bobby, throw away 
that water and take the bucket over to 
the saloon. Tell the bartender you 
came from me and he will fill the 
bucket with beer.” I did as he in- 
structed me. Then, upon my return, I 
saw that the men, while eating lunch, 
sat in a row and began passing the 
bucket from man to man. 

The boss drank first, and I took my 
place at the end of the line. I was 
praying that one of the hod-carriers, 
bricklayers or boys would refuse to 
drink, and therefore give me courage 
for the step I was contemplating, but 
not one of them refused. Finally the 
bucket came to me. “I don’t want 
any,’ I whispered to the boy who 
handed it, but he urged me on. The 
boss was watching and thought I was 
shy. “Go ahead and drink, Bobby,” he 
said, encouragingly. “I pay for the 
beer and every man who works for me is 
entitled to his share. Drink, my lad, 
drink.” 

“I don’t like it, sir,’ I said rather 
weakly. 

He laughed heartily and told me that 
I would never make a bricklayer till I 
learned to drink beer. By that time all 
of the men were looking at me. Some- 


361 


how or other I got on my feet and 
walked over down the line until I stood 
in front of the boss. 

“I am only a poor boy,” I said, “and 
I want to learn my trade. If you send 
me home now I shall feel disgraced, 
but I’ll have to go if you insist on my 
drinking this beer. I can’t do it, Mr. 
George.” 

To my amazement, the boss jumped 
to his feet and grasped my hand. “God 
bless you, Robert; stick to that and you 
will make a man of yourself,” he said. 
Then turning to the others: “If I hear 
of one of you men urging this boy to 
drink against his will, I will discharge 
you on the spot,” he said. That was 
how I won the first of my battles in life, 
and I owe it all to Frank Ferguson, the 
man who took the trouble to befriend a 
homeless boy.—Northern Christian Ad- 


—- 680 — 
LOVE LIGHTENS THE LOAD. 


However distasteful a service may be, 
or however disagreeable the person to 
whom it must be rendered, God is back 
of it all, and loved that person well en- 
ough to give his Son to die for him. 
Dr. Guthrie was walking along the 
streets of Edinburgh, when he overtook 
a little girl carrying a child much too 
heavy for her. Ina very gentle way Dr. 
Guthrie said: ‘My child, the baby is 
too heavy for you, isn’t he?” With a 
shining face she made quick response: 
“No, sir; he’s my brother.” It makes a 
difference that one for whom I must 
toil and wait, whose burden I must bear, 
was’ one for whom Jesus died, and thus 
is bound to me with the chord of divine 
love.—J. Wilbur Chapman. 

— 681 — 

A lady showed Mr. Ruskin one day a 
beautiful and costly handkerchief on 
which a careless hand had dropped some 
indelible ink. The lady said it was now 
of no use. Mr. Ruskin put it in his 
pocket and carried it away. In a few 
days he brought it back to her, having 
on it a beautiful picture in India ink, 
with the blot as its basis. In the same 
way God often transforms our mistakes 
and life blots into adornments of char- 
acter.—Selected. 


362 


— 682 — 


HOW TO OPEN RELIGIOUS 
CONVERSATION. 


I know a lady to whom an agent was 
trying to sell an article for taking out 
stains. He was rubbing away, and 
meanwhile eloquently describing the 
merits of his goods. Soon the lady 
said, “I know something that will take 
out stains, too.” 

“What is that?” asked the man 
eagerly, not knowing but that some 
other dirt-killer had canvassed the town 
ahead of him. 

“The blood of Jesus Christ, which 
cleanseth us from allsin. Do you know 
anything about that, my friend.” 

Do you suppose that man would show 
his goods again for six months without 
thinking of that other something that 
could take stains out of a sinful heart? 
I doubt whether he would forget that 
lesson to his dying day. 

A friend of mine at the Northfield 
Conference was asked by an express- 
man to direct him to a certain man’s 
tent. 

“I am very sorry,” he replied, “that 
I cannot tell you where to find him; 
but, if you had asked me the way to 
heaven, I could have told you. Do you 
know the way to heaven?” 

“No,” said the man, “I cannot say 
that I do.” 

“Well, it is just this way,” said my 
friend; and he went on to explain it. 

The result was that the man was led 
to Christ right then and there. Surely 
that was an easy way to open religious 
conversation. Any one could do that. 
You could do it—Rev. Howard W. 
Pope. 


— 683 — 


KILPIN’S THEFT OF A PENNY. 


The Rev. Samuel Kilpin, a minister 
of Exeter, England, says, in his life: 
When seven years old I was left in 
charge of my father’s shop. A man 
passed, crying, “Little lambs, all white 
and clean, at one penny each.” In my 
eagerness to get one I lost all self-com- 
mand, and taking a penny from the 
drawer, I made the purchase. My 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


keen-eyed mother inquired how I came 
by the money. I evaded the question 
with something like a lie. In God’s 
sight it was a lie, as I kept back the 
truth. 

The lamb was placed on the chimney 
‘shelf and was much admired. To me it 
was a source of inexpressible anguish; 
continually there sounded in my ears 
and heart, “Thou shalt not steal; thou 
shalt not lie.” Guilt and darkness over- 
came my mind; and in sore agony of 
soul I went to a hay loft, the place is 
now perfectly in my recollection, and 
there prayed and pleaded, with groan- 
ings that could not be uttered, for 
mercy and pardon. I entreated for 
Jesus’ sake. With joy and transport I 
left the loft from a believing application 
of the text, “Thy sins, which are many, 
are forgiven.” I went to my mother, 
told her what I had done, and sought 
her forgiveness, and burned the lamb, 
while she wept over her young penitent. 

If such was young Kilpin’s misery 
and remorse in stealing a penny, then, 
in justice, he who steals a pound should 
suffer more, provided remorse of con- 
science in this life gives every sinner 
his due punishment. But thieves and 
robbers who have for years pursued 
their path of crime, can and do steal 
hundreds of pounds, and have no such 
sense of guilt and sorrow for it as young 
Kilpin had for his theft of a penny. 


684 — 


THE SECRET OF POWER. 


Where is the secret of power? In 
my college days the professor of nat- 
ural philosophy used to exhibit his 
great horseshoe magnet, wound about 
with coils of wire. He hung it up, 
charged the wire with a galvanic cur- 
rent, and it caught up and held four 
thousand pounds. He signaled to his 
assistant to draw off the current, and 
the power was gone. My brother, en- 
circle your soul with faith and let the 
divine electricity of the love of Jesus 
Christ charge it. Then you can lift 
anything; you can do anything that 
God wants you to do. Draw it off, and 
you are a shorn Samson, a weakling.— 
Theodore L. Cuyler. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ma 685 — 
REMARKABLE ANSWER TO 
PRAYER. 


I was left a widow of forty years of 
age with one child, a boy of seven years, 
and with very limited means. When 
that child was seventeen years of age 
he graduated from the High School in 
the town of Madison, Ohio, and I then 
moved to the city of Buffalo and put 
him into the Normal School there to fit 
him for a teacher. I had some money 
when I went there but not so much, but 
I was obliged to find something to do 
to help me out. When the second win- 
ter came I found myself one month 
without money to pay my rent, which I 
was obliged to pay monthly in advance. 
I told the Lord I would do my best to 
earn the money but if I could not I 
should depend upon Him to provide 
the money. As He had promised to 
provide for the widow and the father- 
less, I was kept through the month in 
perfect peace, believing He would help 
me out according to His promise, al- 
though it was in the depth of winter 
and I knew what the consequences 
would be if I could not meet the rent. 
It meant to be set out in a strange city 
in the cold street. The days went on 
until the last of the month and still no 
money, but I was trusting the Lord and 
that means that I was not worrying, 
for trust and worry cannot go together. 
I told nobody of my trouble, not even 
my son; he knew nothing of it. I only 
told the Lord. The night before the 
rent was due was prayer-meeting night 
in my church, and I went, but before 
going I told the Lord my rent was due 
the next day and I had no money but 
I was trusting Him. I gave no hint 
of my trouble to anyone at the meet- 
ing, but after the meeting was out a 
gentleman came up to me and handed 
me a little parcel. He was the Bible 
class teacher in the Sunday School and 
I attended his class and he knew some- 
thing of my circumstances. He knew 
my son was a poor boy and trying to 
get an education, but he knew nothing 
of the tight place I was in at that time. 


ANECDOTES. 363 


I took the little parcel home and opened 
it and there was a ten dollar bill, a little 
more than enough to pay my rent. I 
saw him a short time after and he told 
me he would tell me when he had an 
opportunity how he was led to give me 
the money, but time went on for two 
years, and one day I went into his office 
downtown and as we were there alone 
I reminded him of his promise and he 
went on to tell me. He said ten days 
before he gave me the money—which 
was Saturday night—he was balancing 
his accounts and found he was ten dol- 
lars ahead, and he said something said 
to him—almost a voice—give that to 
Mrs. Saxton. He said he folded the bill 
and put it into his vest pocket and 
thought he would give it to me the next 
prayer-meeting night, but I was not 
there that night and the next week he 
had a large sum of money to make out 
and lacking some he took that bill out 
of his pocket to use and something said 
to him again, “put that back, that be- 
longs to Mrs. Saxton.” He put it back 
and the next prayer-meeting he gave 
it to me, which was the night before the 
rent was due. I was never out of 
money before that time and never have 
been since, although He has never 
trusted me with any great amount at 
atime. I have truly proved Him to be 
a God that hears and answers prayer. 
“Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all 
that is within me bless His holy name.” 
—Mrs. F. L. Saxton. 


— 686 — 
WHEN HE BIDS US PRAY. 


When Felix of Nola was hotly pur- 
sued by murderers, he took refuge in a 
cave and instantly, over the rift of it, 
the spiders wove their webs, and, see- 
ing this, the murderers passed by. Then 
said the saint, “Where God is not, a 
wall is but a spider’s web; where God 
is, a spider’s web is as a wall.” What 
will prayer do for you? I answer, All 
that God can do for you. When he 
bids us pray it is as though he said to 
us, “Ask what I shall give thee.”ss 
Canon Farrar. 


364 


— 687 — 


SHE LIKED BAD BUTTER. 


Dr. B. Burt Sheldon, a New York 
physician, tells the following story. 

The first job he got after finishing 
school at Oswego, N. Y., was a position 
in a grocery store. Living near him 
was a Mrs. Minnie Dolan with whom 
he had become acquainted. Mrs. Dolan 
asked the grocer clerk to bring her five 
pounds of their best butter. This Burt 
was glad to do, and the butter was taken 
to the customer. 

The next day, however, Mrs. Dolan 
saw the clerk, and said, “We don’t like 
that butter, I wish you would take it 
back and bring me your best.” 

Accordingly the butter, which was 
really excellent in quality, was carried 
back, and Burt told his employer that 
Mrs. Dolan was very particular, and 
would be satisfied with only the highest 
grade butter. The grocer looked over 
his stock, and put up five pounds of an- 
other brand of equally high standard 
and told his clerk to inform Mrs. Dolan 
that no better butter than that ‘was 
made. 

The disgust of the grocer clerk may 
be imagined when the next day Mrs. 
Dolan informed him that they could not 
eat that butter, and she wished him to 
take it back. He did so, with as much 
politeness as he could command. 

Then an idea struck him. He knew 
Mrs. Dolan did not know good butter. 
She had not always been so prosperous 
as now. She was not overneat in her 
home, and he had seen her going about 
bare-footed. 

So he said to his employer, “I know 
what kind of butter Mrs. Dolan wants! 
What is that in that tub over there?” 

He was told it was scrapings from 
various tubs, old and rancid, and fit only 
for cooking purposes. But so confident 
was the clerk in his theory that he 
weighed up five pounds of it and took 
it to Mrs. Dolan, who was delighted 
with it. To her taste that was indeed 
the best butter. 

This reminds me of what a man told 
me some years ago. As a boy he was 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


very particular what he ate. It had to 
be just to his liking, or he refused it. 
But when a young man he got a job 
among the lumber “Jacks” in the pine 
woods of Michigan. The work was 
hard. The food was coarse, but plenti- 
ful, and the men ate of it ravenously. 
The butter, however, was so rancid 
that he could not eat it. It was so bad 
that they greased their wagons out of 
one tub, and ate out of the other, for 
they were of the same quality. As he 
ate his bread dry, his companions 
laughed at him, and said he would soon 
tire of that and take to the butter. And 
So it was, and the more he ate of it the 
better it tasted, and after a time he 
could eat it with a relish. 

The prophet Isaiah exhorts God’s 
people to “eat that which is good,” and 
to delight themselves in it. Isa. 55:2. 

Just as we may cultivate a liking for 
things bad, by partaking of them, so 
we may also for things good. Boys 
have no natural liking for beer, tobacco 
and other injurious things, but an appe- 
tite for them can easily be cultivated. 
In like manner a liking for things good 
may be gained, for Sunday-school, 
church-going, Bible-reading and prayer. 
We should do what is good, whether 
we like it or not, and with the help of 
God, which we shall not fail to have if 
we seek it, duty will eventually become 
a delight Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 688 — 
AT HIS APPOINTED TIME. 


One who has often carried me mes- 
Sages of strength and encouragement, 
Said to me, after I had passed a night 
of entire sleeplessness: “I expected 
nothing else; I could not pray for you 
to sleep.” Another wrote: “I expect to 
hear that your eyes are still useless; for 
I must tell you that I have been quite 
unable to pray for their restoration.” 
Greatly was I helped by these mes- 
Sages; for the heart, recognizing yet 
more vividly through such testimonies 
the hand of the Lord, can accept his 
will, and see how these appointments 
may bring forth fruit. Faith and prayer 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


bring healing; but an understanding of 
the Lord’s will is necessary to their ex- 
ercise. 

After a long trial of patience in a 
shadowed room, alone in a foreign pen- 
sion without power to read or write, 
excepting for a few minutes, suddenly 
one day, I could ask for restoration of 
my sight. Never did I realize to the 
same degree the Lord’s command to 
the paralytic: “Take up thy bed and 
walk;” and believingly I went forth 
from my darkened closet, took up my 
pen, and wrote at,my unfinished manu- 
script as if I had only been interrupted 
an hour instead of six weeks! 

I received a letter from a praying 
friend, stating that she had felt great 
freedom in pleading for my restoration, 
and was expecting to hear of it. My 
letter crossed her own telling her of her 
swift answered prayer.—Anna Shipton. 


— 689 — 


THE STORY OF TWO SEA 
CAPTAINS. 


Captain Rankin, of the Galatea, hated 
Captain Frazier of the Norwalk, a rival 
boat, and Captain Frazier hated him. 
They were once out in a violent storm, 
in which the Galatea had her shaft 
broken. The ships came within hailing 
distance. 

“Shall we speak to the Norwalk, sir?” 
asked the second officer. “Not if we 
can help it, sir,” responded the skipper. 
But the indecision on the Galatea was 
dismissed by a wigwag signal coming 
from the Norwalk’s mainmast. “What’s 
the trouble?” it read. 

Then the Galatea signaled the reply, 
“Shaft broken—unmanageable.” 

“Shall I take off your passengers and 
crew?” asked the Norwalk. 

“Can't tell yet,” was the reply. 

The next sentence that glimmered 
from the Norwalk’s signal lights fur- 
nished the inspiration for a hymn that 
has been sung all over Christendom. 

It was, “I'll stand by until the morn- 
ing—subject to your command.” 

The next night the two rivals rode 
into port together, the disabled Galatea 


ANECDOTES 365 


being towed by the belated Norwalk. 
After their passengers and cargoes had 
been discharged, Captain Rankin 
walked over to the Norwalk’s pier, 
where Captain Frazier was giving 
orders. 

“Goin’ uptown, Fraz?” he asked. 

“B’lieve I am, Rankin,’ answered 
Frazier. 

And the two grizzled sea-dogs who 
had not spoken in years strolled up- 
town, arm in arm.—Parish Visitor. 


— 690 — 
LINCOLN TRUSTED HONESTY. 


Here is a bit of sentiment that will de 
to tack into the big history of the war. 
During the war Miss N , a beautifui 
and spirited Virginian, whose brother, a 
confederate soldier, had been taken 
prisoner by the union forces, was de- 
sirous of obtaining a pass which would 
enable her to visit him. Francis P. 
Blair agreed to secure an audience with 
the president, but warned his young 
and rather impulsive friend to be very 
prudent and not let a word escape her 
which would betray her southern sym- 
pathies. They were ushered into the 
presence of Mr. Lincoln and the object 
for which they had come stated. The 
tall, grave man bent down to the petite 
maiden, and, looking searchingly into 
her face, said: “You are loyal, of 
course?” 

Her bright eyes flashed. She hesi- 
tated a moment, and then, with a face 
eloquent with emotion and honest as his 
own, she replied: “Yes, loyal to the 
heart’s core—to Virginia!” Mr. Lin- 
coln kept his intent gaze upon her for 
a moment longer and then went to his 
desk, wrote a line or two and handed 
her the paper. With a bow the inter- 
view terminated. Once outside, the ex- 
treme vexation of Mr. Blair found vent 
in reproachful words. “Now, you have 
done it,” he said; “didn’t I warn you to 
be very careful? You have only your- 
self to blame.” Miss N——— made no 
reply but opened the paper. It con- 
tained these words: “Pass Miss N : 
she is an honest girl and can be trusted. 
A. LINCOLN.’”—New York Telegram. 











366 


— 691 — 
HOW GOUGH WAS SAVED. 


On a certain Sabbath evening a reck- 
less young man was idly lounging un- 
der the elm trees in the public square of 
Worcester. He had become a wretched 
waif on the current of time. His days 
were spent in the waking remorse of 
the drunkard, his nights were passed in 
the buffooneries of the ale house. As 
he sauntered along, out of humor with 
himself and with all mankind, a kind 
voice saluted him. A stranger Jaid his 
hand on his shoulder, and said in cor- 
dial tones, “Mr. Gough, go down to our 
meeting at the town hall tonight.” A 
brief conversation followed, so winning 
in its character that the reckless youth 
consented to go. He went; he heard 
the appeals there made. With trem- 
ulous hands he signed 

“The Pledge of Total Abstinence.” 
By God’s help he kept it. The poor 
boot crimper who tapped him on the 
shoulder, good Joel Stratton, has gone 
to heaven. But the youth he saved is 
today the foremost of reformers on the 
face of the globe. Methinks when I 
listen to the thunders of applause that 
greet John B. Gough on the platform 
of the Academy of Music, I am hearing 
the echoes of that tap on the shoulder, 
and of that kind invitation under the 
ancient elms of Worcester. “He that 
winneth souls is wise.”—-T. L. Cuyler. 


— 692 — 
TEACH THE CHILDREN. 


I heard a preacher, a home mission- 
ary and a good man, relating an inci- 
dent the other morning which I thought 
truly remarkable and worthy of notice; 
so I will tell it, both for the encourage- 
ment of all home missionaries to always 
notice the children, and to induce the 
children to be honest and frank, and 
ready to give an answer to a civil and 
kindly asked question. The preacher 
said: 

“As I was walking along the other 
morning (last Friday morning; you re- 
member what a lovely morning it was) 
through a strip of woods in Virginia, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


it seemed as though everything spoke, 
‘God is love.’ I met a bright little boy, 
probably nine or ten years of age, going 
to school. I just wondered to myself 
what might his thoughts be. Said I, 
“Little boy, I should like to ask youa 
question, if you will answer me truth- 
fully.” ‘I will, if I can” ‘I just felt 
like asking you if you can tell me what 
you were thinking about, this beautiful, 
bright morning?’ ‘Well, sir, I can tell 
you just what I was thinking about. 
When I lived away over in Ohio, a 
preacher came to our house once and 
took me upon his knee and told me 
about God; told me he was everywhere 
—under the bed, in the room, and would 
be wherever I should go, and hear 
everything I should say. He told me 
never to swear or tell untruths.’ ‘Well, 
have you tried to always remember it?’ 
‘Yes, sir, I don’t swear, nor tell stories.’ 
‘That is right. May I ask you what is 
your name?’ ‘It is Valintine od 
Tears of praise to God filled my eyes. 
Here it was a little boy I had five years 
before tried to point to Jesus, the chil- 
dren’s Friend. Then I told him I was 
the same man; and was so glad he had 
been such a good boy, and hoped he 
would still ask God to help him.”—Mrs, 
Wm. Barrett. 





— 693 — 
SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE. 


One day while my husband and I 
were traveling in the West, having an 
hour to spare before the time when it 
had been agreed that I should meet him 
at the depot, I “assayed” to call upon 
a friend, “but the Spirit suffered” me 
“not.” So I went to the depot expect- 
ing to spend the hour waiting there. 
What was my surprise to meet my hus- 
band and have him tell me to “hurry.” 
We ran for a train and just boarded it. 
Then he told me he had made a mis- 
take in the time of the train’s leaving 
and said, “How did you happen to come 
so early?” And was delighted to know 
how I had been guided, for it meant 
much to him to be able to take that 
train—Mrs. A. C. Morrow. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 694 — 
WAS TEDDY A “FOOL?” 


Some fifty years ago, one very cold 
morning, a half dozen or more boys 
were gathered closely around an old 
stove in the MacMillan School in New 
York City. One of those boys had poor 
health and especially weak eyes. An 
old gentleman always brought this boy 
to school. It was noticeable that the 
boy was always present and never 
failed to know his lessons. 

While shivering around the old stove 
that morning, another boy, Fred Mc- 
Daniel, a tall, awkward and unpurpose- 
ful-looking boy, came down the aisle, 
threw his skates on the floor and his 
books upon his desk, walked over to the 
old stove and said: “Ted, you’re a 
fool!” Ted looked up quickly and said 
impulsively: “What do you mean?” 
“Oh, I don’t mean what you think I 
mean,” said Fred. “I mean that you’re 
not able to come to school. Your eyes 
are weak, and you'll put them out and 
be blind. Your father is rich and you 
don’t have to go to school. My father 
is rich and I expect to make the teacher 
expel me. I was expelled from school 
in Albany and they’ll do it here. I’m 
simply not going to school.” By this 
time Ted had risen to his feet. 

“I may put my eyes out,” he said, 
“but if I do, my father will send me to a 
blind school. I am going to be edu- 
cated—I am going to be educated!” 


Within three weeks, Fred succeeded 
in carrying out his determination, get- 
ting himself expelled from school. An- 
other boy, Devolt, was present that 
morning. Devolt says: “Many years 
later I went to Albany, where Fred and 
I were born, to visit my parents. As I 
entered the depot, the wind was pierc- 
ing, the snow was falling fast. I was 
attracted by the sight of a large man 
wearing coarse and untidy clothes. His 
face was haggard, his hair was streaked 
with gray. Across his shoulder was a 
large strap that held a heavy bundle of 
daily papers. ‘Have a paper, sir? I 
recognized the voice, and as I turned he 
said to me: ‘Devolt, is that you?’ 


367 


‘Yes, Fred, old fellow, I’m so glad to 
see you.’”’ 

Aiter talking a few moments, the two 
old schoolmates stepped into a nearby 
cafe to have supper. Having ordered 
their supper, Devolt said: “Fred, do 
you remember—” 

“Wait! Devolt, I know what you’re 
going to say. You are going to tell me 
about the morning I told Ted he was a 
fool. Yes, Devolt, I remember it all, 
and it’s the saddest memory of my life. 
For now he’s our President, getting 
$75,000 a year, and I—I will sleep in a 
garret tonight.”’—Henry C. Risner, D. D. 


— 695 — 


LET GOD DIRECT. 


Let God direct where your money 
shall be spent, and it will not be wasted. 
One day I needed a dress and wrapper, 
and had only a small sum of money. I 
asked to which store I should go and 
the word was definitely given. I went 
from counter to counter, but the clerks 
would not notice me nor wait on me, 
nor tell me they had not what I wanted. 
I was tempted to go out, but stood in 
the aisle and proved God. I said, 
“Lord, if Thou didst send me to this 
store, make the next clerk wait on me 
and give me what I want.” I returned 
to one counter and asked again, “Have 
you any dark navy blue serge?” “Yes, 
one piece marked down today from 
$1.50 to 75 cents.” “Have you any 
dark red cashmere?” “Yes, one piece 
marked down today from $1.00 to 60 
cents.” Both were what I needed. It 
pays to have for a life motto, “In the 
beginning God” in everything. “Man 
lives on God’s bounty, man should live 
to God’s glory.—Mrs. A. C. Morrow. 


— 696 — 


It is related of General Grant that his 
conversation was remarkable for its 
purity. On one occasion a certain 
General entered his tent and said: “I 
have a good story to tell; are there any 
ladies about?” Grant replied at once: 
“No, but there are gentlemen about.” 
It is said the story was not told. 


368 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


2607 = 
A LITTLE CHILD LED HIM, 


In the story of his life, Tom Keenan, 
the veteran engineer, tells how the 
grace of God transformed him from a 
drinking, swearing, fighting man into 
an earnest ‘vorker in the vineyard of the 
Lord. Speaking of the conversion of 
one of his associates, he says: 

While many of my old associates 
would joke about my conversion, my 
heart went out to them, and I would 
take occasion, as opportunity offered, to 
speak with them about living the better 
life. Some were harder to approach 
than others; indeed, it seemed that the 
more I loved a man in the old life the 
more difficult it was for me to approach 
him. Bill Swick was one whom my 
heart yearned for in particular. He 
was an engineer, and for years we had 
been bosom companions. Summoning 
up sufficient courage I went to his en- 
gine at Hoboken one day for the pur- 
pose of having a word with him. He 
sat in the cab reading a morning paper. 
Climbing on the engine, I stepped up 
close to where he was sitting and put- 
ting my arm around him, said: 

“Bill, do you know that I miss your 
companionship? I would like nothing 
better than to have you with me in this 
Christian life. Bill, do you ever give 
it an honest thought?” 

His eyes filled with tears as he an- 
swered: “Yes, Tom, I do give it many 
an honest thought.” 

“God bless you, Bill,’ I said. “I am 
glad to hear it.” I shook his hand and 
left him. My heart was too full to say 
more, and I knew that if I tried to speak 
with him further I would have blub- 
bered right out before him. 

Bill lived at Summit. On the follow- 
ing Saturday evening in company with 
a chum who was an infidel, he drove 
from Summit to Basking Ridge and 
stopped at a hotel. While his compan- 
ion put the horse and wagon away, 
Bill went into the hotel parlor and sat 
down. 

He was alone in the parlor; but, after 
sitting there a while, a little child came 


toddling in and, coming over to where 
he sat, put its little hand on his knee 
and looking up into his face, said: 

“Do ’ou love Jesus?” Bill gazed at 
the little one a moment, too surprised to 
say one word, while the little one, ex- 
pecting an answer, kept looking inquir- 
ingly into his face, and again asked: 
“Do ’ou love Jesus?” 

That question, and that sweet little 
voice, were too much for the big heart 
of Bill to resist; he burst out crying, 
and, taking the little one tenderly in his 
big rough hands, lifted it up and kissed 
it. The good time he had planned for 
was spoiled in a minute by the visit of 
this little stranger, and soon afterwards 
with his companion he returned to Sum- 
mit, completely broken up. He slept 
but little that night, and next morning 
he decided to go to church. It was the 
first time in many a long day. He 
wept all through the service; and so 
noticeable were his actions that he was 
an object of interest to the entire con- 
gregation. The minister had finished 
his sermon and was about to announce 
the closing hymn, when Bill, rising to 
his feet, said: 

“Hold on! dominie; before you close 
this meetin’, I’d like to come forward 
and join the church.” 

So saying, he started towards the pul- 
pit. The minister, who was not antici- 
pating any such climax to the morning 
service, recovered from the astonish- 
ment Bill’s interruption had caused and 
stepping down from the pulpit, met Bill 
at the altar. Here Bill fell upon his 
knees and weeping aloud, asked the 
minister to pray for him, which he did. 

After prayer, the minister received 
him as a member of the church on the 
confession of his faith in Jesus, whom 
the little child the evening before had 
asked him if he loved. Bill imme- 
diately identified himself with the Rail- 
road Men’s Praying Band and for four 
years lived a sweet, happy, Christian 
life. One day, about four years after 
his conversion, while his engine stood 
in almost the exact spot where she stood 
the morning I climbed up to ask him if 
he gave the subject of the Christian life 


in na ae Sell 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES, 


an honest thought, and, sitting where 
he did when I spoke to him, he was just 
about to open the throttle, when, with- 
out a moment’s warning, and for some 
unaccountable reason, his engine blew 
up, and, like Elijah of old, his spirit 
went up in a chariot of fire,—a hero for 
God who died at his post. 


— 698 — 


GOD SO LOVED HE GAVE. 


It is related that at the time of the 
Reformation a little girl one day was 
playing in the printing office of her 
father, who was printing a few copies 
of Luther’s Bible. And a precious 
treasure they were! For Bibles were 
far less plentiful then than are diamonds 
and rubies now. While at play this 
little girl found a scrap of a printed 
sheet which contained this much of 
John 3:16, “God so loved the world 
that He gave.” 

This was a revelation to her. These 
were wonderful words. She read them 
over and over again, and repeated them, 
“God so loved the world that He gave!” 

She was an unusually sober and 
thoughtful child, and these few words 
had a surprising effect upon her. She 
lost that serious air, and a cheery look 
came into her eyes as she repeated the 
words, “God so loved the world that He 
gave!” She carefully preserved that 
scrap of paper, and carried it in her 
bosom. 

Sometime later her mother said to 
her one day, “Gretchen, my child, what 
has come over you of late? You have 
always been dutiful and kind, but I 
notice you look so bright and happy, 
and you are given to singing, which is 
unusual for you. What is it, child?” 

“Oh mother, I am so happy because 
God so loved the world that He gave!” 
“That He gave what, my child?” Oh, I 
don’t know what he gave, but if he 
loved the world well enough to give 
anything, I shall never be afraid of Him 
again!” 

What, think you, would have been the 
love and enthusiasm of that little girl 
for the Gospel if she could have read 


369 


the whole text? If she could have 
known what the gift of God really was, 
what would she then have thought of 
His great love for humanity? — Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 699 — 
JENNY LIND’S TESTIMONY. 


Thirty-seven years before her death 
Jenny Lind abandoned the operatic 
stage. The motive of the great renun- 
ciation was a purely spiritual one. 
Every appearance had been a dramatic 
triumph, and her pecuniary reward was 
large; yet she never regretted her de- 
cision, Her motive is made clear by 
the following narrative: 

“Once an English friend found her 
sitting on the steps of a bathing ma- 
chine on the sand with a Swedish Bible 
on her knee, looking out into the glory 
of a sunset that was shining over the 
waters, 

“They talked, and the talk drew near 
to the inevitable question, ‘Oh, Madame 
Goldschmidt, how was it that you ever 
came to abandon the stage, at the very 
height of your success?’ 

““When every day,’ was the quiet 
answer, ‘it made me think less of this 
(laying a finger on the Bible), and 
nothing at all of that (pointing to the 
sunset), what else could I do?’”— 
Selected. 


— 700 — 
HORSE-FIDELITY. 


_A good many pastors have felt as Mr. 
Beecher did when he was about to take 
a ride behind a hired horse at a livery 
stable. He regarded the horse admir- 
ingly and remarked: “That is a fine- 
looking animal. Is he as good as he 
looks?” 

The owner replied: “Mr. Beecher, 
that horse will work in any place you 
put him, and do all that any horse can 
do.” 

The preacher eyed the horse still 
more admiringly, and then humorously 
remarked: “I wish to goodness he 
were a member of our church.” 


370 


— 701 — 
SENT OF GOD. 


A beautiful story connected with an 
old log church on the New Jersey coast, 
at Goodluck, illustrates this. In 1770 a 
brig named Hand-in-Hand struck a bar. 
Among the passengers rescued was an 
English clergyman named Murray, who, 
having lost his wife and children, had 
become a prey to despair. Almost in- 
sane, he had resolved never to preach 
again, but to come to the wilderness of 
the new world, where he could forget 
the past and the God, who, he believed, 
had forgotten him. As he crossed the 
sand beaches he saw a log house, and 
near it an old man standing in the door 
of a cabin. A basket of fish was beside 
him. “Will you sell me a fish?” asked 
the shipwrecked clergyman. “No! The 
fish are yours. I caught them for your 
dinner. I expected you.” “You do 
not know who I am,” replied Mr. Mur- 
ray. “You are the man who is to tell 
us of God,” replied the fisherman. “I 
will never preach of Him again,” was 
the answer. Then Thomas Potter told 
his story. He said, “I had been a sailor 
but twenty years ago I settled with my 
wife on this coast. I could not read, 
but my wife spelled out some verses in 
the Bible. I determined to know some- 
thing about God. Whenever a preacher 
came down the coast, I would gather the 
folks into the kitchen to hear him 
preach. When I got a day to spare, I 
worked at yon log house. It is a 
church. I built it. First a Presbyter- 
ian came along, and then a Baptist, and 
then a Methodist. They all preached 
in it, and I said, ‘Stay and teach us 
about God.’ But they had work else- 
where. Last night I saw the brig cast 
away on the sands. I heard a voice 
say, “There in that ship is the man who 
will teach you of God. He has come 
through great sorrow to do this work.’ 
I have made ready for you a long time 
ago. You will not go away and leave 
us.” The tears streamed down the old 
man’s cheeks as he pleaded. The re- 
bellious minister fell on his knees before 
God in penitence and faith. He re- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


mained during the rest of his life at 
Goodluck, preaching in the log church, 
faithful and happy in his work. Thomas 
Potter bequeathed the church to him, 
and it is said that the will of John Mur- 
ray, minister at Goodluck, still exists, 
in which he left the building “free for 
the use of Christian people.”—Selected. 


— 702 — 
TRUSTING THE GUIDE-BOARD. 


Two men were walking on the high- 
way to a strange city. One said, “I 
like to see where I am going. This 
faith you Christians talk about is un- 
reasonable and absurd.” They came to 
a fork in the road. No one was in 
sight. Neither of them knew the way. 
On the guide post were the words, “To 
X—, one mile.” The Christian said, 
“What shall we do?” The sinner an- 
swered, “Why, trust the guide board, 
of course.” “But wouldn’t that be walk- 
ing by faith, just what you criticise us 
Christians for doing?” “No, for I see 
the guide-board.” “True, and we see 
our guide-board, the Bible. We read 
about the way to heaven, but we don’t 
see heaven any more than you see X— 
from this fork in the road. Our faith 
in the Bible is just like yours in the 
guide-board. We take the testimony 
of that which we see in regard to that 
which is invisible.”—Selected. 


— 703 — 


THE PICCOLO MISSED. 


It is said that once'when Sir Michael 
Costa was having a rehearsal with a 
vast array of performers and hundreds 
of voices, as the mighty chorus rang out 
with thunder of the organ and roll of 
drums and ringing horns and cymbals 
clashing, some one man far away up 
in some corner, who played the piccolo, 
said to himself, “In all this din it mat- 
ters not what I do,” and so he ceased 
to play. Suddenly the great conductor 
stopped, flung up his hands and all was 
still—and then he cried aloud: “Where’s 
the piccolo?” The quick ear missed it, 
and all was spoiled because it failed to 
take its part.—Selected. 


{ILLUSTRATIVE 


teens 7 (V4, cme 
SIN’S DECEITFULNESS AND 
POWER. 


On a visit to Niagara Falls there was 
pointed out to the writer a rock rising 
a little above the waters near the brink 
of the precipice, not far from the Amer- 
ican shore. It is known as “Avery’s 
Rock.” 

It got its name from the following in- 
cident. Many years ago four men, well 
supplied with bottles of whiskey, started 
out for a day’s fishing in Niagara River, 
so far away from the Falls that there 
was no danger to be feared from the 
current. They imbibed freely from 
their flasks, rowed out to an island, tied 
their boat to an overhanging limb of a 
tree, and lay down and slept. At last 
the constant tugging of the boat loos- 
ened the rope from the limb, and the 
boat began to move down the river. As 
it glided along noiselessly the men in 
their drunken stupor slept on. Faster 
and faster it went, but still they slept. 
At last the motion of the boat as it en- 
tered the rapids, and the cries of the 
alarmed spectators on the shore, awak- 
ened the men. Frantically they pulled 
at the oars to bring the boat to the land, 
but they could make no headway against 
the powerful current which held their 
frail craft in its deadly grip. On and 
on it bore them in spite of all their 
struggles, until at last just before the 
boat and three of its occupants took 
their awful plunge over the cataract, 
Avery, thrown into the water, was able 
to clutch the rock now bearing his name. 

As he clung, partially supported by 
the rock, his perilous situation was seen 
by those on the shore. Their shouted 
words of encouragement were drowned 
by the roar of the Falls. Then, while 
some were devising a plan for his rescue 
others rigged up a great sign where he 
could read, “We Will Save You.” For 
many hours they tried in vain to get 
floats down to him. But they were 
either swept over the Falls or would not 
come near him. At last the float was so 
near that he tried to clutch it, but in so 
doing his hold on the rock was broken, 


ANECDOTES 37) 
and with a cry of horror Avery followed 
his companions. 

How this incident illustrates the de- 
ceitfulness and power of sin. At first, 
it is like the gentle current of Niagara 
River, something to be played with, 
and from which its unsuspecting victim 
can easily escape if he will. But if the 
sinner neglects to escape while he can, 
and despises the warnings of God, and 
his offered salvation, the time comes 
when Satan’s clutch cannot be broken, 
and the sinner is swept to death eternal. 
—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 705 — 


DIVINE GUIDANCE. 


“I will guide thee with mine eye.” 
If one will yield himself to the guidance 
of the Holy Spirit and seek only to 
glorify God in all, he will often be able 
to look back over the way passed and 
see clearly that God was leading him 
although at the time he was entirely un- 
conscious of it. 

One afternoon there were two fam- 
ilies on whom I intended to call as I 
started forth. But I had prayed for 
guidance at morning worship, and had 
now an unusual desire to be led aright. 
Passing down a certain street to call at 
one of the homes thought of, it occurred 
to me to stop and see a lady living 
across the street. I had known her for 
some time, but had never called upon 
her. Yielding to the impulse I went, 
and in response to my inquiry was told 
by her sister, who had come to care for 
her, that Mrs. D was very ill, but 
would see me. She was thankful in- 
deed for the call, and said, “The Lord 
sent you.” After speaking some words 
of comfort and encouragement, prayer 
was offered, and when I left she was 
more cheerful in mind, and I was grate- 
ful for being led to make the visit. 

No one was at home at either of the 
two places where I intended to call, but 
calls were made upon three families 
where I had no thought of going, and 
at all the places there were marked in- 
dications that my coming was well- 
timed.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 





372 


ay (rps 
WALKING IN THE SPIRIT. 


I was deeply interested in a work in 
which I was unable to take a part; but 
it came to my mind one morning to 
offer a certain sum of money to help 
those who were able to work. On sec- 
ond thought the act appeared impru- 
dent; but if we hesitate to act upon our 
first thoughts when they spring from 
love to God, the judgment becomes ob- 
scured rather than enlightened. To end 
the strife, I prayed God to make his ac- 
ceptance so evident to me that I could 
not err; for the joy of giving the sum 
that first presented itself overcame 
every prudential consideration. I asked 
Him to send to me that morning one of 
the least probable persons connected 
with the work, the least likely, because 
he had visited me two days previously, 
and I knew him to be fully engaged 
from dawn to night. So entirely did I 
anticipate his arrival as hours drew on, 
that when a lady arrived from the coun- 
try to see me, I told her I was expecting 
a person on business, and should be 
glad if when he arrived she would wait 
in my bedroom until his departure. 

Almost immediately, there was a ring 
at the door. The lady leit the room, 
as my God-sent messenger entered, with 
a degree of embarrassment quite un- 
usual to him. He apologized for calling 
again so soon, referring to his recent 
visit, and added: “Nor can I tell you 
why I am here. I had not the least in- 
tention to come in this direction when I 
left the house this morning; but when I 
reached the summit of the hill I felt 
drawn round in a contrary direction 
with a power I never experienced before, 
and consequently obliged to descend, 
and my feet impelled to your house, and 
my thoughts to you, and here I am.” 

I listened with a joyful heart, and re- 
lated to him the combat over my offer- 
ing and my prayers, and placed into his 
hand the envelope addressed to him, 
with instructions as to the branch of 
the work for which its contents were 
designed, at the same time saying that 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


. might be spared. 


ANECDOTES 


I had been waiting for him. The mat- 
ter was more deeply interesting to me, 
as the messenger, in spite of himself, 
was much afraid of the work of the 
Spirit in the common things of every 
day life. His moistened eye and trem- 
ulous voice in prayer told me the Lord 
had used this experience for His glory. 
—A. Shipton. 


— 707 — 
GOD’S WILL IS BEST. 


In the autumn of 1888, while I was 
pastor of the Presbyterian Church at 
Iron Mountain, Michigan, four young 
women came there from New York 
State to become teachers in the public 
school, and they were attendants of my 
churchh Among them was a Miss 
Lynch from Auburn, New York, a 
member of one of the Baptist churches 
of that city. 

A few weeks before the coming of 
these young women a great sorrow had 
visited the family of the pastor of the 
Presbyterian Church. The youngest 
child, a beautiful boy, Paul H., of a little 
less than a year of age, had been taken 
away from the home in which there 
had not been a babe before in seven 
years. This was a great grief to the 
parents not only, but also to the surviv- 
ing brother and sister. 

For the encouragement of the parents 
who had brought themselves to be rec- 
onciled to the will of God in the loss 
they had sustained, Miss Lynch related 
the following incident that occurred in 
her own family. The first child of her 
mother, I believe it was, a baby boy, 
was very ill. The pastor of the church 
attended by the mother called to com- 
fort her, and before his departure they 
kneeled and he prayed that if it was 
the will of God, the life of the child 
But the distressed 
mother interrupted the minister, and 
cried out, “Oh, don’t pray so! I want 
my baby to be spared anyway!” 

God answered the prayer of the 
mother. The child was spared. But 
as he advanced in years, he was not the 
comfort to her that his mother had an- 
ticipated. As a young man he became 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


addicted to bad habits and bad com- 
panionships, and he was finally killed 
in a saloon brawl. His sister said it was 
a terrible lesson to her mother, who 
ever after regretted that she had not 
been resigned to the loss of her babe 
in the days of his infancy, had it been 
the will of God. 

God’s will for his children is always 
directed by his infinite love and wis- 
dom, and it is far safer to let him choose 
for us than to make our own choice.— 
Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 708 — 
WHERE FATHER USED TO 
KNEEL. 


I heard a story of two young men that 
were very wicked, yet their father was a 
very earnest, consecrated Christian. He 
held family prayers every night, kneel- 
ing down by a little table that stood in 
the corner by the hearthstone; but the 
two young men did not care to bow 
with their father at that little old table. 
Finally the father died and left the two 
wicked sons. He had prayed for them 
many a time, and sometimes with tears 
in his eyes he had talked with them 
about their Saviour, but they did not 
care to hear him. 

Time went on, and in after years they 
decided, as they had gained in property, 
to remove the old house and build a 
larger one. They were both carpen- 
ters and they undertook the job them- 
selves. They took off the roof and then 
the sides of the house, and then they 
took up the floor, plank by plank, and 
finally they got near the old hearth- 
stone, and one of them stopped and 
looked at his brother. He said: 

“Here’s where father used to kneel 
and pray; there’s where the little table 
stood, and the Bible was always on it.” 

The other says: 

“Yes, it seems to me I can see the 
print of father’s knee on that old plank 
now.” He continued, “I can’t take up 
that plank; you take it up.” 

The other one said: 

“No, I can’t; I wish you would,” and 
as they looked into each other’s eyes 


ANECDOTES 373 


the voice of their father spoke to them, 
and the Spirit of God vitalized the voice, 
and right there, where the old man had 
prayed a thousand times, the boys 
prayed that day and asked the old, old 
question, “What shall I do to be saved?” 
And the Spirit of God came down and 
revealed Jesus to their hearts, and be- 
fore that plank was ever taken up they 
gave their hearts to God. — Baptist 
Standard. 


— 709 — 


THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS. 


The power of forgiveness, even for an 
offence against human law, is well illus- 
trated in the following incident: A sol- 
dier was brought before his command- 
ing officer for some offence. He was 
an old offender, and had often been 
punished. “Here he is again,” said the 
officer, on his name being mentioned; 
“flogging, disgrace, solitary confine- 
ment, everything has been tried with 
him.” Whereupon the sergeant stepped 
forward, and apologizing for the liberty, 
said: “There is one thing which has 
never been done with him yet, sir.” 

“What is that,” said the officer. 

“Well, sir,” said the sergeant, “he has 
never been forgiven.” 

“Forgiven!” exclaimed the Colonel, 
surprised at the suggestion. He re- 
flected a few minutes, ordered the cul- 
prit brought in, and asked him what he 
had to say to the charge. 

Turning a kind and pitiful look on 
the man, who expected nothing less 
than that his punishment would be in- 
creased with the repetition of his of- 
fence, the colonel addressed him saying: 

“Well, we forgive you.” 

The soldier was struck dumb with 
amazement; tears started to his eyes 
and he wept like a child. He was 
humbled to the dust, and, thanking his 
officer, then retired—to be the old re- 
fractory, incorrigible man? No! from 
that day forward he was a new man. 
He who told this story had him for 
years under his eye, and a better con- 
ducted man never wore the Queen’s 
colors.—Selected. 


374. 
fee 710 ows 


WEALTH OR SUCCESS. 


As evidence that riches are actually 
a barrier to success is made evident in a 
new edition of a dictionary of biography 
and mythology containing forty thou- 
sand names; among all the greatest of 
former times and the names of living 
celebrities all over the world—manu- 
facturers and merchants, as well as 
poets, heroes, statesmen, etc. In this 
volume the space given to all the men 
eminent only for wealth does not equal 
that assigned to one man like Shake- 
speare, Luther, Franklin, or Abraham 
Lincoln. All the Rothschilds and Astors 
put together receive only as many lines 
as are accorded to Harriet Beecher 
Stowe. Cornelius Vanderbilt receives 
less attention than Paganini the fiddler, 
and A. T. Stewart’s niche is as small 
as that occupied by Daniel Lambert, the 
fat man. And this apportionment seems 
to be in strict accord with the degree of 
popular interest felt in the various per- 
sonages. Even the three rich bene- 
factors, Girard, George Peabody, Sir 
Moses Montefiore, united take less room 
than John Wesley or Nathaniel Haw- 
thorne. There is a genuine significance 
and something instructive in this com- 
parison. And the fact that rich men 
constantly try to secure regard and re- 
membrance by public gifts or legacies 
is a striking testimony to the truth that 
nearly all persons recognize, though it 
be but tacitly, the superiority of other 
titles to fame than the gathering of 
riches. The world, sordid as it may 
seem on too close an inspection, is after 
all governed in the end by ideas rather 
than money. It is doubtless frequently 
true that rich young men, despite their 
advantage in some ways, find it harder 
to win real distinction than their poorer 
fellows. But it may be doubted whe- 
ther wealth is any more a barrier to real 
success than poverty is. More poor 
men than rich become famous, partly 
because there are more poor people in 
the world. Then, there are various 
kinds of success—even failures that are 
successes — all of which lead toward 
progress by different roads. Let not 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the rich be discouraged, therefore, but 
rather hold on to their wealth for one 
week longer and meditate——New York 
Star. 


—7ii— 
A BOY’S CONTRIBUTION. 


A little boy was a close friend and 
namesake of Bishop McCabe, then 
Chaplain McCabe. The chaplain was 
very busy in those. days raising money 
for the missionary society. He talked 
much of his hopes and successes, and 
the boy became interested in the work 
so dear to his friend. One day he came 
to his mother, saying, “I want to write 
a letter to Chaplain McCabe, and send 
this money.” He insisted on his mother 
holding his little hand and guiding it 
while he dictated the following: “Dear 
Chaplain: I am glad you are getting a 
million dollars for missions. I send you 
five cents to help, and if you want any 
more just write to me, Charles McCabe 
Howe.” Bishop McCabe said years 
later, “That five cents has won for the 
church three hundred thousand dollars. 
It was a great gift and a great letter. I 
have told the story twenty years, and it 
always touches hearts and brings a re- 
sponse.”—Selected. 


— 712 — 
BENGLE’S PRAYER. 


It is recorded of Bengle, an old Ger- 
man saint, that he was much given to 
intercessory prayer, had power with 
God, and prevailed. One anxious to 
know his secret, watched him unob- 
served in his hours of retirement. 
“Now,” said he, “I shall hear Bengle 
pray.4 5s 

The aged saint sat long before his 
open Bible, perusing its sacred pages, 
hours passed away, and, while compar- 
ing scripture with scripture, the hour 
of midnight sounded. Nature seemed 
at length exhausted. He folded his 
arms over the open word, and, looking 
up, gave utterances to these words, 
“Lord Jesus, Thou knowest me; we are 
on the same old terms.” A few mo- 
ments more, and Bengle’s weary frame 
was reposing in a sweet slumber. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 713 — 
JAPAN’S FIRST BIBLE. 


Fifty years ago a book was washed 
ashore on the beach of Nagasaki Bay, 
and was found by a Japanese. He had 
no idea what it was, for it was in West- 
ern printing, not in Japanese characters. 
Still, he kept it as a curiosity, just as 
an American might keep an Eastern 
volume cast up on the strand. He 
showed it to a traveler, and was told 
that it was a Dutch translation of the 
Bible, which the Western people obeyed 
as the Word of God. The same book, 
the traveler said, could be bought in a 
Chinese translation. In the beginning 
it was a Hebrew book, an oriental one, 
but it had been translated into scores of 
languages. 


The Japanese finder of the Dutch 
Bible, after hearing all of this, began to 
feel great curiosity about the water- 
washed book. An oriental book, be- 
lieved in by occidental nations, trans- 
lated into even the Chinese characters 
—it must be a wonderful treasure, in- 
deed. He determined to procure a copy 
in Chinese, for he could then read it for 
himself. He succeeded in getting one, 
and began to study. Soon he interested 
several friends, and they read and 
studied too. The first Protestant mis- 
sionary who arrived in Japan several 
years later, found the Bible there before 
him, and this group of Bible readers 
were anxious for more light on the Gos- 
pel. Today, the man who picked up 
the Bible from the sands of Nagasaki 
Bay, though aged, is still a Christian 
worker, saved by the truths in that pre- 
cious castaway volume, found so long 
ago.—Selected. 


cat 


A CROW STORY. 


From the fall of the snow to the pres- 
ent, one of the thoughtful matrons of 
our town has regularly scattered the 
crumbs from her table in the yard, that 
the hungry birds might be fed. At first 
but few came to the banquet, but now 
scores of different kinds of winter birds 


ANECDOTES 375 


enjoy her bounty. Among the number 
is a crow. At first he approached cau- 
tiously, as if aware that his feather was 
under the ban. But after an unmo- 
lested experience of several weeks, he 
grew so trustful as to eat bread from 
the hands of little children. But still 
more remarkable is this: “A few days 
ago that crow brought with him to the 
premises a lame crow. The last comer 
sat on the garden fence and cawed 
alarm. His guide flitted beside him, 
and after bowing to him and quieting 
his fears, induced him to trust himself 
in the garden walk. There the guide 
strode confidently toward the repast, 
and the lame crow limped after him. 
When the latter lagged, the former 
would turn and assure him of hospit- 
able treatment. The pantomime was as 
eloquent as a speech, and quite as ef- 
fective. Presently both reached the 
spread, and enjoyed a square meal. 
Since then the two crows made daily 
visits. —Selected. 


—715— 


THE WIDOW’S FIVE CENT GIFT. 


A Methodist minister said that in one 
of his charges a good man regularly 
gave five dollars every Sabbath for the 
support of the church. A poor widow 
was also a member of the same church 
who supported herself and six children 
by washing. She was as regular as the 
rich man in making her offering of five 
cents per week, which was all she could 
spare from her scant earnings. One 
day the rich man came to the minister 
and said the poor woman ought not to 
pay anything, and that he would pay 
the five cents for her every week, The 
pastor called to tell her of the offer, 
which he did in a considerate manner. 
Tears came to the woman’s eyes as she 
replied: “Do they want to take from 
me the comfort I experience in giving 
to the Lord? Think how much I owe 
to him. My health is good, my chil- 
dren keep well, and I receive so many 
blessings that I feel I could not live if 
I did not make my little offering to 
Jesus.—Selected, 


376 ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 716 — 
THOMAS ARNOLD OF RUGBY 


Among the great scholars and educa- 
tors of the last century, Thomas Arnold, 
head-master of Rugby, holds a promi- 
nent place. In these days, when the 
unchristian forces at work in our land 
have succeeded in having even the read- 
ing of the Bible prohibited in many of 
the public schools, it is well to know 
Dr. Arnold’s views on the religious in- 
struction of the young. In the preface 
to that favorite boys’ book,—which has 
almost become a classic, ““Tom Brown’s 
School Days,’ Thomas Hughes says of 
him: 

“He taught us that in this wonderful 
world, no boy or man can tell which of 
his actions is indifferent and which is 
not; that by a thoughtless word or look 
we may lead astray a brother for whom 
Christ died. He taught us that life is a 
whole, made up of actions and thoughts 
and longings, great and small, noble 
and ignoble; therefore the only true 
wisdom for boy or man is to bring the 
whole life into obedience to Him whose 
world we live in, and who has purchased 
us with His blood; and that whether we 
eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we 
are to do all in His name and to His 
glory; in such teaching, faithfully, as it 
seems to me, following that of Paul of 
Tarsus, who was in the habit of mean- 
ing what he said, and who laid down 
- this standard for every man and boy in 
his time. I think it lies with those 
who say that such teaching will not do 
for us now, to show why a teacher in 
the nineteenth century is to preach a 
lower standard than one in the first.” 


A, few months after Dr. Arnold’s ap- 
pointment to the chair of Modern His- 
tory at Oxford University he was sud- 
denly removed from his fresh honors 
and earthly duties by death. After a 
busy day he retired to rest, apparently 
in perfect health. At six the next 
morning he awoke in severe pain, which 
he bore with heroic fortitude and Chris- 
tian resignation until he expired, two 
hours later. The following is the last 
entry found in his diary: 


ANECDOTES 


“Is there not one faculty which nev- 
er declines, which is the seed and soul 
of immortality? And what has become 
of that faculty in me? What is it to 
live unto God? May God open my 
eyes to see Him by faith, in and through 
His Son Jesus Christ; may He draw me 
to Him, and keep me to Him, and keep 
me with Him, making His will my 
will, His love my love, His strength my 
strength, and may He make me feel 
that pretended strength not derived 
from Him, is no strength, but the worst 
weakness. May His strength be per- 
fected in my weakness!”——Carlton H. 
Tyndall. 


—717— 
COALS OF FIRE. 


Many years ago, two British officers, 
Captain Conolly and Colonel Stoddard, 
were thrown into prison by the Afghans 
in Bokhara, and after six months in 
a miserable dungeon they were be- 
headed. 

For a long time their fate was un- 
known in England, until a missionary 
undertook a dangerous journey to Bok- 
hara, and ascertained that they had 
been murdered two years before. Five 
years later, a Russian officer, passing 
through the bazaar in the city, picked 
up a little well-worn English Prayer- 
Book which Captain Conolly had used 
in prison, and in which he had written 
an account of his sufferings. The 
Russian officer purchased the book, and 
carried it home to St. Petersburg. 

The little Prayer-Book that lay for 
seven years on the shelves of a Bokhara 
bazaar, next spent fourteen years in St. 
Petersburg, where an English visitor, 
who chanced to see it, begged perinis- 
sion to take it to Captain Conolly’s rel- 
atives in England. Thus, twenty-one 
years after her brother’s death, Miss 
Conolly received the book that told of 
his sufferings. About that time, a mis- 
sion hospital was opened at Bannu, near 
Bokhara, and Miss Conolly undertcok 
the support of a bed in memory of her 
brother. Over it hangs a tablet, which 
reads: “Conolly Bed. In memory of 
Captain Conolly, beheaded at Bokhara.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


No wonder that when the doctor in 
charge tells the sick Afghans of the way 
the Christian lady took her revenge, 
they are impressed that here is some- 
thing very new and strange—an object 
lesson of the love of Christ.—World- 
Wide Missions. 

—718 — 
WITHOUT BALLAST. 


Not many years ago the Escambia, a 
British iron steamer, loaded with wheat, 
weighed anchor and started down the 
bay of San Francisco. The pilot left 
her when about five miles outside the 
Golden Gate. Looking back from his 
pilot boat a short time after, he saw the 
vessel stop, drift into the trough of the 
sea, careen to port, both bulwarks go- 
ing under water, then suddenly capsize 
and sink. What was the cause of this 
sad catastrophe? A want of ballast. 

She came into port from China, a few 
weeks previous, with a thousand emi- 
grants on board. But she had in hold 
immense tanks for what is called water 
ballast. Those tanks were full, and 
she battled successfully with wind and 
waves. But the captain, wishing to 
carry all the wheat he could between 
decks, neglected to fill those tanks. He 
thought the cargo would steady the 
ship. But it made it top-heavy, and 
the first rough sea capsized it. 

Here, then, was a vessel, tight and 
strong, with powerful engines, with a 
cargo worth $100,000, floundering as 
soon as she left the harbor, taken down 
with her crew of forty-five men, be- 
cause the captain failed to have her 
properly ballasted. The moment she 
began to lurch, all the wheat tumbled 
over to the lower side, and down into 
the sea she went. 

Hiow this wreck of the Escambia re- 
peats the trite lesson that so many have 
tried to teach, and that they who need 
it most are so slow to learn! Young 
men starting out in life want to carry as 
little ballast as possible. They are en- 
terprising, ambitious. They are anx- 
ious to go fast, and take as much car- 
go as they can. Old-fashioned princi- 
ples are regarded as dead weight. It 


377 


doesn’t pay to keep them, and they are 
thrown overboard. Good home habits 
are abandoned in order to be popular 
with the gay and worldly. The Bible 
is not read, the Sabbath is not kept ho- 
ly, prayer is neglected, and lo! some 
day, when all the sails are spread, a 
sudden temptation comes that wrecks 
the character and life—The Christian 
World. 


— 719 — 
THE DOCTOR’S STORY 


“My children,” said the old doctor, 
“TI have a story to tell you of something 
that happened many years ago, which I 
shall never forget.” 

“One day—a long, hot day it had 
been—I met my father on the road as I 
was coming home from the hay-field, 
tired, dusty and hungry.” 

“I wish you would take this pack- 
age to the village for me, Jim,’ he said 
hesitatingly.” 

“Now, I was a boy of twelve, fond of 
play and not overfond of work, and it 
was a good mile to town. My first im- 
pulse was to say I couldn’t, but some- 
thing stopped me,—one of God’s good 
angels I think.” 

“‘Of course, father, I’ll take it,’ I 
said heartily, giving him my rake.” 

“*Thank you Jim,’ he said. ‘I was 


jgoing myself, but I don’t feel very 


999 


strong to-day. 

“He walked with me to the road that 
turned off to the town; and he left me 
he put his hand on my arm, saying, 
‘Thank you, my dear boy.. You’ve 
always been a good son to me, Jim.’ ” 

“TJ hurried to the town and back. 
When I came near the house, I saw 
a crowd of farm hands at the door. 
One of them came to me with a pale 
face.” 

“‘VYour father,’ he said, ‘fell dead 
just as he reached the house. The last 
words he spoke were to you.’ ” 

“J am an old man now; but I have 
thanked God many and many a time 
since that hour, that those last words 
were, ‘You’ve always been a good son 
to me.’ ’—~British Friend. 


378 
— 720 — 


DON’T GIVE UP. 


A gentleman traveling in the north- 
ern part of Ireland heard the voices of 
children and stopped to listen. Find- 
ing that the sound came from a small 
building used as a school-house, he 
drew near. As the door was open he 
went in and listened to the words the 
boys were spelling. One little boy 
stood apart looking very sad. “Why 
does that boy stand there?” asked the 
gentleman. “Oh, he is good for noth- 
ing,” replied the teacher. “There is 
nothing in him. I can make nothing of 
him. He is the most stupid boy in 
school.” The gentleman was surprised 
at his answer. He saw the teacher was 
so stern and rough that the younger and 
more timid were nearly crushed. After 
a few words to them, placing his hand 
on the head of the little fellow who 
stood apart, he said, “One of these days 
you may be a fine scholar. Don’t give 
up; try, my boy, try.” The boy’s soul 
was aroused. His sleeping mind awoke. 
A new purpose was formed. From 
that hour be became anxious to excel; 
and he did become a fine scholar. It 
was Dr. Adam Clark. The secret of 
his success is worth knowing—“Don’t 
give up; but try, my boy, try.”— 
Selected. 

— 721 — 
“HE KNOWS BEST.” 


One day, in a school in one of our 
large cities, a cry of fire sounded, and 
the teachers and children rushed toward 
the door, and crowded the passage till 
there was danger of trampling some of 
the smaller children under the larger 
ones’ feet. But one little girl sat still 
in her place, tranquil and quiet. 

Presently the alarm was found to be 
false, and the pupils again took their 
seats. Then the girl seated next to 
little Mary said to her, “Mary, how was 
it that you could sit so quiet when we 
were all frightened?” 

“My father told me,” said Mary, “if 
there was an alarm of fire, it was best 
for us to sit still in our seats and wait 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


for the teachers to tell us what to do. 
My father is a fireman, and he knows 
best.” 

Ah, here was faith—faith in a father; 
and by this faith Mary was enabled to 
remain tranquil when others were dis- 
mayed. 

Just so, faith in God will enable us to 
face danger without fear.—Selected. 


— 722 — 
ATTENTION TO LEADINGS. 


A certain man, being confined in 
prison, in Burlington County, New Jer- 
sey, under sentence of death, in an 
aggravated case of murder, our late 
Friend, E. Redman, was under a con- 
cern to visit him. This was approved 
by her meeting and two Friends ap- 
pointed to accompany her. When they 
came for that purpose, she told them 
that the concern had passed away, and 
that she could not go. In about a week 
after she sent to them, saying she now 
felt ready. The remarkable part of it 
was that they found upon arriving 
there that the prisoner had broken 
jail on the day she had first proposed 
going, and that he had been captured 
and reconfined on the day before she 
got there. This showed close attention 
to pointings, and it would have been a 
sad fault had she found the cell empty. 
—“The Friend.” 


— 723 — 
TALENT UNUSED IS LOST. 


Note what the celebrated Professor 
Darwin said: “Up to the age of thirty, 
or beyond it, poetry of many kinds gave 
me great pleasure. Formerly pictures 
gave me considerable, very great de- 
light. But now, for many years, I can- 
not endure to read a line of poetry. I 
have almost lost my taste for pictures 
or music. If I had to live my life again 
I would have made a rule to read some 
poetry and listen to some music at least 
once every week, for perhaps the parts 
of my brain now atrophied would ‘thus 
have been kept active through use.” 
That is scientific; it is philosophical; it 
is Scriptural; therefore cultivate your 
whole personality! 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES, 


— 724 — 
THE RAIN CEASED. 


Wednesday morning, Aug. 21, 1912, 
the day of the Tyndall-Gatchell reunion 
and picnic, to be held at the home of 
Mrs. William W. Gatchell, of Huron, 
N. Y., dawned on a _ threatening 
sky. The clouds hung dark around 
the whole horizon, and at seven o’clock 
the rain began to fall. The picnic had 
been anticipated for months, the rain 
was not especially needed, and so the 
writer prayed that the good Lord would 
disperse the clouds, and he remarked to 
his cousins, whose home he was visiting, 
that they too should pray the Lord to 
withhold the rain. One of them replied 
that perhaps God saw that the rain 
would do good. But she was told that 
the rain would do just as much good if 
it fell that night and we should pray for 
what we want, unless there is a reason 
for believing that it is not right for us 
to have it, and he quoted, “What 
things soever ye desire, when ye pray, 
believe that ye receive them, and ye 
shall have them.” 

At family worship which followed, a 
favorable day was asked for. Presently 
the rain ceased. . Soon the sun was 
shining through the rifts in the clouds, 
and before long the indications beto- 
_kened a fair day. When the start was 
made for the place of reunion, the writer 
thoughtlessly took his umbrella, but 
when his cousin reminded him that this 
was hardly consistent with faith for fair 
weather, he promptly put it aside. 

During the day a shower came up, 
but it passed around to the south where 
a heavy rain fell. However on the 
beautiful lawn where our great table 
(sufficiently long for a hundred guests) 
was spread, not drops enough came 
down to drive the company indoors, but 
just enough to remind them how easily 
the rain could have spoiled the pleasure 
of the occasion. Unbelief will say that 
the rain only happened to stop, and that 
we were lucky to have a good day. But 
faith will thank God that he answered 
prayer. 

The Tyndalls and Gatchells have in- 


379 


termarried to such an extent that the 
picnic was a union of these two families. 
Of the lineal descendants of Charles 
Pindall and Lovina Hartupee, there 
were present thirty-three persons, and 
of Elisha Gatchell there were twenty- 
eight descendants. With those present 
who had married into these families, 
including certain invited guests, there 
was a company of about a hundred. 
New York City, Kansas City, Newark, 
N. J., Canada and many places nearer 
by, were represented, and the occasion 
was eminently successful—Rev. H. M. 
Tyndall. 


— 725 — 
THE MODEST HERO. 


The really brave man’s story about 
his own deeds is always modest. Fre- 
quently he is unable to give any account 
of them which is satisfactory to his 
hearers. 

_ Some years ago a French reporter en- 
countered in a little village in the south 
of France a gardener who wore, pinned 
on his clean Sunday blouse, the ribbon 
of the Legion of Honor.. Naturally the 
newspaper man desired to know how he 
got it. The gardener, like many of his 
trade, seemed to be a silent man, and 
was averse to meeting an old and weari- 
some demand, but finally he began: 

“Oh, I-don’t know how I did get it! 
I was at Bezeilles with the rest of the 
battery. All the officers were killed; 
then down went all the noncommis- 
sioned officers. .Bang! bang! bang! 
by and by all the soldiers were down 
but me. . I had fired the last shot, and 
naturally was doing what I could to 
stand off the Bavarians.” 

“Well, a general came, and says he, 
“Where’s your officers?’ ” 

“ “All down,’ ” says I. 

“*Where’s your gunners?’ 

“ “All down but me,’” says I. 

“*And you’ve been fighting here all 
alone?’”’ says he. 

“I couldn’t let them come and get 
the guns, could I?’ I says; and he up 
and put this ribbon on me, probably be- 
cause there was nobody else there to 
put it on.”—Selected. 


93 


880 ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 726 — 
SILENT BUT SOVEREIGN. 


In a certain city a bridge was to be 
built across the river. To secure a sol- 
id foundation, piles were driven in the 
bed of the river. One day they could 
make no headway, and, on examina- 
tion, found that they had struck an old, 
forgotten, unused water-main left in the 
river bed. 

But one thing was to be done. The 
main must come out. Encircling the 
main with immense cables, they har- 
nessed them to a locomotive on an im- 
provised track. The engineer opened 
the throttle and the engine started for- 
ward, only to be thrown back on the 
track by the cables. More steam was 
turned on, and the mighty locomotive 
rushed forward with tremendous power, 
only to rebound again. It was useless, 
the engineer said; another effort would 
derail the engine. Tug-boats were 
brought and the cables were harnessed 
to them. Then the tugs did their best. 
They pulled and plunged and churned 
the river into foam, but the main was 
unmoved. 

“We shall have to give it up,” said 
the workmen. 

“The location of the bridge will 
have to be changed,” said the city au- 
thorities. | 

But a quiet man came hither one day, 
and, after looking on awhile, said, “I 
can lift it out.” At once the contract 
was his. He brought two old mud- 
scows and let them rest just above the 
stubborn main. The cables were tight- 
ly lashed to huge beams laid from one 
scow to the other. “What are you go- 
ing to do?” they asked him. “I have 
finished,” was the quiet reply. 

He then climbed upon the bank, and 
folded his arms, waited for the tide to 
come in. The scows rocked and tossed, 
they tugged and stormed, while the 
man cried: “Come up! come up! You 
must come!” 

Then there was a mighty upheaval 
that shook the river from bank to bank, 
and the tide had the victory. 

God’s strength flows into human life 


ANECDOTES 


as the tide. There is no noise, it is 
scarcely perceptible, but it is sovereign. 
—Royal Manhood. 


“Pi 
FISHING FOR A SOUL. 


In the story of his life, Tom Keenan, 
the veteran locomotive engineer, tells 
how the grace of God transformed him 
from a drinking, swearing, fighting, 
man into an earnest worker in the vine- 
yard of the Lord. For many years he 
had a run which allowed him to be off 
two days each week, which he often 
spent in fishing: or hunting, and he 
gives the following account of an event- 
ful fishing trip: 

I loved to fish for trout, and hunt 
with dog and gun. One day a friend, 
who was a prominent business man of 
Newark and an earnest Christian, met 
me and said: 

“Brother Keenan, I have a partner, 
Mr. N who would like to go fishing 
with you some day; and, as he is nota 
Christian, I hope that God will help 
you fish for his soul.” 

His partner was a wealthy young 
man, but inclined to be wayward and 
was considered the “black sheep” of 
the family. 

Meeting Mr. N soon afterwards, 
we fixed upon a day to go fishing. Fi- 
nally the day came, but, before starting, 
I promised the Lord that I would pray 
with him before we cast a line. We 
met at the station, got on board of the 
train, and went as far as Stanhope. 
Leaving the train there we travelled 
some distance across the country until 
we came to the head waters of the Mus- 
conetcong River. Putting on our wad- 
ing boots, and having adjusted our rods 
and lines, we started out into the stream. 
All at once I remembered my promise 
to pray with him and a cowardly spirit 
came over me. Looking up I breathed 
a prayer: “Lord, help me to live up to 
my vow.” We were now in the midst 
of the stream, and about ready to cast 
our lines, when, turning to Mr. N-—— 
I said: 

“Mr. N——-, I suppose you know 
that I profess to be a Christian man.” 








ILLUSTRATIVE 


“Yes, Mr. Keenan; I have heard so.” 

“Well, Mr. N , I want to tell you 
that, before I left home, I promised 
God I would pray with you before we 
began to fish; and if you have no ob- 
jections I would like to do so now.” 

He took it very kindly, and in a gen- 
tlemanly manner said: 

“All right, Mr. Keenan, I have no 
objection to your doing so.” 

I always like to get on my knees to 
pray and, as we were most too far from 
the bank for me to get back, I found 
right near me a big stone, sticking out 
of the water. On this I put my knees 
and, taking off my hat with my left 
hand and holding the rod with my 
right, closed my eyes and prayed to 
Him who has promised to hear and an- 
swer prayer, that He would bless this 
young man. When I had finished pray- 
ing I looked at Mr. N and was sur- 
prised to see him standing, his head 
reverently bowed, his hat in his hand. 

Putting on our hats, we started in 
and had a real happy time fishing, and 
I don’t think that a single word on the 
subject of religion passed between us 
all day. 

I did not see Mr. N again for 
about six weeks, when one Sunday 
morning our door-bell rang, and, going 
to the door, Mr. N stood before me. 
I saw that there was something wrong 
and, inviting him into the parlor, closed 
the doors. 

He then opened his heart to me and 
said: 

“Mr. Keenan, that day we went fish- 
ing together I made up my mind that I 
would not drink any more. I got along 
nicely until yesterday. I expect soon 
to be married to a very estimable young 
lady and in view of this some of my 
friends, whom I met in New York last 
evening, insisted that I break a bottle ot 
champagne with them. I did so, and 
am sorry to say, before I knew it I was 
drunk, and now I am ashamed of my- 
self. I did not know of anybody to 
whom I could come and talk about the 
matter but you.” 

As he said this, tears were streaming 
down his face. I comforted him as best 














ANECDOTES 381 
I could, and then knelt with him and 
prayed that God would help him and 
give him deliverance from the curse ot 
strong drink. 

As he arose to go, I said: “Between 
here and your home, as you go along 
the street, pick out some landmark, 
some tree, or telegraph pole or hitching- 
post, and, looking up to God who loves 
you and gave His Son to die for you, 
commit yourself to Him.” 

He thanked me and bid me good- 
morning. 

For two months I saw nothing of Mr. 
N » when one day the door-bell 
rang and, opening the door, I saw a 
carriage standing at the curb, in which 
he sat. His face was lit up with a 
happy smile as he said, in a cherry 
voice: 

“Come, Brother Keenan, I want you 
to take a ride with me; I have some- 
thing good to tell you.” 

“All right,” I said, and as I went to 
get my coat and hat, I thought some- 
thing must have happened, seeing he 
called me “Brother Keenan.” When 
I got into the carriage and we had start- 
ed off, he said: 


“Brother Keenan, since I saw you 
last, I have been married. My wife 
and I have just returned from our wed- 
ding trip, which we spent at Thousand 
Islands. In the different hotels where 
we stopped there was champagne and 
all kinds of wine on the table; but 1 
want to tell you that I did not touch a 
drop. Better than that, I have been 
converted, and have joined the Presby- 
terian Church, and now they have just 
elected me a deacon in the church.” 

He made as much noise in telling 
iy about it as though he were a Meth- 
odist, 


At the present time Mr. N—— is one 
of the wealthiest citizens in the city o1 
Newark. He takes a deep interest in 
missions and is always pleased to learn 
of drunkards being saved. 

I have always been glad that I kept 
my vow, and that I used the right bait 
in fishing for his soul on that fishing 
trip. 





382 ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 728 — 
FAULT FINDING 


On going to one of my charges, I was 
told that a certain farmer belonging to 
ithe church was greatly addicted to 
fault-finding, and that when I visited 
him he would be sure to serve me up 
the foibles of all his brethren. I had 
not been there long before he invited 
me to come out to his farm and take 
dinner with him. As had been foretold 
he then brought out with great appar- 
ent relish the faults of all the member- 
ship.. “So and so was all right, but 
unfortunately he was so and so;” and 
thus he gave a stab in the back to each 
of the members as they passed in re- 
view before him. 


I heard him without comment, or at- 
tempting any defense, or bringing any 
railing accusation against him as an “ac- 
cuser of the brethren;” but I watched 
my time, before leaving him, to lodge 
my impression with him in an inof- 
fensive way, which might yet do its 
work. 


He had a large apple orchard, loaded 
with choice, ripe fruit. . Just before 
starting for home he gave me a basket 
and said: “Brother Fee, go into the or- 
chard and fill a basket with apples to 
take home with you.” 


Accepting the basket, I went to the 
orchard and filled it with speckled and 
half rotten apples. . When I returned 
he said: “Why man alive! what did 
you fill your basket with that worth- 
less lot for, when the ground is covered 
with fine, large, sound ones?” And 
he threw them away with disgust and 
brought me the basket filled with the 
best. 


Then was my opportunaty, and I said 
to him as gently as I could: “Brother, 
all the afternoon you have been filling 
me up with the speckled members of 
the church, when I am sure there are 
multitudes of good ones.” . He took 
my rebuke with the best of good nature, 
and said: “Brother Fee, you are right, 
and I have been wrong; and I’ll never 
do it again,”’—-and he never did.—Sel. 


ANECDOTES 


— 729 — 
“THEY DID NOT FIND IT OUT.” 


Evangelist “Billy” Sunday tells the 
story of a certain man, a professing 
Christian, whose business required him 
to spend some months among the lum- 
ber-jacks of the far Northwest. 

Knowing how rough and godless 
meny of these men are, and how they 
ridicule sacred things, a friend said 
to him, “What did the jackies do to 
you when they found out you were a 
Christian?” 

And the traveler answered with a 
touch of shameless pride, “They did 
not do anything, for they did not find 
it out!” 

How glaring the contrast between 
this cowardly silence and the witness- 
bearing of a Western traveling man! 
In the office of a rude hotel several 
miners were gambling. As they be- 
came intoxicated, they began to swear, 
particularly taking in vain the name of 
Jesus. 

The Christian traveller was writing 
his daily letter to the house. He sat 
still a moment, wondering whether to 
leave the room or rebuke these strangers 
for their profanity. Finally he walked 
over and said: “Pardon me, boys, but 
this Jesus Christ whose name you are 
coupling with such vile oaths is my 
Saviour, and it hurts to hear you use 
His name so. He’s done too much for 
us all to be given such treatment. If 
you must swear, can’t you leave the 
name of Jesus out?” 

Rough as they were, the men saw the 
genuineness of the man who spoke, and 
saying, “All right, pard; we’ll see what 
we can do,” they quieted down, and 
swore no more. 

Does the world know you are a Chris- 
tian? Do the members of your frater- 
nity, lodge, or social circle know it? If 
they do not, how does it happen? It 
cannot be that you are ashamed of it. 

Let us live so true to Him that, 
whether our acquaintances know much 
about us or little, they will at least 
know that we dearly love our Lord.— 
Christian Endeavor World. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 730 — 
A NICKEL FOR THE LORD. 


Yesterday he wore a rose on the lapel 
of his coat, and when the plate was 
passed he gave a nickel to the Lord. 
He had several bills in his pocket and 
sundry change, perhaps a dollar’s worth, 
but he hunted about, and, finding this 
poor little nickel, he laid it on the plate 
to aid the church militant in its fight 
against the world, the flesh, and the 
devil. His silk hat was beneath the 
seat, and his gloves and cane were be- 
side it, and the nickel was on the plate 
—a whole nickel. 

And the man had his shoes polished 
on Saturday afternoon, and handed out 
a dime without a murmur. He hada 
shave, and paid out fifteen cents with 
equal alacrity. He took a box of can- 
dies home to his wife, and paid forty 
cents for them, and the box was tied 
with a dainty bit of ribbon. Yes, and 
he also gave a nickel to the Lord. 

“Who is the Lord?” 

Who is He? Why, the man worships 
Him as Creator of the universe, the One 
who put the stars in order and by whose 
immutable decree the heavens stand. 
Yes, he does, and he dropped a nickel 
in to support the Church militant. 

And what is the Church militant? 

The church militant is the Church 
that represents upon earth the Church 
triumphant of the great God the man 
gave the nickel to. 

And the man knew that he was 
but an atom in space, and he knew that 
the Almighty is without limitations, 
and, knowing this, he put his hand into 
his pocket and picked out the nickel 
and gave it to the Lord. 

And the Lord being gracious and 
slow to anger and knowing our frame, 
did not slay the man for the meanness 
of his offering, but gives him this day 
his daily bread. 

But the nickel was ashamed, if the 
man wasn’t. 

The nickel hid beneath a quarter that 
was given by a poor woman who washes 
for a living.—G. F. Raymond. 


383 


— 731 — 
THE SAVIOUR IS THE JUDGE, 


Some years ago, a man driving a 
spirited team of horses, lost control of 
the team. As they dashed through the 
streets, a distinguished judge sprang out, 
caught the bridle-rein, and at the risk 
of his own life saved the man who was 
driving. By a singular coincidence 
this same man was on trial for his life 
some little time after, before the judge 
who had rescued him. 

When the trial was over and the law- 
yers had made their plea, then the 
judge addressed the prisoner, saying: 
“Have you anything to say why sen- 
tence should not be pronounced upon 
you?” 

And the man, trembling, arose and 
said: “Your Honor, don’t you know 
me?” 

And when told that he must speak 
on, and not address the judge, he again 
said: “But, your Honor, don’t you know 
Iam the man you saved? Have mercy.” 

And the judge replied: “I do remem- 
ber you, but then I was your saviour, 
and to-day I am your judge, and must 
pass sentence.” 

And if you have sinned against the 
Saviour of men, some day you must 
face Him in judgment.—Dr. J. Wilbur 
Chapman. 


— 732 — 
INFLUENCE OF ONE TRACT. 


What agency for doing good in an in- 
expensive way will compare with the 
printed page? It is related of Rev. Dr. 
Goodell, of the American Board, that 
when in 1832 he was passing through 
Nicomedia, having no time to stop, he 
left with a stranger a copy of The 
Dairyman’s Daughter in the Armenian- 
Turkish language. Seventeen years 
afterwards he visited Nicomedia, and 
found a church of more than forty mem- 
bers, and a Protestant community of 
more than two hundred persons. That 
tract, with God’s blessing, did the work. 
Good seed—“some sixty and some a 
hundred.”—-Dr. Stockbridge, 


384" ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


waa 733 — 
THE RESURRECTION OF THE 
DEAD. 


Abijah Powers felt moderately sure 
nobody would recognize him when he 
registered under an assumed name at 
the little inn. It was more than twenty 
years since he had left the town—a hard, 
reckless boy, running away from a good 
father and a devoted mother because he 
hated goodness and loved lawlessness 
and his own way. 

For years he had led the life of a vag- 
abond. Then the spirit of adventure 
was aroused in him by the stories of the 
wealth in the Klondike. He joined 
one of the earliest parties, in that haz- 
ardous search for gold, and succeeded 
beyond his dreams. Now he had come 
back, with his old instincts, but with 
the wealth of a millionaire, and some 
strange compulsion led him to the vil- 
lage where he first drew breath. 

He did not even know whether his 
parents were living or dead. It was al- 
together likely they were dead. With 
that conviction and without asking a 
question, he made his way in the Au- 
gust twilight to the graveyard, and to 
the spot where for three generations his 
ancestors had been laid. 

Yes, there were new stones placed 
since he had been there. The sight 
moved him strangely. He bent to read 
the inscription on the first one. It was 
to the memory of his father, “Died, 
1884. ‘Blessed are the dead who die in 
the Lord.’ ” 

The date cut the man to the heart. 
His father had died a year after the only 
son had run away! And his mother 
had been left alone! But perhaps she 
had followed her husband mercifully 
soon. Again he bent to read, this time 
with tear-filled eyes, “Died, 1902. ‘And 
God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes.’ ” 

His mother had been alone for eight- 
een years! She was but just dead—in 
poverty, perhaps; certainly in loneliness. 
He drew himself up as if to shake off a 
hideous dream. 

But the other stone--whose grave 


could that mark? They had no rela- 
tives except some distant cousins. Per- 
haps some one of them had done for his 
mother what he ought to have done in 
her long, desolate years. Again he 
stooped to read—his own name. “Abijah 
Powers. Born 1870; died—. ‘“The 
only son of his mother, and she was a 
widow.’ ” 

It was his own gravestone, set up by 
his mother when her hope of his return 
was dead. Out of the depth of his mem- 
ory there flashed up the story of the 
widow of Nain, and the gracious pres- 
ence which spoke the word of life to her 
dead son. How many times his mother 
must have read and re-read the page, 
and how frequently she must have 
prayed that her boy, bone of her bone, 
and flesh of her flesh, might be given 
back to her arms! 


The thought was anguish to the 
graceless son, and it brought him to his 
knees beside his own empty grave. With 
his hand resting over his mother’s head 
he wept as he had not wept since he 
was a child. They were gracious drops. 
Out of the mother’s love, which had 
found its cold comfort in the words of 
scripture for the grave that was no 
grave, there came, indeed, the resurrec- 
tion of the real, living soul. 


The widow’s son went out of the 
graveyard that night a new man. The 
world wondered what had happened to 
him. Money did not often make a man 
over from a devil to a saint; but that 
miracle seemed to have been worked in 
Abijah Powers. Nobody knew that the 
transformation did not come from the 
touch of Kiondike gold, but from the 
power of love—reaching from beyond 
the vale, and speaking from the cold 
marble of a gravestone.—Youth’s Com- 
panion. 


aay [Yee 
TAKING HIM AT HIS WORD. 


It is related that on a certain occasion 
Napoleon was reviewing his troops. As 
the reins lay loose on the neck of his 
horse the steed became frightened, and 
presently with the speed of the wind 


a | ILLUSTRATIVE 


was tearing down the line of men with 
the reins over his head, and the Emperor 
powerless to check him. As the General 
was thus borne down the line, in immi- 
nent danger of being dashed to the 
earth, an athletic soldier was seen to 
step out of the ranks, and when the 
frightened horse came near, the soldier, 
at great risk to himself, sprang for the 
animal’s head and, clutching the bridle, 
he soon brought the charger under con- 
trol. As the private handed him the 
reins, the General saluted and said 
“Thank you, Captain!” The soldier, re- 
turning the salutation, replied, “Of what 
company, General?” “Of the Royal 
Guards.” 

What did that soldier do? Step back 
into the ranks? Not at all. He was not 
so modestly foolish as that. He joined 
a group of officers, and when one ob- 
serving his private uniform said, “Get 
back into the ranks,” he replied, “I am 
the captain of the Royal Guards.” “By 
what authority?” “By the word of the 
Emperor!” And of course his promo- 
tion was not disputed. 

As the soldier took the General at his 
word and claimed his right, so must 
those do who come to Christ. He says 
“come unto me and I will give you rest,” 
and “him that cometh to me, I will in 
nowise cast out.” The sinner must be- 
lieve His word, and not doubt his ac- 
ceptance. Jesus says, “My sheep hear 
my voice, and they follow me, and I 
give unto them eternal life, and they 
shall never perish.” Believing this word 
there is no room to doubt their eternal 
salvation.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 735 — 
“YOUR BROTHER IS THERE” 


Several years ago in the East End of 
London they were digging a deep drain 
in the neighborhood of Victoria Park. 
Some of the shoring gave away, and 
tons of earth fell down upon several 
men who were at work there. Of course 
there was a great deal of excitement. 
Standing by the brink was a man look- 
ing—I grant you with great earnestness 
-—on those who were attempting to dig 


ANECDOTES 385 


out the earth. But a woman came up 
to him, put her hand on his shoulder, 
and said, “Bill, your brother is down 
there!” Oh, you should have seen the 
sudden change. Off went his coat, and 
then he sprang into the trench and 
worked with the strength of ten men. 
Oh, sirs, amidst the masses of the 
poor and degraded and the lost, your 
brother is down there!—Living Epistle. 


— 736 — 
“IF ANY MAN OPEN THE DOOR.” 


A friend was telling me some of her 
experiences in the Dufferin hospital in 
India. One impressed me as particular- 
ly significant. She was seated on the 
veranda of the hotel one afternoon read- 
ing, when a high class Hindu woman 
came up the steps and asked for an in- 
terview with Miss Henderson. My 
friend rose to speak to her, and as she 
did so a copy of Holman Hunt’s picture 
of Christ standing outside the closed 
door fell out of her book to the ground. 
The woman quickly picked it up and 
looked at it. 

“Tell me about this,” she said, her 
errand forgotten, as a woman long ago 
forgot her “water pots.” , “What does 
it mean?” 

Miss Henderson told her, and the 
woman went away. 

Summer passed into autumn, and au- 
tumn into winter, and there was snow 
on the mountains, and the air was chill, 
and Miss Henderson went to call upon 
this woman. 

As she came near the house she saw 
the door standing wide open. She en- 
tered and—the physical need of the wo- 
man foremost in her mind, for she was 
a trained nurse—at once said: “You 
should not have your front door open 
so. , The mountains are covered with 
snow, and it is cold.” 

Then the woman, with a half shy rev- 
erence, said: 

“I know it. I have seen the snow, 
and I have felt the cold, but I thought 
that perhaps your Jesus might pass by, 
and I wanted Him to find the door wide 
open.”—Ruth G. Winant. 


386 


a 737 — 
A FIGHT FOR LIFE 


Dr. Grenfell tells of a small fishing 
schooner which started for Newfound- 
land one winter from the port of Cadiz, 
Spain. She was manned with tough 
Newfoundland sailors, well seasoned 
by long battling with ocean storms, and 
her captain knew his business well and 
was afraid of nothing. 

They were in the very midst of the 
Atlantic when they were struck by a 
waterspout, and swept clean of mast, 
bowsprit, bulwarks, boats and deck- 
houses. The deck itself “gaped open 
like a sieve.” Their only hope was to 
keep afloat until some passing vessel 
should pick them up, but could they do 
it? Gale after gale struck them. Their 
food was cold and wet. They were 
wretched and begged to give up the 
fight and be allowed to die, but the 
captain exercised his ingenuity to in- 
spirit them and keep them at the 
pumps. 

One steamer passed them by; then a 
second. They were in despair. At 
last when even the captain was begin- 
ning to waver, a third great liner hove 
in sight. If this chance were lost, they 
felt that they could not hold out for an- 
other. They lit a huge bonfire on the 
deck, knowing well that it would set fire 
to their vessel, but knowing also that it 
was their only hope. 

The great ship signaled, “Can you 
hold out till morning?” “No, we are 
sinking now,” they signaled back. The 
ship at once lowered its steel lifeboat. 
The giant seas crushed it in an instant. 
Then a wooden lifeboat was let down, 
manned with its crew. This, too was 
doubled up ere it touched the surface of 
the sea, and broke into a thousand frag- 
ments, while the brave sailors in it just 
saved their lives. 

Still, the good ship would not give 
up. Down over its side came next a 
light, collapsible boat, “dropped from 
the davits on the run.” This weathered 
the sea, and all of the perishing men on 
the schooner were saved. 

Just such a fight for life as the schoon- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


er made; just such an effort to save as 
the liner made; just such odds as both 
met and endured and conquered, are 
necessary from time to time for us all in 
the moral world, and must be overcome 
there. Bear, bear, struggle, struggle, 
get beaten over and over again, then 
pick yourselves up and press forward— 
this is the routine and the law of life. 
—Christian Herald. 


— 738 — 
THE MISJUDGED DOG 
It is said the village of “Beth Gelert,” 


in Wales, got its name from Gelert, an 


Irish wolfhound given by King John 
of England, in 1205, to Llewellyn the 
Great, King of Wales. 

The story is that Gelert abandoned his 
master for some unknown reason while 
hunting. Returning from the chase in 
ill humor, the king was met by the dog, 
which, covered with blood, came rushing 
from the chamber occupied by the 
king’s little son. Filled with alarm, the 
king entered the room. The bed of his 
child was overturned and besmeared 
with blood, and there was no response 
to the call of his name. MHastily con- 
cluding that the dog had killed the child, 
the enraged father ran the faithful crea- 
ture through with his sword. A further 
search, however, revealed the child 
sleeping unharmed, beneath the over- 
turned bed; and near him lay the body 
of a great wolf killed by the heroic 
hound. . 

The self-reproach of Llewellyn, it is 
said, caused him to erect a chapel in 
memory of the faithful dog, and to mark 
his grave with a tombstone. At least to 
this day the chapel and tomb are there, 
and the name of the village itself, “Beth 
Gelert,” which signifies the house of 
Gelert, commemorates the name and 
fame of this misjudged friend of man. 

Hasty judgments are likely to be 
wrong judgments. And it is especially 
hard to be condemned when we are 
really deserving of praise. God never 
makes mistakes in his judgments. 
Psalm 119:137.—Rev. Henry M. Tyn- 
dall. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


— 739 — 
THE VOICE OF DUTY. 


In the city of Glasgow there lived a 
wealthy merchant. He owned a large, 
beautiful estate, and had five children 
—four daughters and one son. He 
died suddenly without making a will; 
and, according to the law of that land, 
the property all belonged to the son. 
He was in business in London, and 
might have said, “Now I am rich, and 
will use all the money in my business.” 
But no; he went home as soon as he 
heard of his father’s death and called 
upon a lawyer, and had a will made in 
which all the children should share 
alike and the large house should belong 
to the mother as long as she lived. 
Then he went to his father’s funeral. 


Some one said to him, “But why did 
you go that very night and have the 
will made out?” He said, “I that 
night saw that it was my duty to do it. 
If I had left it till the next day my duty 
might not have seemed so clear.’”’ What 
a noble son! And what a generous way 
it was! Be honest and true now, while 
the duty is clear for if you listen to the 
voice of God at once you will hear Him 
more distinctly the next time He speaks 
to youu—Rev. C. H. Tyndall, D.D. 


Ag oe 


HOW THE MONEY CAME. 


If once the laymen in our churches 
feel a sense of personal responsibility 
to fulfill the last command of Christ, 
there will be no lack of the sinews of 
war. 

Some forty years ago Dr. Chambers 
preached a missionary sermon in one of 
the New York churches on a rainy 
Sabbath, when there was only one man 
in the audience. He made an appeal for 
the payment of the deficit of the Dutch 
Reformed Board. That deficit amount- 
ed to $58,000, and $11,000 of it was 
needed immediately to meet the crisis. 

The smaliness of the audience did 
not hinder God’s spirit from working 
through the preacher. Before he went 
to bed that night there was a ring at 


387 


the door, and Mr. Warren Ackerman 
announced himself as the only man 
who had heard the sermon on personal 
responsibility that morning. He drew 
out his check-book and began to write. 


Dr. Chambers watched him with 
much anxiety as he wrote... You can 
imagine his delight when Warren Ac- 
kerman filled it in for $11,000. 


“I could not sleep that night,” said 
Dr. Chambers, “for very joy, but early 
in the morning there was a ring at the 
door and there stood Mr. Ackerman, 
asking me to return the check which 
he had given me the previous night. 
Sitting down, he took his check book 
and put the figures 5 and a second 5.” 


“Now,” said Dr. Chambers, “I know 
he is coming back because he feels that 
he has given too much and is giving 
one-half of the total amount immediate- 
ly needed.” 


But when the check was filled in the 
amount was $55,000, the largest single 
gift ever received by our Board.. In 
such fashion does a sense of personal 
responsibility enable men to do exceed- 
ing abundantly above all that they are 
able to ask or think for the kingdom of 
God.—Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer. 


TAL 


DROP YOUR PENNY. 


A little child was one day playing 
with a very valuable vase, when he put 
his hand into it and could not withdraw 
it. His father, too, tried his best to get 
it out, but all in vain. They were talk- 
ing of breaking the vase, when the fa- 
ther said, “Now, my son, make one 
more try; open your hand and hold 
your fingers out straight, as you see me 
doing, and then pull.” To their aston- 
ishment, the little fellow said, “Oh, no, 
pa, I couldn’t put out my fingers like 
that for if I did, I would drop my pen- 
ny.” . He had been holding on to a 
penny all the time. No wonder he 
could not withdraw his hand. 

How many of us are like him?. Drop 
the copper. Surrender. Let go, and God 
will give you gold.—John MacNeil. 


388 


yd 
A SOVEREIGN FOR A PENNY. 


It was a bright morning early in the 
present century. London Bridge was 
densely crowded almost impassable. 

In one of the abutments, near the city 
side, a man was very busy advertising 
sovereigns for sale. ““Here you are, gen- 
tlemen,” he vociferated; “real golden 
sovereigns—only a penny apiece—real 
sovereigns, fresh from His Majesty’s 
mint! Here’s an opportunity that will 
never happen again—only a penny for 
a golden sovereign; twenty shillings 
value; two hundred and forty pence—all 
for one penny. Don’t let the chance slip, 
gentlemen; it will never come again. 
Buy a hundred sovereigns for a hundred 
pence!” 

The crowd surged by, taking little no- 
tice of him; or when any one did make 
any response to his invitation, it was to 
express surprise at his folly in believing 
that the public could be so taken in. 

“You’ve brightened up those farthings 
of yours pretty smartly,” said one, “If 
you'd sell ’em four for a penny, you 
might do some business.” 

“But mind what you are at,” growled 
an old city clerk; “if you attempt to 
pass off those Brummagen buttons as 
sovereigns, you may have the constable 
after you.” 

The pedlar listened to these remarks 
with the utmost composure. He did not 
appear in any way disturbed, although 
he had stood for nearly three-quarters of 
an hour without receiving a single bid 
for his wares, nor did his eye ever turn 
aside from the tray, which was slung by 
a band around his neck, except to glance 
at a man who was leaning carelessly 
against the parapet, referring every now 
and then to his watch. 

Presently a boy came along and earn- 
estly besought his father to allow him to 
purchase. 

“They are only pretense, my lad,” said 


the father. “In this world no one ever 
parts with anything under its real 
value.” 


A man stopped and looked wistfully 
at the tray. “If they were only real,” he 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


muttered; “twenty of them would keep 
me out of jail.” 

A clever mechanic stopped a moment 
or two, eyeing with curiosity the con- 
tents of the tray. Then he took up one 
of the coins and turned it over. 

“Well, it’s a clever sham,” he said; 
“it will please my little boy, and Pil 
take one home to him.” 

On his way he passed under the win- 
dows of a large jeweler’s shop, and he 
took the chance to examine his purchase. 

“Well, it’s uncommon-like, that I must 
say. There can’t be any chance of it’s 
being a real one, I suppose; that would 
be too good a joke. And yet there is no 
harm in asking, and this chap will tell 
me in a minute. 

He stepped up to the counter, and 
laying his coin on it, inquired what that 
might be. 

“That,” said the jeweler, taking it up 
and weighing it on his finger, “why what 
should it be, my good man, but a 
sovereign?” 

“A sovereign, a real sovereign!” ex- 
claimed the other; “You don’t mean it, 
to be sure. Just look again, sir, if you 
please, and make certain.” 

“There’s no need of looking again,” 
said the shopman, rather sharply. “I 
should know gold by this time, when I 
see it. It’s as good a sovereign as ever 
came from the mint, and is quite new 
into the bargain.” 

The man stared once more into the 
jeweler’s face, and then turning around 
short, he made for, the door, elbowing 
his way without ceremony through the 
crowd outside, and paying no heed to 
the angry remonstrances addressed to 
him on all sides. Presently he emerged 
near the entrance to the bridge, and still 
fighting his way vigorously, reached the 
spot where he had left the dealer in 
sovereigns. Alas, he was gone, and his 
place was occupied by a vender of gin- 
gerbread nuts, who was commending his 
articles with an earnestness that ex- 
ceeded that of his predecessor. 

“Where is the man who was selling 
the sovereigns?” exclaimed the journey- 
man breathlessly. 

“Man with the sovereigns,” repeated 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the person addressed. “I don’t know of 
any such. There was a chap with a tray 
here about five minutes ago, just as I 
came up he shut up his business and 
walked off with his friend just as twelve 
o’clock struck.” 

Two fashionable loungers at the West 
End had made a wager as to what would 
be the consequence if one hundred 
sovereigns were offered for sale at a 
penny apiece, for one hour on London 
Bridge, during the most busy period of 
the day. One party contended that they 
would all be bought up the moment they 
were exposed to view; the other, that 
the public would totally disregard them. 
The experiment was tried, and with the 
result that has been related—of the hun- 
dred sovereigns only one was sold, and 
that to a man who had no belief in the 
value of his purchase. 

It may seem strange to us that men 
should have shown so little discernment, 
yet what is it but the very same thing 
that is going on every day? The ser- 
vants of the Lord are continually calling 
to the wayfarers, using all their per- 
suasive powers to induce them to receive 
treasure of value beyond human power 
to estimate. “Doth not wisdom cry and 
understanding put forth her voice? She 
standeth on the top of high places, by 
the way in the places of the paths. She 
crieth at the gates, at the entry to the 
city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto 
you, O men, I call and my voice is to 
the sons of men. O, ye simple under- 
stand wisdom; and ye fools, be ye of 
an understanding heart.” “Receive my 
instruction and not silver; and knowl- 
edge rather than choice gold. For 
wisdom is better than rubies; and all the 
things that may be desired are not to be 
compared to it.” 

But few, very few, of the busy throng 
heed the cry. They do not credit the 
representation, of value; they suspect 
deception. Sad experience with the 
stinginess of man has helped them to 
doubt the benevolence of God. So long 
accustomed to paying full value for 
things received, they seem to feel that 
what is offered so freely must needs be 
worthless. 


389 


O wayfarer, pause a moment, ere you 
hurry past the true riches! Examine 
the things offered for your acceptance; 
behold them put to the severest tests to 
prove them genuine. Whenever you 
come to a sense of their value you will 
outstrip the journeyman in your zeal to 
secure them. Whatever may oppose, you 
will succeed unless—oh, bitter thought 
—unless, like him, you are too late. 
Life’s short hour is speeding fast; the 
golden moments of opportunity will soon 
be gone. You are having a most wonder- 
ful chance for eternal gain. May heaven 
help you to secure it, ere the dial points 
to the closing hour of time. — Holiness 
Berean. 

— 743 — 
“CHRISTMAS IN HEAVEN.” 


The Rev. Dr. A. C. Dixon says that 
when their little boy Harold died, and 
after they had taken his body to the 
cemetery in Asbury Park, it seemed as if 
all the enjoyment of their life was gone 
into that little grave. His heart was 
heavy, and he could not understand why 
their son was taken from them. He had 
no joy in preaching or in any of his 
work. When the Christmas festival was 
to be held in their church, he felt like 
leaving the city, but remained. The chil- 
dren came to the tree, and had a good 
time, and seemed to have forgotten all 
about little Harold. 

The next day was Christmas. While 
the family sat at table, sad and silent, 
one of the little ones said, “Papa, this 
is Harold’s first Christmas in heaven.” 
Another one quickly replied, “Why, it 
is Christmas all the time in heaven.” 
Immediately the sadness disappeared be- 
cause of the thought of little Harold’s 
happiness in heaven.—Rev. C. H. Tyn- 
dall, D.D. 

mer 14.4 —e 

Far better it is to dare mighty things, 
to win glorious triumphs, even though 
checkered by failure, than to rank with 
those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor 
suffer much, because they live in the 
gray twilight that knows neither victory 
nor defeat.—Theodore Roosevelt. . 


390 


— 745 
THEY RESCUED THE DOG. 


I read the story of a man who had a 
dog that he highly prized. They were 
on shipboard. A child threw a stick 
overboard, and before anyone had re- 
alized the dog jumped after it. The 
man went to the Captain and asked him 
to stop the ship. “What! stop the 
mails for a dog? No, indeed!” The 
man said: “If you will not stop to save 
a dog you will have to stop to save a 
man,” and then he jumped overboard. 
They stopped the ship to rescue the 
man, and in so doing saved the dog. 

The dear Saviour saw you and me 
sinking, and he jumped into the waters 
of sin and suffering of this world to res- 
cue us. The billows of death and hell 
rolled over Him, and He cried, “My 
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken 
Me?” But as he expired He shouted 
triumphantly, “It is finished.” He 
burst the bars of death and came forth 
with our salvation. Now His highest 
joy is to give us eternal life.—Rev. 
C. H. Tyndall, D. D. 


— 746— 
BURNING HIS INFIDEL BOOKS. 


The most impressive instance of the 
power of truth on the conscience, in my 
memory, is that of an intelligent man, 
who sent for me after midnight, to tell 
him how to be saved, and to pray for 
him; for he did not think he could pray 
for himself. I spent the rest of the 
night with him, praying with him, and 
teaching him. He rose from his bed 
again and again, to kneel, and though 
obviously dying, as indicated by his 
breathing, he found a key, showed me 
how to open a heavy trunk, and found 
in it a parcel of books. “I want you,” 
he said, “to take these, to keep them 
from any other hands, to promise me 
that you will burn them.” His look and 
tones I cannot forget, as he said, “They 
have brought my soul to the very brink 
of hell; they were my destruction.” I 
kept my promise. He died in the early 
forenoon, I trust, sincerely, as he pro- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


fessed, trusting himself as a sinner in 
the hands of God in Christ, the only 
Saviour.—Dr. John Hall. . 


5 oe Whee 
HE SHOUTED FOR JOY 


It is said that when Willie Williams 
received word that the Governor of 
Missouri had commuted his sentence 
to fifty years imprisonment, instead of 
death by hanging, that he shouted, 
cried and kissed the telegram over and 
over again. . No one wonders that he 
did, yet when a man who is guilty be- 
fore God and condemned to eternal 
death receives pardon and a title to eter- 
nal glory, shouts and in any way shows 
his joy, he is at once put down as crazy! 
If fifty years imprisonment instead of 
death by hanging is sufficient to cause 
shouting, what of life eternal, with a 
title of eternal glory? No wonder God’s 
people have made the corridors of time 
echo with the shouts of salvation.—The 
Cumberland Presbyterian Banner. 


294g 


AS GOD GIVETH. 


“What shall I bring you?” said a 
visitor in a St. Louis hospital to a little 
sufferer crying for mamma. She sob- 
bed out, “I want a parasol! I want it 
today!” The sensible visitor brought it, 
and the comforted little one clasping it 
in her arms was soon asleep. That one 
toy comforted 20 children 20 times to 
rest. Many a childish request is granted 
by the Spirit of Jesus to comfort us. 
“So He giveth His beloved sleep.” 


at 71 a 
LUXURIES 


Be not too fond of luxuries. Excess- 
ively indulged they weaken character in 
the present life, and lessen one’s hope 
of blessedness in the world to come. 
When Garrick showed Dr. Johnson his 
elegant home, fine garden, beautiful 
statues and choice pictures, the latter 
replied: “Ah! David, these are the 
things which make a death-bed ter- 
rible !”-——Selected. 


= 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 750 — 
THE DIVINE CALL. 


There is a cry which comes swelling 
up from sickbeds, from hospitals, from 
men in doubt, from men in trouble, from 
men struggling with deadly temptations, 
from lads adrift, from children left upon 
the world, from girls driven by poverty 
to the streets, from heathen lands, from 
Africa, from India, from China—“Whom 
wilt thou send? and who will come to 
us?” 

One time at a meeting of the General 
Assembly, an effort was made to raise 
funds enough to send a young Princeton 
graduate to India as a missionary. A 
teacher in a home mission school was 
seen by her hostess to slip a gold ring 
from her finger and put it on the collec- 
tion plate. Asked afterwards by the 
lady whose guest she was why she did 
it, she replied, “Because I had no money, 
and because I knew what it would mean 
if the effort to send this missionary 
failed.” Not long before she had been 
told that she would have to give up her 
own school because there were no funds 
to support it. But she would not give it 
up. She held on with magnificent 
heroism, and she contributed the ring 
with all its sacred associations to help 
another to do what was so near her own 
heart. 

The next morning a commissioner 
brought the ring into the General As- 
sembly and told the story of it. It was 
worth about five dollars. “I will give 
five dollars to send the ring back to the 
young woman,” said a minister. “I will 
will give five dollars,” said the stated 
clerk. A newspaper reporter handed up 
five dollars to the platform. Pastors, 
missionaries, and visitors came forward 
readily with the cash, each one eager to 
have some share in restoring the ring. 
In less than ten minutes more than three 
hundred dollars had been passed up to 
the desk. It was all caused by the vision 
they got of the self-sacrificing love that 
flamed in the heart of that little woman, 
making her glad to do something for her 
dear Master.—Rev. Robert F. Coyle, 
D.D. 


391 


sel ee 
CALM IN THE DEPTHS. 


I came upon James Cobbledick seated 
in the mouth of a cave, looking out over 
the seas which swept across the sands, 
touched by the sunset glow, says Mark 
Guy Pearse. 


The breeze of that summer day was 
off the land, so that the sea was perfectly 
calm, except that now and then, at regu- 
lar intervals, there rose the long line of 
roller—the ground-swell, as they call it 
—a huge wave sweeping unbroken right 
across the bay, arched, majestic. Be- 
tween us and the mighty billows sat a 
cormorant, untroubled, and as the wave 
curved over into thunders, I started. 
“The creature will be killed,’ I said. 
Then instantly it dived. And when the 
waves had swept on and sent its ripples 
far up the sand, the bird rose and shook 
off the drops, glistening in the sunshine, 
and sat brooding in the calm. 


The old man turned to me. “Maister,” 
he said, in that tone of awe which I had 
learned to associate with the thoughts 
he held most sacred, “Maister, can you 
mind the words, ‘All Thy waves and 
Thy billows have gone over me?’ There’s 
times when we're killed if we fight, and 
there’s times when we’re saved if we 
sink. To live right is the only safety. 
There’s calm in the depths! Yes, there’s 
always calm in the depths. Sometimes 
it is good to have the wings of the dove 
and fly away to the heights, but some- 
times it is better to sink down, down, 
eee down to the depths —The Morning 

tar. 


— 752 — 


When the statue of George Peabody, 
erected some years ago in one of the 
thoroughfares of London, was unveiled, 
the sculptor Story was asked to speak. 
Twice he touched the statue with his 
hand, and twice he said, “That is my 
speech! That is my speech!” What 
a suggestion to Christians! Even so 
should they allow their actions, their 
consecrated lives, to speak of the Savior 
they profess.—Selected. 


392 


— 753 — 
“LORD, HELP ME!’ 


The Rev. J. Ashworth of England re- 
lates the following instructive incident: 

Many of the inhabitants of Manches- 
ter and the surrounding towns, will re- 
member a singular old minister, with a 
red, round, pleasant-looking counte- 
nance, a bald head, and who often 
preached in a velvet skull-cap. He was 
a man of very peculiar views, but almost 
unequaled in his description of Christian 
experience. This man once preached in 
Rochdale, from the text, “Lord help me.” 
Having read his text, he took off his 
spectacles, and, in his usual, deliberate 
way, looked round on the congregation, 
saying: 

“Friends, by way of introduction, I 
will tell you how I got this text; and if 
you will allow me to speak in the first 
person, I can tell you easier by saying 
I than he.” 

“Well, then, before I was fully de- 
voted to the ministry I was in business, 
and, as most business men do, I worked 
a little on credit. When I gave up busi- 
ness and settled as a preacher and pastor 
of a congregation, I was owing several 
sums of money; but much more was 
owing to me, so that I had no fear of 
being unable to pay my creditors. One of 
these creditors, to whom I owed twenty 
pounds, called upon me for the payment. 
I said to him, ‘I will see what I can do 
for you next Monday.’ He called on the 
Monday, but I had not got the money. 
He was rather cross with me, saying I 
‘had no business to promise except I 
intended to perform.’ This observation 
touched my pride, and I told him that I 
would pay him on the coming Monday. 
He went away in a rage, saying, ‘He 
hoped I would.’ ” 

“T set out on the following day to see 
some of my debtors, not fearing but I 
could raise the twenty pounds, but I did 
not get one farthing. I tried others, but 
with the same success. I then put down 
on a sheet of paper the names of several 
of my friends, certain that I could bor- 
row twenty pounds from any one of 
them. But, to my utter amazement, I 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


was mistaken. All of them could sympa- 
thize with me a deal better than lend 
me anything; and I began to find it out, 
that if a man wants to know how many 
friends he has, he had better try to bor- 
row money.” 

“The next day I made out another list 
of those not so well able to help me as 
the former, for I thought if I could get 
five pounds here and five pounds there, I 
would be able to raise it all. I traveled 
many miles on my errand, spending a 
whole day, but returned in the evening 
without one penny. 1 began to ask my- 
self, ‘How is this that I, a respectable 
man, and, as some people say, a popular 
preacher, cannot, in the whole of my 
acquaintance, borrow twenty pounds? I 
thought I had as many friends as most 
men, but now I cannot find one that will 
trust me for twenty pounds.’ My pride 
got a terrible shake, and I felt very little 
indeed.” 

“Saturday morning came, and I arose 
from a sleepless bed. I ate very little 
breakfast, and when at prayer I was so 
overcome with my feelings, that my wife 
asked me if I was poorly, or in trouble. 
‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘I am in trouble enough;’ 
and I then told her all about the cause of 
my sorrow. She was silent for a few 
minutes, and then said, ‘You have often 
talked and preached about the power of 
faith, I think you will now need some 
yourself.’ Having said this she arose 
from her chair, and went rattling among 
her pots and kettles. She was evidently 
mortified because I had been refused 
the money by those she had considered 
our friends.” 

“My wife is a good Christian woman, 
but she thinks that works are the best 
evidence of faith, both in preacher and 
people.” 

“On Saturday I was in a state of tor- 
por until evening. I then, with a heavy 
heart went upstairs into a little room 
I called my study; for I had three times 
to preach on the Sunday and no text; 
twenty pounds to pay on the Monday, 
and no money. What wasI todo? For 
a long time I sat with my face buried in 
my hands, and then I fell on my knees, 
and I believe I said, ‘Lord help me,’ a 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


hundred times, for I could say nothing 
but ‘Lord help me, Lord help me.’ While 
praying I felt an impression that these 
words might serve me for one text; and 
as Sunday came before Monday, I began 
to prepare, as well as I could, for the 
Sunday work; but no other text could I 
think of but ‘Lord help me.’ ” 

“While preaching on the Sunday 
morning, I had so many thoughts and 
illustrations, arising out of the subject 
that I felt great liberty in preaching. 
One of my illustrations was about a 
man I knew well, who was a deacon of 
a church, and had been an executor for 
two orphan children. He was tempted 
to make use of the money, and much of 
it was lost. This so preyed upon his 
mind that he began to drink. He lost 
his character, lost his peace of mind, 
and he died with the reputation of a 
rogue.” 

“ “Now, I said, ‘had this man, the 
executor, when he first thought of tak- 
ing the children’s money, resisted the 
temptation, by calling on God to help 
him—help him to be honest, help him 
to do nothing but what a professing 
Christian ought to do—instead of losing 
the money, his good name, his peace of 
mind, and, perhaps his life, God would 
have heard his prayer, and saved him.” 

“Noon came; but my sermon was not 
half done. I preached from the same 
text again in the afternoon, and again 
in the evening; and I felt that I could 
have preached from it a week.” 

“After finishing the night’s service, 
when I got to the bottom of the pulpit 
stairs, a young man stood there who 
asked to see me in private. I took him 
into the vestry, and requested his er- 
rand, expecting it would be about his 
soul. For several minutes we were both 
silent, but at length he said, ‘You knew 
my mother, Mr. Gadsby.’ ” 

“I looked in his face, saying, ‘Surely 
I did; but I did not know you at first.’ ” 

“*Well, sir, when she died she left 
me some money—in fact, all she had, 
except two small sums she wished me to 
give; one sum, of five pounds, to a poor 
old woman of her acquaintance; and 
speaking of you she said, ‘Our minister 


ANECDOTES. - 393 
needs help, and I wish you to give him 
twenty pounds.’ I paid the five pounds 
to the old woman; but, thinking no one 
knew, I resolved never to give you the 
twenty. But while you were talking 
about the rougish executor this morn- 
ing, I felt thunderstruck, and I have 
brought you the twenty pounds. Here 
it is, do take it, and do forgive me.’” 
“It was now my turn to be thunder- 
struck. While the young man was put- 
ting the sovereigns into my hand, I 
trembled ail over. God had heard my 
prayer; He had helped me through Sun- 
day, and sent me the twenty pounds for 
Monday. It was mine and I took it. I 
shook the young man’s hand, and, with- 
out putting the money into my pocket, 
I went quickly home, spread it out on 
the table before my wife, saying, ‘Here 
it is! I now see how it was that I could 
not borrow the money. God knew where 
it was, and he sent me the twenty 
pounds, and delivered me out of my 
trouble. He had heard my prayer, and 
helped me, and I will trust Him and 
praise Him as long as I live? Oh! my 
dear friends, when that little prayer, 
‘Lord help me,’ comes from the heart 
of one of God’s children in distress, 
neither men, nor devils, nor angels can 
tell its power. It has brought me thou- 
sands of blessings, besides the twenty 
pounds.”—The Earnest Christian. 


bY 
HOW LOVE UNITES. 


When the Forth Bridge was build- 
ing.the great arms from either side were 
completed; slowly and steadily they had 
been built out, and now at the center of 
the mighty arch all that was needed was 
the final riveting. But the day fixed was 
cold and chilly, and in spite of fires set 
under the iron to expand it the inch or 
two required, the union could not be 
completed, and the day’s programme 
was a failure. But next morning the 
sun rose bright, the day was warm and 
genial; the iron then expanded, the holes 
came opposite one another, and the riv- 
eters had nothing to do but to drive the 
binding bolts home. So love unites 
men—‘love never faileth.”—Selected. 


394 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 755 — 
THE POWER OF HABIT. 


It is told that a telegraph operator at 
Springfield, Mass., was kept at his post 
of duty for many hours receiving special 
news. After losing two nights’ sleep 
he was relieved from duty to get some 
rest. He went to his room at the hotel 
and soon was fast asleep. When the 
time came for him to return to his in- 
strument he could not be awakened. 

Loud pounding on the door did not 
result in arousing him. An operator 
then, with his knife-handle, tapped 
“Springfield” on the door, in imitation 
of the clicking of the instrument. At 
once the sleeping operator sprang from 
his bed and was soon ready to continue 
his work. 

It is said that firemen hear in their 
sleep the signal calling them to duty, 
while they sleep right on through any 
number of signals which do not concern 
them. In an article on “Heroes who 
fight fire,” in the Century, Jacob A. 
Riis tells of a fire department chief who 
has a gong right over his head at home, 
every stroke of which he hears, al- 
though he never hears the baby; while 
his wife hears the baby if it so much as 
stirs in its crib, but does not hear the 
song.—Union Gospel News. 


— 756 — 
NOT OUR LOVE FOR GOD. 


A gentleman of wealth and high so- 
cial position was taken ill. Being much 
troubled about the little love he found 
in his heart for God, he complained bit- 
terly to his pastor. This is how the 
man of God answered him. 

“When I leave you I shall go to my 
residence, and the first thing that I ex- 
pect to do is to call my baby. I expect 
to place her on my knee and look down 
into her sweet eyes and listen to her 
charming prattle, and, tired as I am, 
her presence will rest me, for I love that 
child with unutterable tenderness. But 
the fact is she loves me little. If my 
heart were breaking, it would not dis- 
turb her sleep. If my body were racked 
with excruciating pain, it would not 


ANECDOTES 


interrupt her play. If I were dead, she 
would be amused watching my pale 
face and closed eyes. If my friends 
came to remove the corpse to the place 
of burial, she would probably clap her 
hands in glee, and in two or three days 
totally forget her papa.” 


“Besides this, she has never brought 
me a penny, but has been a constant 
expense on my hands ever since she 
was born. Yet, though I am not rich, 
there is not money enough in the world 
to buy my baby. How is it? Does she 
love me, or do I love her? Do I with- 
hold my love until I know she loves 
me? Am I waiting for her to do some- 
thing worthy of my love before extend- 
ing it to her?” 

“Oh, I see it,” said the sick man, 
while the tears ran down his cheeks. 
“I see it clearly. It is not my love to 
God, but God’s love to me, I ought to 
be thinking about; and I do love Him 
now as I never loved Him before.” 

We think of our littleness when we 
should remember our Father’s almighti- 
ness. We bewail our weak love when 
we should be grateful for our Father’s 
great love. “Herein is love, not that 
we loved God, but that God loved us.” 
—Presbyterian Banner. 


— 757 — 
THE CURE FOR DOUBT. 


It is said that Dr. Merle d’Aubigne, 
the famous Swiss historian of the Ref- 
ormation, was sorely troubled with 
doubt during his student days. He 
went to his old, experienced teacher for 
help. The old man refused to discuss 
the doubts, saying: “Were I to rid you 
of these, others would come. There is 
a shorter way of destroying them. Let 
Jesus Christ be really to you the Son of 
God, the Saviour, and His light will 
dispel the darkness, and His Spirit will 
lead you into all truth.” 


That old man was right. He saw the 
fatal habit which the young man was 
acquiring, and he knew that the glori- 
ous Sun of Righteousness could alone 
scatter the clouds that make so many 
lives dark and dreary.—T. L. Cuyler. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


GETTING POWER. 


Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman tells how he 
had in his parish a young Irishman; 
all would declare him to be ignorant, 
and he was; but God marvelously used 
him. This was the secret, in the evan- 
gelist’s words. 

With a heart burdened for the men 
of the city, I called together a few of 
the men of the church, and laying be- 
fore them the plan I had in mind, told 
them first of all that we could do noth- 
ing without the “infilling of the Holy 
Ghost.” 

When this had been explained, I no- 
ticed this man leave the room. He did 
not return while the meeting was in 
session. When I sought him, I found 
him in one of the lower rooms of the 
church literally on his face before God. 
He was in prayer. 

I shall never forget his petition: “O 
God, I plead with Thee for this bless- 
ing ;” then, as if God were showing him 
what was in the way, he said: “My 
Father, I will give up every known sin, 
only I plead with Thee for power;” and 
then, as if his individual sins were pass- 
ing before him, he said again and again: 
“I will give them up.” Then, without 
any emotion, he rose from his knees, 
turned his face heavenward, and simply 
said, “And now I claim the blessing.” 

For the first time he became sensible 
of my presence, and with a shining 
countenance he reached out his hands 
to clasp mine. You could feel the very 
presence of the Spirit as he said: “I 
have received Him; I have received 
Him.” And I believe he had, for in 
the next few months he had led more 
than sixty men into the kingdom of 
God. His whole life had been trans- 
formed. He is just now being set apart 
to preach the gospel.—Northwestern 
Christian Advocate. 


— 759 — 


A SECOND CHANCE. 
In Florence, Italy, one of the treas- 
ures of art admired by thousands of vis- 
itors is Michael Angelo’s representation 


395 


in marble of the young David. The 
shepherd boy stands with firm foothold, 
the stone grasped tightly in his right 
hand, ready to be sped on its holy er- 
rand. When the statue was unveiled, 
three hundred and fifty years ago, it 
caused an unparalled sensation among 
all lovers of art. The work is, indeed, 
a marvelous piece of sculpture. 

But the strangely winning thing in 
the story of that statue is that it was the 
stone’s second chance. A sculptor be- 
gan work on a noble piece of marble, 
but, lacking skill, he only hacked and 
marred the block. It was then aban- 
doned as spoiled and worthless, and 
thrown away. 

For years the block lay in the back 
yard, soiled and blackened, half hidden 
among the rubbish. At last Michael 
Angelo saw it and at once perceived its 
possibilities. Under his skillful hands 
the stone was cut into the fair and mar- 
velous beauty which appears in the 
statue of David. 

In like manner, when a life has been 
spoiled by unskilled and unscrupulous 
hands, so that it seems as if all were 
lost, there is one, the Great Sculptor, 
who can take the marred, disfigured 
block, now lying soiled amid the world’s 
rubbish, and from it carve yet a marvel 
of beauty.—Selected. 


— 760 — 
A REMARKABLE PROVIDENCE. 


In the Magdalen Islands, off the 
Newfoundland coast, the means of live- 
lihood is almost entirely found in the 
fisheries, and if these fail, life becomes 
a burden. In 1883 a famine occurred 
which came near to decimating the 
population. The fisheries failed; the 
ship which was expected to bring the 
winter’s supply of flour before the ice 
formed floundered in a storm. By the 
time spring came, starvation stared the 
people in the face. Many must have 
died had not a large ship, filled with 
produce, been wrecked off Coffin Is- 
land. The news spread like wild-fire. 
The whole population turned out, and 
from the cargo of the shipwrecked ves- 
sel drew a new lease of life.—Selected. 


396 


a— 761 — 
PRAYING AND WORKING 


The truth of the following incident, 
which occurred in Strathearn, Scotland, 
is vouched for by William Arnot, in his 
“Sketches from Nature and Art.” 

It is said that a well on the estate 
of one of the proprietors in the parish of 
Dunbarney became choked by quick- 
sand. The farmhands were called to- 
gether to remove this obstruction. By 
means of a rope around his waist one 
of their number was let down into the 
well. Then as buckets were lowered to 
him, he filled them with the sand which 
his fellows drew up and emptied. This 
process was repeated until the well was 
cleared of sand, and the water began to 
flow in freely. But to do the job so thor- 
oughly that it would not need to be 
repeated soon again, the excavator con- 
tinued to remove the sand until he had 
so undermined the foundation stones of 
the well that without warning they set- 
tled. With this settlement, the sides of 
the circular wall collapsed. But fortun- 
ately for the poor fellow stooped over 
below, the stones fell together, and 
roughly arched themselves above his 
head. He could not straighten up, but 
he was unhurt, and plenty of fresh air 
filtered in between the stones. 

His distressed companions above were 
relieved to know he was not crushed, as 
they had supposed, and they at once 
sprang to the work of his rescue. But 
the imprisoned peasant soon made it ap- 
parent that he was not a man of ordinary 
mould, but was both a philosopher and 
ahero. After a hasty calculation, he told 
his companions the water was rising 
so rapidly that before they could pos- 
sibly get to him it would be above his 
head, and that their labor would be in 
vain. In less than an hour he expected 
to be called to meet his Maker. So he 
exhorted his friends to give up their ef- 
forts for his rescue, and betake them- 
selves to prayer that he might be pre- 
pared for the change which awaited him. 

But those strong-armed Scotchmen, 
however much they believed in prayer, 
could not be reconciled to do nothing 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


but pray at such a time. They believed 
the case called for earnest work as well 
as prayer. Combining the two, and toil- 
ing as only men can when life is at stake, 
the progress made was marvelous. . 

As the imprisoned man heard the 
sound of their nearing shovels, his hope 
of release revived, and he revised his 
former instructions. He told them that 
the water had not yet reached his face, 
and it seemed to be rising less rapidly. 
So he said, “There is now some hope 
that you may reach me in time, there- 
fore, men, you may all dig except John 
Robertson; let him pray!” 

Now, John Robertson was a feeble, 
old man. His efforts with the shovel 
could accomplish little, but it was well- 
known that he was a power in prayer. 
By thus working and praying, they were 
not long in effecting the release of their 
friend. 

There are times when they pray best 
who work most, and without appropriate 
works, faith is always dead. Again, in 
the Kingdom of God there is a division 
of labor, and to every man is given his 
work. Some sow, others reap. Those 
who can dig, or bury the dead, may not 
be fitted to preach the gospel, or be able 
to prevail in prayer—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 

— 762 — 
“LOVE YOUR ENEMIES” 


One evening a lady called upon me, 
whom I had never known personally, 
but whom I had noticed in a congrega- 
tion because of the distressed expression 
on her face. She said, “I am a most 
wretched woman, but I do not know 
wherein the cause of my trouble lies.” 

I spent half an hour of fruitless en- 
deavor to help her, and finally said, 
“Are you at perfect ease with all the 
world?” 

She replied with great emphasis, “No, 
sir!” and then she said, “Don’t you ask 
me to forgive that woman!” 

I replied, “You can never be at peace 
until you do.” 

She then said, “I cannot, I cannot!” 

I then asked, “Is it a case of can’t or 
won't?” 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


And then she said, “I won’t, anyway.” 

I then said, “Do you really enjoy your 
bitter feeling; do you sleep better at 
night on account of it; do you awaken 
with a brighter outlook in the morning?” 

She answered, “No, indeed; it makes 
me miserable.” 

Then I said, “You do not talk like a 
sane woman. You have a poisonous 
thorn in your breast, and instead of try- 
ing to remove it, you press it in and turn 
it around and spread the poison through 
your system and say, “I won't let go of 
this thorn.” 

She then said, “I would give it up, 
But I can’t.” 

I asked, “Do you ever pray?” 

She replied, “No; I have tried to 
pray, but have not succeeded.” 

I said, “No matter what you may think 
about God, try now to pray as best you 
can from your heart. ‘Oh God, I would 
like to give up this enmity, but I cannot. 
Will you help me?’”’ 

She knelt down voluntarily and re- 
peated those words; and then God 
helped her. He seemed to open the flood- 
gates of the purifying power of the lov- 
ing Spirit and pour this through her 
soul, until she rose up with a shining 
face and said, “I cannot make it up with 
her quickly enough.” 

I saw her afterwards in a congrega- 
tion, and I looked through her eyes into 
her soul, and I saw a soul in heaven; 
and heaven was in her.—Benjamin Fay 
Mills. 

em 763 
“SAVED BY A FLOWER.” 


Little things are often used to accom- 
plish great results. A spider’s web 
woven across a cave’s mouth just after 
a white man had plunged into it in 
seeking to escape from an Indian saved 
his life. The Indian naturally reasoned 
that if the white man had entered the 
cave, he certainly would have broken 
the spider’s web, and passed on, and 
the white man escaped with his life. 

When Napoleon Bonaparte was em- 
peror of France he thought a man 
named Charney an enemy of his gov- 
ernment, and for that reason deprived 


ANECDOTES 397 
him of his liberty. 
learned man. 

One day while pacing his yard, he 
Saw a tiny plant just breaking the 
ground. The sight of it caused a 
pleasant diversion of his thoughts. No 
other green thing was within his in- 
closure. He watched its growth every 
day. “How came it here?” was his 
natural inquiry. As it grew, other 
queries were suggested, “How came 
these delicate little veins in its leaves? 
What made its proportions so perfect 
in every part, each new branch taking 
its exact place on the parent stalk, 
neither too near another, nor too much 
on one side?” 


In his loneliness the plant became 
the prisoner’s teacher. When the flower 
began to unfold he was filled with de- 
light. It was white, purple and rose- 
colored, with a fine, silvery fringe. 
Charney made a frame to support it. 


“All things come by chance,” had 
been written by him upon the wall, 
just above where the flower grew. It 
gently reproved as it whispered: “There 
is One who made me so wonderfully 
beautiful, and He it is who keeps me 
alive,” and thus shamed the proud man’s 
unbelief. Be brushed the lying words 
from the wall, while his heart felt that 
“He who made all things is God.” 

But God had a further blessing for 
the erring man through the humble 
flower. There was an Italian prisoner 
in the same yard whose little daughter 
was permitted to visit him. The girl 
was much pleased with Charney’s love 
for the flower. She related what she 
saw to the wife of the jailer. The story 
of the prisoner and his flower reached 
the ears of the amiable Empress Jose- 
phine. The empress said: “The man 
who so devotedly loves and tends a 
flower cannot be a bad man.” So she 
persuaded the emperor to set him at 
liberty. 

Charney carried his flower home and 
carefully tended it in his own green- 
house. It had taught him to believe in 
a God, and delivered him from prison. 
—Rev. E. Payson Hammond. 


Charney was a 


398 
mm 764 


PRAYER-MEETING NIGHT. 


A few years ago, we were the guests 
in a western city of a family of wealth 
and prominent social standing. During 
the conversation, the telephone called. 
The good wife responded, and we heard 
the words: “Thank you, I should enjoy 
it very much, but I have an engagement 
which makes it impossible for me to ac- 
cept,’ and other words of like import. 

Upon her return the good woman 
said: “It was an invitation to dine with 
a friend at which a distinguished presi- 
dential candidate, Mr. B., was to be a 
guest; but I never allow myself to ac- 
cept any invitation on our prayer-meet- 
ing night.” 

We confess to being amazed. Here 
was a leading woman in social life, de- 
clining an invitation from another lead- 
ing woman to dine with a distinguished 
statesman, because it was her church 
prayer-meeting night! No wonder we 
soon learned that this woman was a 
great spiritual power in her church and 
in the city, not only because of her abil- 
ity, but more because of what she was. 
Give us church members like that, and 
the world would not conquer the Church, 
but the Church would conquer the 
world.—Dr, Smith Baker in The Watch- 
man. 

— 765 — 
THE HIGHWAYMAN’S KNIFE. 


Down in San Luis Potosi, Yucatan, a 
year or two ago, a good Christian was 
put into jail, He had bought some 
goods from a thief, not knowing that 
they were stolen, and it was a week be- 
fore his friends were able to prove his 
innocence. So he spent a week in jail, 
next to the cell of a murderer under 
sentence of death. This murderer had 
been a highwayman, and had concealed 
a knife in his cell. He had made up his 
mind to kill some one before he was 
executed. Whoever came to his cell on 
the day of his execution, to take him to 
the scaffold, he determined to kill with 
his knife. 

The Christian had his Testament in 
his pocket, and began to read it aloud, 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


so as not to hear the highwayman’s evil 
language. Soon he found the murderer 
was quiet; and he immediately called to 
him, speaking kindly, and telling him 
about Christ. Day by day the two 
talked to each other; and when, at the 
week’s end, the Christian was released, 
he gave the precious Testament to the 
murderer. 

A short time after, the highwayman 
called the jailer. “Take this,” he said, 
handing him the knife he had hidden 
so long. “I kept it, hoping to kill one 
more before I died. But now I have 
learned a better way.” 


He became an earnest Christian, and 
so impressed the jailer that he was al- 
lowed to write to his former associates 
in wickedness. He told them how his 
heart had been changed, and begged 
them to follow Christ, and enter upon a 
new life. For some reason, his death 
sentence has since been suspended, and 
still, in his prison, he is trying to reach 
his former friends with the Gospel mes- 
Sage, and he is also bringing other pris- 
oners to the Saviour. 

Even in prison, the Word of God is 
not silenced. Even in prison, a man 
may witness for Christ—Forward. 


— 766 — 


WILL IT STAND THE TEST? 


A jeweler gives as one of the surest 
tests for diamonds, the “water test.” 
He says: “An imitation diamond is 
never so brilliant as a genuine stone. If 
your eye is not experienced enough to 
detect the difference, a simple-test is to 
place the stone under water. The imita- 
tion diamond is practically extin- 
guished, while a genuine diamond 
sparkles even under water, and is dis- 
tinctly visible. If you place a genuine 
Stone beside an imitation under water, 
the contrast will be apparent to the 
least experienced eye.” Many seem con- 
fident of their faith, so long as no trials 
come; but when the waters of sorrow 
overflow them, their faith loses all its 
brilliancy. It is then that true servants 
of God, like Job, shine forth as genuine 
jewels of the King.—Selected. | 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 767 — 
COVERING THE SCAR. 


When an eminent painter was re- 
quested to paint Alexander the Great, 
he felt a difficulty. Alexander in his 
wars had been struck by a sword, and 
across his forehead was a great scar. The 
painter said: “If I retain the scar, it will 
be an offense to the admirers of the 
monarch, and, if I omit it, it will not be 
a perfect likeness— what shall I do? 
He hit upon a happy expedient; he rep- 
resented the Emperor leaning on his 
elbow, with his forefinger upon his 
brow, accidently, it seemed, covering 
the scar. 

Might we not represent each other 
with the finger of charity upon the scar, 
instead of representing the scar still 
deeper and blacker than it actually is? 
Might not we Christians learn from 
heathendom a lesson of charity, of hu- 
man kindness and love?—Word of Life. 


— 768 — 


THE WITHHELD PARDON. 


Recently we heard a striking illustra- 
tion which has brought to mind some 
startling facts that the Christian Church 
must face. 

A condemned man is confined in the 
prison near my home. Sentence has 
been pronounced against him and the 
day of his execution is fast approaching. 
I become interested in him and at length 
obtain a pardon for him from the Gov- 
ernor. 

The pardon is safely placed in an in- 
side pocket, and I at once visit him in 
prison. On the way there I stop ata 
florist’s and purchase a bunch of roses, 
for I had learned that he is fond of 
flowers. I also take along a copy of 
Tennyson, his favorite poet. 

When I arrive at his cell, I open the 
conversation with remarks about the 
beautiful spring weather, and then fol- 
low along with my views on the present 
political situation, and speech-making 
tours of the rival candidates. Then we 
talk together on the greatness of Tenny- 
son, and I read aloud a number of his 


399 


soul-stirring poems. At last I leave him 
the bouquet of roses and depart. 

Not a word has been said to him re- 
garding the pardon which is still in my 
pocket. 

You would say, “Why, it’s impossible. 
That’s the first thing you would talk 
about !” 

Still this is true of millions of church- 
members in our day. When they meet 
unconverted friends they discuss every 
subject except the claims of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and His proffered pardon 
to a sinful world. The presentation of 
that all-important truth is almost wholly 
left to a selected body of men, the clergy. 

As a result, we find that last year 
(1911) 21,500,000 Protestant church- 
members in the United States made a 
net gain of less than 450,000 souls. That 
small gain is not even in proportion to 
the increase in population. And, more- 
over, during that same period there came 
into this country a largely unchristian 
foreign population to the number of 
1,149,000. 

Three thousand churches of one de- 
nomination last year failed to add a 
single member on confession of faith in 
Jesus Christ. One would naturally ask: 
“What were all those church-members 
doing?” Undoubtedly they worked at 
their usual vocations, but their chief 
business as Christians, that of pointing 
men to Christ, was evidently sadly ne- 
glected. These figures reveal the fact 
that the great majoriy of professed 
Christians are little concerned in the 
conversion of others, but having ob- 
tained God’s pardon they are either so 
ashamed or ungrateful that they fail to 
proclaim it. 

If each Protestant church-member had 
brought just one person to Christ last 
year, 21,500,000 souls would have been 
the glorious harvest. But instead, less 
than a half million souls have been 
gleaned from this great harvest field. 

The Protestant Church in this land 
is face to face with a most serious situa- 
tion. If our country is ever to be won 
for Christ the Christians here must be 
made to realize that they are “saved to 
save others.”—Carlton H. Tyndall. 


400° 


— 769 — 
THE KING’S BUSINESS 


A beautiful country place was once 
put upon the market. Two would-be 
purchasers went to see it on the same 
day, from the adjacent city, but each 
separately and unknown to the other. 
Both decided to take it; and each, igno- 
rant of the other’s visit and decision, yet 
eager to close the bargain, made all pos- 
sible haste back to the city home of the 
owner. 

The same train carried them back to 
the city; they rode in the same street 
car, and one followed closely after the 
other as they walked the short distance 
that remained to the house. 

Suddenly one of them felt sure that 
his fellow-traveler was on the same er- 
rand as himself, and determined that 
he would not be disappointed after all 
his trouble. 

So, when his ring was answered at the 
house, he handed his card to the servant, 
before the man standing beside him 
could frame his inquiry upon his lips, 
and said, 

“Tell your master that I will take 
that country place,” and his quickly 
spoken sentence decided the sale in his 
favor, while the other turned away de- 
feated. 

It was only a question of a few sec- 
onds; yet upon that depended the saving 
of a delay of weeks, or perhaps months, 
before another suitable place could have 
been found. It was a business that re- 
quired haste, promptness, ready decision, 
dispatch. 

And so it is with the King’s business. 
The ready word of counsel, the prompt 
helping over a rough place, the mission- 
ary spirit of haste that would carry the 
gospel speedily to all nations—who can 
count the years of groping delay they 
may save those who are strangers to the 
King?—-American Messenger. 


— 770 — 
A BOY WHO STOOD BEFORE 
KINGS—AND WHY 


About a hundred years ago two boys 
were born in a little village up in 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Maine. They were cousins and the name 
was Hamlin. Playing together as boys 
will, they often asked each other, What 
are you going to be when you grow up? 
Cyrus said he would be a missionary; 
and he had a strange motto for a small 
boy: “Seest thou a man diligent in busi- 
ness—he shall stand before kings; he 
shall not stand before mean men.” 
Cyrus often wondered whether it would 
come true. Hannibal said he did not 
propose to waste his life on any 
heathen. He would be a lawyer and a 
statesman. 

And Hannibal carried out his program 
to the letter. He was vice-president 
under Lincoln. Historians of our coun- 
try grudgingly allow half an inch to say: 
“Hannibal Hamlin was born in Maine in 
1809. Was vice-president under Lincoln, 
and died ” That’s all. 


Cyrus worked his way through Bow- 
doin College, was ordained and went to 
Constantinople. His dream as a mis- 
sionary was to found an American Chris- 
tian college. For many years he worked 
at great odds. He was not allowed to 
purchase any real estate. People in 
America were willing to furnish funds, 
but it was of no use. 


There came a time when the proud 
general of the British army bowed the 
knee to an American boy. A great army 
was in Russia fighting the Crimean War. 
They were almost starved. The general 
heard of an American who had a bake 
oven. (Hamlin was compelled to give 
his pupils work and food because they 
were ostracized at first.) Hamlin baked 
bread for the British army and made 
thousands of dollars, which he put into 
his school. e Seats 

Still he could not buy the site he 
wanted for his college. He had his eye 
on a superb location, but they wouldn’t 
take his money. At the close of the 
Civil War Admiral Farragut was mak- 
ing his triumphal tour of the world and 
touched at Constantinople. He invited 
Hamlin to visit his flagship and dine 
with him. Hamlin asked a favor of the 
doughty admiral which was granted 
gladly. During the state dinner, in the 
presence of the great Turkish officials, 





, — > 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the admiral leaned over and asked a 
question: “Hamlin, how is your school 
getting along?” He did not wait for a 
reply. But in less than ten days the im- 
perial irade was granted and Hamlin 
secured the site he had sought in vain 
for years. 

If you were to visit Constantinople 
today, as you steamed up that magnifi- 
cent harbor your attention would be at- 
tracted by a dazzling pile of white 
marble on a promontory jutting out into 
the Sea of Marmora. It is the most 
prominent feature of the landscape. If 
you were to ask what it is, they might 
with truth say: “That is Cyrus Hamlin’s 
monument.” But they probably would 
say: “Those are the buildings of Robert 
College.” 

You know what the Young Turk 
party is. A few years ago they gently 
lifted old Abdul Hamid from his throne. 
The Young Turk party might be called 
“Cyrus Hamlin’s boys.” During the last 
forty or fifty years the brightest young 
men from southeastern Europe and Asia 
Minor have been educated at Robert 
College; where they have imbibed 
American ideas of civil and religious 
liberty. 

Every young man and woman owes it 
to himself, his parents, his country and 
his God to seli his life at the highest 
price. Hannibal Hamlin has his reward 
—but the glory of Cyrus Hamlin’s life 
has not yet been written. He stood be- 
fore kings. He trained and created the 
builders of an empire. He molded the 
men who have in their hands the des- 
tinies of untold millions yet unborn. For 
God he wrought; what matter if men 
could forget him? — Matthew Henry 
Frank in the Continent. 


—771— 
HE PREFERS TO BE DEAF 


A correspondent of the New York 
‘Globe,” June 21, 1919, makes this re- 
narkable statement concerning a man of 
world-wide fame: 

Thomas A. Edison has not been at- 
empting to invent an apparatus for im- 
roving his hearing, because he is aided 


401 


in his work by his deafness. 

Charles Edison, son of the inventor 
and general manager of the Edison in- 
dustries, attending the annual field day 
of the Edison employees in Olympic 
Park, said, in answer to a question: 

“Father feels he is better off without 
his hearing, because if he could hear well 
he would often be distracted by what he 
would hear.” 

As Fanny Crosby was thankful for 
blindness, as otherwise she believed she 
never could have composed the beautiful 
hymns she wrote, so Edison is content 
to remain deaf that he may the more 
surely succeed in his inventive efforts. 
He is willing to pay a large price for suc- 
cess, That he may continue to pry into 
Nature’s secret treasure-house, and 
bring out such marvels as the phono- 
graph and the telephone, he is willing, 
it seems, to forego the pleasure of hear- 
ing music and the voices of his friends. 
Such consecration of one’s self to use the 
ability possessed is rare, but is it not 
wise? 

Now, the work of bringing men from 
Nature’s darkness into God’s marvelous 
light, that they may become heirs of 
eternal glory, is of supreme importance. 
When those who would accomplish this 
are willing to pay so much for success 
as is Edison, there is no question but 
what they will succeed. — Rev. Henry 
M. Tyndall. 


— 772 — 


WHAT THE BIBLE IS. 


The opinion of the Bible bred in me, 
not only by the teaching of my home 
when I was a boy, but also by every 
turn and experience of my life and every 
step of study is, that it is the one su- 
preme source of revelation of the mean- 
ing of life, the nature of God and the 
spiritual nature and needs of men. It 
is the only guide of life which really 
leads the spirit in the way of peace and 
salvation. If men could but be made 
to know it intimately and for what it 
really is, we should have secured both 
individual and social regeneration — 
Woodrow Wilson. 


402 
— 773 — 
SHE THANKED GOD FOR HER 
BLINDNESS 


It seemed intended by the blessed 
Providence of God, that I should be 
blind all my life; and I thank Him for 
the dispensation. I was born with a 
pair of as good eyes as any baby ever 
owned, but when I was six weeks of 
age, a slight touch of inflammation came 
upon them and they were put under the 
care of a physician. 

What he did to them, or what hap- 
pened in spite of him, I do not know, 
but it resulted in their permanent de- 
struction, so far as seeing is concerned; 
and I was doomed to blindness all the 
rest of my earthly existence. , 

I have heard that this physician never 
ceased expressing his regret at the oc- 
currence; and that it was one of the 
sorrows of his life. But if I could meet 
him now, I would say, “Thank you, 
thank you—over and over again—for 
making me blind, if it was through your 
agency that it came about!” 

This sounds strangely to you, reader? 
But I assure you I mean it—every word 
of it; and if perfect earthly sight were 
offered me tomorrow, I would not accept 
it. Did you ever know of a blind per- 
son’s talking like this before? 

Why would I not have that doctor’s 
mistake—if mistake it was—remedied? 
Well, there are many reasons and I will 
tell you some of them. 

One is, that I know, although it may 
have been a blunder on the physician’s 
part, it was no mistake on God’s. I 
verily beliéve it was His intention that 
I should live my days in physical dark- 
ness, so as to be better prepared to sing 
His praises and incite others so to do. 
I could not have written thousands of 
hymns—many of which, if you will par- 
don me for repeating it, are sung all over 
the world—if I had been hindered by the 
distractions of seeing all the interesting 
and beautiful objects that would have 
been presented to my notice. 

Another reason is, that, while I am 
deprived of many splendid sights (which, 
as above mentioned, might draw me 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


away from the principal work of my 
life), I have also been spared the seeing 
of a great many unpleasant things. The 
merciful God has put His hand over my © 
eyes, and shut out from me the sight of 
many instances of cruelty and bitter un- 
kindness and misfortune, that I would 
not have been able to relieve, and must 
simply have suffered in seeing. I am 
content with what I can know of life 
through the four senses I possess, prac- 
tically unimpaired, at ninety years of 
age. Hearing, tasting, smelling, and 
feeling, are still felt, in their fullest 
degree. 

Another reason for my apparently 
strange assertion is, that I have been 
able to test and make sure so many kind 
and loving friends. Almost without ex- 
ception, the great world has been good 
to me, all the kinder, perhaps, on account 
of what is considered my affliction. I 
may say truly that I never for a moment 
presumed on my blindness for any extra 
courtesy or advantage, yet I have often 
felt that it was a bond between sympa- 
thetic hearts and mine.—Fanny Crosby. 


by PGS 
“I BELONG TO THE KING.” 


So read the legend on the collar of a 
little terrier which followed King Ed- 
ward’s bier. He was a mere dog, and 
not beautiful at that. But he had been 
loved by a king, had lain on a king’s 
knee, had entree to royal apartments 
which the best accredited visitors might 
notenter. Many the affectionate glances 
he received as he trotted soberly in the 
funeral cortege, bearing this legend: “I 
am Caesar; I belong to the King.” 

Thus many a lowly disciple has found 
himself exalted. Even humble service 
is worth while when one belongs to the 
King. Christ came to create this sense 
of relationship in us, to help us know 
ourselves as belonging to His Father. 
What temptations would be mastered, 
what bitterness accepted without com- 
plaint, what harsh words choked and 
what defilements indignantly repudi- 
ated, if in moments of stress we could 
say: “I belong to the King!”—George 
C. Peck. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—775— 


“lM PRETTY LITTLE, BUT 
PLL TRY” 


Here is a story which the press dis- 
patches of January 13th, 1912, carried, 
and it is worth while to read it, and, hav- 
ing read, to apply the remark of little 
Eileen Martin to the plain work of a 
plain every-day life. 

Little Eileen Martin is the daughter 
of a section foreman on a great railroad 
line. She lives in Alta, California, and 
near her home the fine train, called the 
Overland Limited, flashes past on its 
journey betwen the East and the West. 
Hileen is seven years old, and though she 
is a girl, she loves to watch railroad 
trains go by, as well as any boy does. 

On Saturday week, she had gone to 
the track to watch the splendid Overland 
Limited whirl past, and while waiting, 
her quick eye noted a broken rail. 


She is only seven years old, but she 
knew that when the swift-flying train 
struck that broken rail, Destruction and 
Death would sweep down upon it. 

She also knew the semaphore signals. 
She knew that when the long arm on 
the high pole, dropped pointing down- 
ward, that a train had entered a given 
space, called a block. 

When Eileen saw the broken rail, she 
at once ran to the telephone and called 
the station-agent nearest her, and told of 
the disaster awaiting the train. In an 
instant’s glance at the clock, he saw that 
he could not reach it in time to save it. 

“Can’t you flag it?” he shouted to the 
little girl standing on a stool and listen- 
ing at the other end of his line. 

“T’m pretty little, but Ill try,” an- 
swered Eileen. Then calling an older 
sister, they ran together down the track. 
The long arm of the semaphore had 
dropped. The time was short, and death 
was near. Yet on they ran, waving their 
aprons, desperately trying to stop the 
train. 

And they did stop it. The engineer 
saw them, and with instant and quick 
action, brought the long, heavy train to 
a standstill. 


403 


Now, this story is worth reading, be- 
cause it is the account of an heroic act. 
It is worth reading for other reasons. 


“I’m pretty little, but I'll try.” 
This is what makes it worth reading. 


Hileen was little—pretty little—but she 
was alert. Her quick eye saw the broken 
rail, the dropped semaphore. Her mind 
was not stupid, else she would not have 
known what these signs meant. 

Beside a quick eye, she had more. 
Here was something wrong. It must be 
told, and told without delay. She could 
not run and ask mother or father or 
teacher. What was done, she must do 
at once. She was “pretty little,” but she 
knew what a telephone could do. She 
knew that by its aid her voice could out- 
run the fastest horse—even the fast 
flying train, bearing down to destruction. 
She decided instantly what to do, and 
did it. 

Then came the hardest strain of all. 
Past the agent the train had flashed. She 
alone could save it if anybody could. 
“Can’t you stop it?” came the demand 
over the wire; and without one mo- 
ment’s hesitation, she replied, “T’ll try.” 

It was the best she could do—little 
seven-year-old. But how nobly she suc- 
ceeded. And the qualities that made her 
success are worthy of consideration by 
everyone. “I'll try!” “Till try!” that 
spirit will accomplish things when every 
other fails. 


No matter how young, how little, how 
weak, there is always something to be 
done, and Ejileen’s spirit is the way to 
do it.—The Presbyterian. 


— 776 — 
SINCERITY RESPECTED 


“Joseph Hume, was once twitted for 
his inconsistency in going to hear Dr. 
John Brown, the celebrated Scotch 
preacher; when he made reply, “I 
don’t believe all he says, but he does; 
and orice a week, at least, I like to hear 
a man who believes what he says. 
Why, whatever I think, that man 
preaches as though he felt the Lord 
Jesus Christ were just at his elbow.” 


404° 


— 777 — 
CHRISTIAN HEALING 


Three years ago I was returning from 
England and, just out from Liverpool, 
our ship was fog-bound and we had to 
remain there for twelve hours. Those 
of you who have traveled across the seas 
know how damp and chilly the vessel 
gets under such circumstances. For 
seven years I had suffered from sub- 
acute pleurisy, following a bad attack I 
had of pleura-pneumonia. Not one deep 
breath had I taken all those years but 
had caused me pain, and every month I 
was laid up for two or three days from 
a recurrent attack, and my friends were 


much alarmed over my condition. Well,. 


while our ship was anchored in the fog 
I went down with a genuine attack of 
pleurisy. The ship doctor came in and 
took my temperature and found it one 
hundred and three. My pulse was one 
hundred and twenty. He said: “You 
have an attack of pleurisy. It seems to 
me you have had it before.” Of course, 
I was much upset, for in front of me 
was the great Atlantic ocean and every- 
body that I loved on this side. I did 
not feel as if I could stand another at- 
tack, I asked the doctor if there was a 
nurse on board. He said, No, but he 
could send a steward in to sit with me, if 
I desired. I said: “A man nurse! Not 
much, for me.” One thing I don’t want 
around me when I am sick is a man 
nurse. I want something besides all 
thumbs fingering around me. When I 
am sick, for heaven’s sake, give me the 
delicate sympathizing touch of a good 
woman’s hand. The doctor left me with- 
out giving me any medicine, saying he 
had to attend to the steerage, but that 
he would return later. 

' After he had left, something came 
over me. It was a very peculiar feel- 
ing. At the time I could not take even 
a half-breath without pain. I could not 
lie on either side. I had that awful 
stitch in my side that is understood only 
by those who have had it. Then I 
heard a voice. It was not such a voice 
as could be heard by anyone else pre- 
sent. Only my ears could hear it, for 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the voice spoke to my own soul. It said: 
“Why not trust the Lord? He wants to 
teach you the supreme lesson of your 
life, the lesson of His infinite power and 
love.” And I answered, “I am ready.” 
Then the voice said, “Would you be will- 
ing to give Him credit if He healed 
you?” I said, “Yes, Lord.” Then I got 
up and closed the door and knelt down 
by my bed and looked up to Him for 
healing strength at the moment. And 
there came over me such a calm, sucha 
peace and joy as I had never known. I 
did not shout, because I could not. I 
never have shouted. The fact is, I was 
too happy to shout. I wanted to be 
quiet in His presence. I got up from my 
knees and went to bed. There was no 
pain. Then I tried lying on both sides 
and deep inhalations, and still no pain, 
not a whit. Then a kind of light seemed 
to appear in the room. It was not such 
a light as could be seen by anyone else 
had he been present. It was just a light 
to my own soul, for my Lord was deal- 
ing with me in a way that He was not 
dealing with anyone else on that ship. 

Soon the doctor came back, and I 
said, “Doctor, I am well.” He said, 
“What has come over you?” I said, 
“Put your thermometer in my mouth.” 
He did so, and not a bit of fever did it 
register. My pulse also was normal. 
He then put his ear to my chest, and all 
abnormal sounds had disappeared. He 
said: “I do not understand this. What 
have you taken?” Then the devil 
seemed to speak to me and say: “Now, 
you don’t need to go over all this with 
the doctor. He doesn’t care anything 
about it.” But I said: “Yes, I will. I 
promised to tell it and give Him credit, 
and I am going to do it.” So I said, 
“Doctor, are you a Christian?” “Yes,” 
he said, “I trust I am.” Then I pro- 
ceeded with my story, and soon I noticed 
that the tears were running down his 
cheeks. And so they were down mine, 
and we just sat there and looked at one 
another and cried. We did not need to 
speak. Every fresh tear was a word 
in the tear language that each of us 
thoroughly understood. 

I got up and dressed, went out and 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ate a hearty dinner, and mingled with 
my friends and told the story. That 
was three years ago, and, let me say it 
to the praise of His name, never once 
since then has there been any pain in 
that side, though I may breathe as deep 
as any man. 

The first Sunday I was at home, I 
told the story to my church, and a dear 
woman, one of the class that we all 
have—good but meddlesome, a kind of 
sentimental pietist—came to me and 
said, “Thank God, pastor, you have em- 
braced divine healing.” I said: “You 
do not know what you are talking about. 
I embraced divine healing years ago, 
when I submitted to the Lordship of 
Jesus. The difference between your 
conception of divine healing and mine is 
this: You lock God up in a corner and 
say to Him, ‘You must work in this 
corner or not at all” I trust Him to 
select His own corner and operate ac- 
cording to His will. If He indicates to 
me, as He did on that ship, that He has 
a special lesson to teach me through 
direct healing, I trust Him. If He in- 
dicates to me some other method of 
healing, I trust Him and follow it. 
There is just as much divine healing, 
when properly understood, in the use of 
a capsule as there is in any other meth- 
od.”—Rev. Len G. Broughton, D. D. 


— 778 — 
TWO WARNINGS 


A traveller was journeying in the dark 
along a road that led toa deep and rapid 
river, which, swollen by sudden rains, 
was chafing and roaring between pre- 
cipitous banks. The bridge that crossed 
the stream had been swept away; but he 
knew it not. A man met him, and, after 
inquiring whither he was bound, said to 
him, in an indifferent way :— 

“Are you aware that the bridge is 
gone?” 

“No,” was the answer. “Why do you 
think so?” 

“Oh, I heard such a report this after- 
noon, and though I am not certain about 
it, perhaps you had better not proceed.” 

Deceived by the hesitating, undecided 
manner in which the information was 


405 


given, the traveller pushed onward in 
the way of death. Soon another, meeting 
him, cried out in consternation :— 

“Sir, sir, the bridge is gone!” 

“Oh, yes,” replied the traveller, “some 
cone told me so a little distance back, but 
from his careless tone and manner, I 
thought it might be an idle tale, per- 
haps.” 

“Oh, it is true, it is true! I know the 
bridge is gone. I barely escaped being 
carried away with it. Danger is before 
you, and you must not go on.” 

Convinced by the man’s earnestness, 
the traveller turned back and was saved. 
The intelligence in both cases was the 
same, but the manner of its conveyance 
in the one gave it the air of a fable, in 
the other the force of truth. 

May we not learn hereby the right 
way of addressing impenitent sinners 
going forward to eternal death? What 
solemn reality there is in it! Yet we 
fail to awaken any interest in the subject 
because of the indifferent manner in 
which we present it. “Knowing the ter- 
rors of the law, we persuade men.” Yes, 
if we only realized the sufferings of the 
lost, and also the joys of the saved, how 
differently would we approach men on 
the subject of their soul’s salvation !— 
The Words of Life. 


— 779 — 
“NO THANK YOU” 


A young man who had inherited a 
strong passion for liquor, said: “One 
evening not long ago at a banquet where 
wine was served, J came very near 
breaking my pledge. The smell of wine 
was so tempting that I could hardly 
resist. But just as I was about to yield, 
I heard a young lady say, ‘No, thank 
you. This gave me courage. I 
watched her all the evening and said to 
myself, “If she drinks I will.” I was 
hoping yet fearing that she would, but 
as often as she was asked, she refused, 
and so, unconsciously to herself, she 
pulled me through.” Christian, walk 
carefully. You are not alone compassed 
about by the loved ones safe home in 
heaven, but you are watched by the 
tempted, exposed souls of earth.—Sel. 


406 


— 780 — 
“AS AN EAGLE” 


Rev. William J. Long, in his new book 
of animal stories, called ‘Wilderness 
Ways,” relates an incident which most 
beautifully interprets and explains the 
above Scriptural quotation. 

A mother eagle had tried in vain to 
tempt her little one to leave the nest on 
a high cliff. With food in her talons, 
she came to the edge of the nest, hovered 
over it a moment, so as to give the hun- 
gry eaglet a sight and smell of food, then 
went slowly down to the valley, taking 
the food with her, and telling the little 
one to come, and he should have it. He 
called after her loudly, and spread his 
wings a dozen times to follow.. But the 
plunge was too awful; he was afraid, 
and settled back into the nest.. What 
followed, Mr. Long describes thus: 

In a little while, she came back again, 
this time without food, and hovered over 
the nest, trying every way to induce the 
little one to leave it. She succeeded at 
last, when, with a desperate effort, he 
sprang upward and flapped to the ledge 
above. Then, after surveying the world 
from his new place, he flapped back to 
the nest, and turned a deaf ear to all 
his mother’s assurances that he could 
fly just as easily to the treetops below, 
if he only would. 

Suddenly, as if discouraged, she rose 
well above him. I held my breath, for 
I knew what was coming. The little 
fellow stood on the edge of the nest, 
looking down at the plunge which he 
dared not take. .There was a sharp cry 
from behind, which made him alert, 
tense as a watchspring. The next in- 
stant the mother eagle had swooped, 
striking the nest at his feet, sending his 
support of twigs and himself with them 
out into the air together. 

He was afloat now, afloat in the blue 
air, in spite of himself, and flapped lust- 
ily for life. Over him, under him, be- 
side him, hovered the mother on tireless 
wings, calling softly that she was there. 
But the awful fear of the depths and 
the lance tops of the spruces was upon 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the little one; his flapping grew more 
wild; he fell faster and faster. Suddenly 
——more in fright, it seemed to me, than 
because he had spent his strength—he 
lost his balance, and tipped head down- 
ward in the air. It was all over now, it 
seemed ; he folded his wings to be dashed 
to pieces. 

Then, like a flash, the old mother 
eagle shot under him; his despairing feet 
touched her broad shoulders, between 
her wings. He righted himself, rested 
an instant, found his head; then she 
dropped like a shot from under him, 
leaving him to come down on his own 
wings. It was all the work of an instant 
before I lost them among the trees far 
below. And when I found them again 
with my glass, the eaglet was in the top 
of a great pine, and the mother was feed- 
ing him. 

And then, standing there alone in the 
great wilderness, it flashed upon me for 
the first time just what the wise old 
prophet meant; though he wrote long 
ago, in a distant land, and another than 
Cloud Wings had taught her little ones, 
all unconscious of the kindly eyes that 
watched. “As the eagle stirreth up her 
nest, fluttereth over her young, spread- 
eth abroad her wings, taketh them, bear- 
eth them on her wings—so the Lord 
alone did lead him, and there was no 
strange god with him.” 


eta Ss 


BETTER THAN IDLE SORROW 


Thomus Mayhew, who was one of 
the early workers among the North 
American Indians, when on his way to 
the old land to seek further aid for his 
work, was lost at sea.. His old father, 
then past his seventieth year, regarded 
this sad bereavement as a call for him 
to fill the place thus made vacant, and 
immediately he began to study the In- 
dian language, and carried on the mis- 
sion of his son until his death, at the 
age of ninety-three. In his ministry the 
old man would often have to walk 
twenty miles through the woods to 
preach to the Indians. Surely this was 
better than idle sorrow.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 782 — 
ONLY A TOUCH NEEDED 


Some time ago, being a passenger on 
a Madison Avenue car, and reaching a 
switch at 86th Street, the car came to 
a stop. We had come to the end of the 
line carrying the current, and its mo- 
mentum was not sufficient to take it 
across the gap to the live wire beyond. 

The car with its passengers stood 
there helpless, having plenty of power 
behind and before which it could not 
reach. 

Presently another car came up close 
behind; and the conductor of the stalled 
car, addressing the motorman behind, 
exclaimed “Push me over! Just give me 
a touch!” 

The touch was given. The car was 
shoved only a few feet, but far enough 
to bring it in contact with the power; 
and presently it was bowling along like 
a thing of life. 

How many persons there are, thought 
we, like that stalled car. They are close 
to the power they need to enable them 
to go aright, but they cannot reach it, 
and they are so inert spiritually that they 
cannot even try. They need only a touch 
of life to put them in motion, and bring 
them in contact with spiritual life and 
power. 

Many times a word will help some 
hesitating soul to decide for Christ, and 
to lay hold upon power omnipotent.— 
Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 783 — 
THE BIBLE FIRST 


Nearly a half-century since, a Chris- 
tian man sat by his fireside, while his 
only child, a little boy, was playing on 
the hearth. The father had just received 
the morning newspaper, and commenced 
to read the same, when the child, climb- 
ing upon the father’s knee, snatched the 
paper playfully away, saying, “Bible 
first, papa; Bible first.” The child’s ut- 
terance came like a supernatural voice 
and the father could not forget the lesson 
thus conveyed. To deepen the impres- 
sion, sickness soon entered that home, 
and the busy little limbs were stilled and 


ANECDOTES 407 


the loving lips silenced by death. As the 
father bowed over that lifeless form of 
his beloved boy, he felt that the child 
had preached to him a sermon such as he 
had never, never before heard. It was a 
short homily, but it reached the heart. 
The child’s sermon became the man’s life 
motto. He went to duty with these 
words ever foremost, “Bible first, papa; 
Bible first.” .He resolved in business, in 
pleasure, in work, in worship, and in rest 
to let the Scripture teaching take the 
lead. He studied the Bible at home, he 
taught it in the Sabbath School, he kept 
its precepts before him in all the trans- 
actions of life. In getting and in giving 


he followed the light of the Holy Vol- 


ume. The result was that heaven smiled 
upon his undertakings. As he scattered 
in his charity, he gained. Wealth was 
bestowed upon him by God. He em- 
ployed it in benefiting his race, and at 2 
ripe old age passed away to his reward, 
leaving five churches in Philadelphia, 
erected by his munificence, to testify his 
deep interest in the cause of Christ. 

Such was the career of the well-known 
American engineer, Matthias W. Bald- 
win, who devoted the second engine he 
constructed to the work of the Ameri- 
can Sunday School Union, and thus af- 
forded the means for issuing the first 
Christian literature for the young ever 
printed in America by steam.—Rev. J]. 
Hiles Hitchens, D.D. 

— 784 — 

SPIRIT OF THE LORD’S PRAYER 


The spirit of the Lord’s prayer is 
beautiful. The form of petition breathes 
a filial spirit. “Father ;” a catholic spirit, 
“our Father;” a reverential spirit, “Hal- 
lowed be thy name;” a missionary spirit, 
“Thy kingdom come;” an obedient spirit, 
“Thy will be done on earth;” a depend- 
ent spirit, “Give us this day our daily 
bread;” a forgiving spirit, “And for- 
give us our debts as we forgive our 
debtors;” a cautious spirit, “Lead us 
not into temptation, but deliver us from 
evil;” a confidential and adormg spirit, 
“For thine is the kingdom, and the 
power, and the glory, for ever and ever. 
Amen.”-—Selected. 


403 


— 785 — 
A STORY OF TITHES 


About a hundred years ago a lad of 
sixteen left home to seek his fortune. 
All his worldly possessions were tied up 
in a bundle, which he carried in his hand. 
As he trudged along he met an old 
neighbor, the captain of a canal boat, and 
the following conversation took place, 
which changed the whole current of the 
boy’s life. 

“Well, William, where are you go- 
ing?” 

“TI don’t know,” he answered; “father 
is too poor to keep me at home any 
longer, and says I must now make a 
living for myself.” 

“There’s no trouble about that,” said 
the captain. “Be sure you start right, 
and you'll get along finely.” 

William told his friend that the only 
trade he knew anything about was soap 
and candle making, at which he had 
helped his father while at home. 

“Well,” said the old man, “let me 
pray with you once more, and give you 
a little advice, and then I will let you 
go.” 

They both kneeled down upon the 
tow-path; the dear old man prayed 
earnestly for William, and then gave this 
advice: “Some one will soon be the lead- 
ing soap-maker in New York. It can be 
you as well as any one. I hope it may. 
Be a good man; give your heart to 
Christ; give the Lord all that belongs 
to Him of every dollar you earn; make 
an honest soap; give a full pound, and 
I am certain you will yet be a great, 
good, and rich man.” 

When the boy arrived in the city, he 
found it hard to get work. Lonesome, 
and far from home, he remembered his 
mother’s words and the last words of 
the canal-boat captain. He was then, 
there, led to “seek first the kingdom of 
God and His righteousness,” and united 
with the church. He remembered his 
promise to the old captain, and the first 
dollar he earned brought up the ques- 
tion of the Lord’s part. In the Bible 
he found that the Jews were command- 
ed to give one-tenth, so he said, “If the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Lord will take one-tenth, I will give 
that.” And so he did; and ten cents of 
every dollar was sacred to the Lord. 

Having regular employment, he soon 
became a partner; and after a few years 
his partners died, and William became 
the sole owner of the business. 

He kept his promise to the old cap- 
tain: he made an honest soap, gave a 
full pound, and instructed his book- 
keeper to open an account with the Lord, 
and carry one-tenth of all his income 
to that account. He prospered; his busi- 
ness grew; his family was blessed; his 
soap sold, and he grew rich faster than 
he had ever hoped. He then gave the 
Lord two-tenths, and prospered more 
than ever; then he gave three-tenths, 
then four-tenths, then five tenths. He 
educated his family, settled all his plans 
for life, and gave all his income to the 
Lord. He prospered more than ever. 

This is the true story of William Col- 
gate, who gave millions of dollars to the 
Lord’s cause, and left a name that will 
never die.—Selected. 


— 786 — 


HOW SHE FOUND HER LOST BOY 


The President of the Sunday Break- 
fast Association, Philadelphia, Mr. 
Lewis U. Bean, relates the following 
incident: 

One Sunday morning, on my arrival at 
the old church, a gentleman stepped up 
and said, “There is a lady on the plat- 
form upstairs, wearing a sealskin coat, 
who wishes to see you.” I went up to 
her, She said, “Oh, sir, can’t you help 
me find my poor lost boy?” and tears ran 
down her face. She said he had run away 
from home three years ago, when about 
thirteen, and as far as she knew he was 
atramp. I said to her, “Are you a pray- 
ing, Christian woman?” “Yes, and a 
member of the Presbyterian Church.” 
“How came you here to seek your boy?” 
“T thought he might be in the congrega- 
tion.” After getting the boy’s name, I 
stepped to the front, and called for him, 
but no reply came. 

After two or three inquiries, I went 
to the lower room, into the overflow 
meeting, and made the same inquiry, but 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


without response. After standing on the 
platform a little while, in deep medita- 
tion and prayer, I stepped down through 
one of the narrow aisles, where I never 
go, excepting to see some one or on spe- 
cial business, and about one-third of the 
way down the aisle I stopped, with my 
hand under my chin, and thought: “It 
cannot be possible that God will send 
a poor, broken-hearted, Christian mother 
on a fool’s errand after her boy. Lord, 
show us where to find the boy.” Then 
at my right elbow I saw a young fellow, 
dirty all over, looking almost like a 
colored person, and as if he had not had 
a bath for months, or as if he might have 
just arrived in the city under a freight 
car, after many miles’ travel. He said, 
“What did you say the boy’s name 
was?” I said, “You know his name 
better than I do; you are the boy.” He 
burst into tears, and said, “Yes, I am the 
boy. What are you going to do with 
me?” evidencing at once that he had 
been doing something criminal and ex- 
pected arrest. He went with me behind 
a large partition in the back of the room, 
while I went and beckoned to the 
mother. I stayed between her and the 
boy, so that she could not see him until 
I stepped aside. When the mother 
discovered the boy, they both made a 
wild rush for each other and, were gath- 
ered in each other’s arms. Such a scene 
of love and affection I never before wit- 
nessed. The mother would press him to 
her bosom, kiss him and hug him, and 
then hold him at arm’s length to be sure 
that she was not mistaken, while I stood 
with my head against the partition and 
big tears ran down my face and drepped 
to the bare floor. She cried out, “Oh, 
my boy! my boy! Why did you not 
come home?” He said, “Mother, I 
didn’t know that you would allow me to 
come home.” 


We men folks know little or abso- 
lutely nothing about a mother’s love for 
her children, and yet we are told in 
Scripture that a mother may forget her 
child, but Christ never forgets his chil- 
dren. After breakfast the mother took 
her boy home. Some time afterward one 


ANECDOTES 409 


of the cleanest, brightest, nicest you ¢ 
men came to me and asked me if I re- 
membered about that boy. “Yes,” I 
said, “I do.” .“I am the boy,” he said. 
“You cannot be the boy,” said I. “What 
are you doing?” “I am in business in 
our little town, living with mother. I 
joined the church, and I am teaching a 
Sunday School class.” I gave a shout: 
“Amen! praise the Lord!” Will anyone 
who doubts the efficacy of prayer please 
tell us how it came that this mother 
came to the Sunday Breakfast Associa- 
tion that Sunday morning, never having 
been there before in her life, and that 


this boy should have arrived from the 


far West about two o’clock that Sunday 
morning, having ridden underneath coal 
and freight cars all the way? 


— 787 — 
A RACE FOR A CROWN 


In Powers’ art-gallery, in Rochester, 
there is a small, obscure picture which 
treats of an important subject.. It repre- 
sents a young man riding swiftly upon a 
horse. Before and above him floats one 
who resembles an angel, holding out to 
him a crown with one hand, and scat- 
tering coins with the other. The young 
man is extending his arm to reach the 
crown, while he spurs his horse to a 
more furious pace. His fingers almost 
touch the coveted prize. 

While his gaze is intently fixed upon 
the crown, flowers and helpless children 
are being trampled beneath his feet. 
Behind him, upon a white horse, there 
rides a skeleton, having a drawn sword 
in his hand, ready to strike the young 
man the fatal blow. With one more 
leap of the horse, the youth will go over 
a precipice immediately before him and 
sink into the dark abyss. 

In a similar manner Satan allures on 
the young. While their minds are in- 
tently fixed upon the desired object, 
they heedlessly trample beauty and in- 
nocence under their feet. They may 
secure the coveted prize, but at what a 
fearful cost! In gaining it, they lose 
er own souls.—Rev. C. H. Tyndall, 


410 


— 788 — 
HOW CHARACTER PREACHES 


On a bright summer morning, by the 
side of a country road, running along the 
Hudson, not many miles from New 
York, two men stood talking together. 
One was a judge of high social stand- 
ing and legal distinction, the other was 
a stone mason, and their conversation 
was about the building of a new wall 
near the place where they were stand- 
ing, to consult about which the judge 
had sent for the mason on this Sabbath 
morning. 3 

Just coming into sight, as he trudged 
along the road on his way to church, 
was a plain Scotch farmer, well known 
as a God-fearing, Sabbath-keeping, hon- 
est, hard-working man, neither fearing 
nor asking favor of the great or rich. 
His chief ambition seemed to be to raise 
a large family of children in the fear of 
God and honorably in the sight of men, 
which his example was well fitted to do. 

In the midst of an animated explana- 
tion of what he wanted in a new wall, 
the judge caught sight of the farmer. 
Stopping suddenly, he said: 

“There comes David Stuart; it will 
never do to let him see us talking busi- 
ness on Sabbath morning; we will just 
step behind this bit of wall until he 
passes.” 

And the judge and the mason crouched 
down behind the wall until the plodding 
footsteps of the farmer echoed faintly 
in the distance; and the good man passed 
from sight, all unconscious of the silent 
reproof his appearance had caused, while 
the judge, with feelings, one would 
think, belittling to his manliness, crept 
from his hiding place to continue his 
conscious and confessed desecration of 
the Lord’s day. 

The next morning the incident was 
related to the farmer by the mason, who 
was himself a Scotchman, though un- 
happily not so conscientious as his 
friend. He told the story with some 
elee, adding: 

“Wha wad a’ thocht, maun, that ye 
had sich a pooer in ye as to mak’ the 
judge hide behint the wall for the fear 
O°” ye?” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Is not this an illustration of the force 
and influence of a sincere Christian char- 
acter, though devoid of the adornments 
in the world’s sight of either position, 
wealth, or learning? All these together 
could not resist the silent sermon of the 
good man’s life, which brought home to 
the haughty judge the conviction of his 
sin.—Selected. 


— 789 — 


KNOWLEDGE SAVED HIM 


There is scarcely any kind of knowl- 
edge that may not some day be of special 
service. An anecdote of Hugh Miller, 
the Scotch geologist, illustrates this fact. 
In his boyhood he once saved his life by 
a knowledge of rocks which an ordinary 
boy would not have acquired. 


Having lost his father early in life, 
he received rather a scanty school edu- 
cation. But being a careful reader and 
a sharp observer, he educated himself. 
His daring, courage, and fondness for 
the cliffs of Cromarty made him a skil- 
ful climber, and many were the bold 
feats he performed, along precipices 
where no companions would follow. 


On one occasion he had climbed a 
lofty cliff for a famous raven’s nest. He 
came within six or eight feet of the 
prize, when he noticed that the smooth 
rock which sloped to it glistened in the 
sun. He examined it more closely, and 
saw that it was chlorite, a rock too 
slippery to allow any foothold. He did 
not risk the descent, knowing the peril. 

Five years later, a famous cragsman 
reached the same point. Knowing noth- 
ing of chlorite, he ventured on the 
smooth rock, and in an instant was shot 
over the precipice. His remains were 
found on the rocks beneath.—Youth’s 
Companion. 


— 790 — 


“Study the Bible; no man ever yet 
became a skeptic who was thoroughly 
acquainted with its contents. Paine 
confessed that he never read it; Voltaire 
said he had barely dipped into it. He 
who knows the Scriptures best will 
love them most.” 


———s 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


— 791 — 
THE POWER OF KINDNESS 


“Are you not afraid,” said a friend to 
Miss Dix, the philanthropist, “to travel 
over the country alone?” “I am natu- 
rally timid,” she replied, “and diffident, 
like all my sex; but, in order to carry 
out my purposes, I know that it is neces- 
sary to make sacrifices, and encounter 
dangers. It is true I have been, in my 
travels, through the different States, in 
perilous situations. I will mention one 
which occurred in the State of Michigan. 
I had hired a carriage and driver to 
convey me some distance through an un- 
inhabited portion of the country. In 
starting, I discovered that the driver, a 
_ young lad, had a pair of pistols with him. 
Inquiring what he was doing with arms, 
he said he carried them to protect us, as 
he had heard that robberies had been 
committed on our road. I said to him, 
‘Give me the pistols, I will take care of 
them.’ He did so reluctantly. 

“In pursuing our journey through a 
dismal looking forest, a man rushed into 
the road, caught the horses by the bridle, 
and demanded my purse. I said to him, 
with as much self-possession as I could 
command, ‘Are you not ashamed to rob 
a woman? I have but little money, and 
I want to defray my expenses in visit- 
ing prisons and poor houses and occa- 
‘sionally in giving to objects of charity. 
If you have been unfortunate, are in 
distress, and in want of money, I will 
give you some.’ While thus speaking 
to him, I discovered his countenance 
changing, and he became deathly pale. 
‘My God!’ he exclaimed, ‘that voice! 
and immediately told me he had been 
in the Philadelphia penitentiary, and 
had heard me lecturing to some of the 
prisoners in an adjoining cell, and that 
he now recognized my voice. He then 
desired me to pass on, and expressed 
deep sorrow at the outrage he had com- 
mitted. But I drew out my purse, and 
said to him, ‘I will give you something 
to support you until you get into honest 
employment.’ He declined, at first tak- 


ing anything, until I insisted on his do- 


411 


ing so, for fear he might be tempted 
to rob some one else before he could get 
into honest employment.”—Selected, 


— 792 — 


THE POWER OF TRIFLES 


I remember in the physics classroom 
in the university where I was trained, 
we found one day an iron beam hang- 
ing from the ceiling, held there per- 
fectly passive. And our professor, Pro. 
fessor Tate, took little paper pellets and 
threw them at the iron beam. It seemed 
like child’s work, and at first nothing 
happened. But he kept on throwing 
these little paper pellets, these little 
nothings, at the iron beam until we saw 
it begin to vibrate, then to thrill, then to - 
move, and at last to swing. Now what 
created that movement of the iron beam? 
Accumulative trifles. Every trifle con- 
tributed its little quota and helped to 
make the movement. And everything in 
my life, the little pellet of idle wish, the 
little pellet of idle thought, the little 
pellet of courtesy, the little pellet of dis- 
courtesy, everything helps to create the 
movement, the drift, the swing, the des- 
tiny, either toward God or toward the 
devil and hell.—Rev. J. H. Jowett, M. A, 


— 793 — 


HOW TO MEND DRY SERMONS 


We do not know of any anecdote on 
preaching calculated to produce a better 
impression than the following, related 
of the late Dr. Wayland, and one of his 
hearers: “Deacon Moses Pond went to 
Dr. Wayland once with the complaint 
that the preaching didn’t edify him. 
‘I’m sorry,’ said the pastor, ‘I know they 
are poor sermons. I wish I could make 
them better. Come, let us pray that I 
may be able to do so.” The deacon, 
telling the story, used to say, ‘Dr. Way- 
land prayed, and I prayed. He cried, 
and I cried” But I have thought a 
hundred times that it was strange that 
he did not turn me out of the house. I 
tell you there never was a better man 
nor a greater preacher than Dr. Way- 
land.”—Selected. 


412 


genom 7 4, coms 
mIXING THE MORTAR 


An earnest minister used often to say 
to the young people of his congregation: 
“Work, my lads and lasses, wherever 
you are put; for all labor, even the 
lowliest, if well and faithfully done, will 
ennoble the one who does it. And we 
do not know at what time the great 
NMaster himself is to take the work of 
even the humblest of us to test its worth 
and value.” 

Several years ago, when the great 
cathedral of Cologne was finished, there 
was a great stir all over Europe. Four 
centuries had been occupied in the erec- 
tion of this wonderful building, one of 
the most magnificent in all the world. 
People flocked from all directions to take 
part in the great ceremonial of rejoicing. 
It was a large and brilliant and fashion- 
able crowd. But right in the midst of 
some of the grandest people stood an 
humble workman, with torn clothes, a 
dilapidated hat, and shoes all out at the 
toes. As he stood there with his eyes 
fairly glowing as they took in all the 
noble proportions of the building, he was 
heard to exclaim: 

“Oh! yes, indeed, we have made a 
glorious building of it!” 

“Why,” said a gentleman who over- 
heard the remark, “what did you have to 
do with it?” 

The workman turned to answer him 
with his eyes still glowing. 

“I mixed the mortar for a year,” was 
the proud reply. 


That is it. We cannot all be builders. 
Sometimes we may not be able to place 
even one brick upon the structure. .But 
we can each and every one help to mix 
the mortar for others to use, for certain 

it is that if the mortar be not mixed the 
building itself cannot be built.—For- 
ward, 


vial 


— 795 — 
“ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY.” 


“Answer a fool according to his folly,” 
says the wise man. Often the only way 
of silencing a fool is to introduce some 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


side issue which will throw him off his 
guard and make him realize not only 


acter, u. is ignorant but that his hearers 


scot well, 

Bishop Taylor-Smith, missionary in 
Sierra Leone, tells a story that illus- 
trates the advantage a man who knows, 
has over an opponent who merely 
guesses or who repeats what others have 
guessed for him. 


On one occasion when he was travel- 
ing along the West Coast of Africa with 
an old skipper, who had known many 
missionaries, but “did not see the use 
of them,” the Bishop was obliged to 
endure a string of taunting questions, 
such as “What was the good of spout- 
ing at Exeter Hall?” and “What did 
the missionaries know, anyway?” .At 
last the Bishop could stand it no longer. 
Turning to the skipper he said, “I know 
you are an expert, can you tell me the 
length of an alligator’s tongue?” “Cer- 
tainly,” was the reply, “but it depends 
on the length of the alligator.” “Very 
well, then; given an alligator fifteen 
feet long, what would be the length of 
its tongue?” . “Three feet,” was the 
answer; but the Bishop, who had kept 
alligators and watched their ways, knew 
better. “It is evident that you are an 
authority on the West Coast of Africa,” 
he said, “but it is algo evident that 
some people see more in ten minutes 
than others in twenty years. Let me tell 
you that an alligator has no tongue!” 


Missionaries need fear nothing from 
the strictest investigation; but they have 
a right to ask that criticism of their work 
should be based on knowledge and not 
on hearsay. In the natural order of 
things a traveler should be an advocate 
of foreign missions. Such an advocate 
was Darwin, who at first an opposer of 
missions, became convinced by personal 
observation of their value—Selected. 


— 796 — 


THE DUTY OF CHEERFULNESS 


Once the Duchess of Argyle wrote to 
several Kuropean monarchs and asked 
them who it was they especially envied. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Most of the replies were in harmony 
with that of Francis Joseph, Emperor 
of Austria, who said, “I envy th > 
of the man who is not an emlend fr. 
Not long ago William K. Vanderbilt, 
one of the richest men in the world, 
declared that he envied the man who 
had no wealth to care for. Yet it is to 
be observed that the emperor retains 
his crown, and Vanderbilt his millions. 

It is the business of the Christian to 
be happy “in whatsoever state,” in pov- 
erty or riches, in lofty station or obscur- 
ity. Canon Gore declares that in great 
measure it was the cheerfulness of the 
early Christians that attracted and won 
those around them. This has been true 
of all Christians since. 

Recognize yourself, Christian, as an 
advertisement of Christ! If you are 
sunny in the darkness, hopeful in trouble, 
and cheery in affliction, those around 
you will see the evidence that Christ is 
a Joy-Giver. But if you are anxious 
and depressed, they will be likely to seek 
their happiness elsewhere than in your 
self discredited religion. 

I like to think of the old Cunard cap- 
tain whom the late Dr. Cuyler tells 
about. A passenger asked him, “Is it 
always foggy here on the banks of New- 
foundland?” 

“How should I know, madam?” was 
_ the answer: “I don’t live here.” 

So says the Christian when men in- 
quire petulantly- of the fogs of life: “T 
don’t live among them.”—Selected. 


— 797 — 
THE SADDLER’S CHOICE 


A wealthy man came to a poor saddler, 
and, leaving a bridle, gave orders that it 
should be finished on Monday. 

“That is not possible.” 

“What nonsense! There is all day to- 
morrow.” 

_“We do not work on Sunday, sir.” 
“Then I shall go to those who do.” 
“We can get it done by Tuseday.” 
“That will not do; put it in the car- 

riage.” 

Quietly the sadler did as he was told. 

Hours afterwards a neighbor said: “TE 


413 


thought that I would come and thank 
you, and tell you that I should be glad 


- as many more customers as you would 


uke to send.” 

“I shall not send you those I can 
keep,” said the saddler, “but I will never 
go against my conscience for any man 
nor for his money.” 

Weeks went by, weeks of trouble to 
this faithful saddler. One day a mili- 
tary man came into his shop. “So you 
are the fellow who will not work on Sun- 
day. My friend said that you refused 
to do his work.” 

“T had no choice, sir.” 

“Yes, you had; you were free to 
choose between serving God and pleas- 
ing man, and you made your choice, 
and because of that I am here to-day. 
I am General Downing. I have been 
looking for a man on whom I could rely 
to execute a large government order. 
The moment [I heard of you I made up 
my mind that you should have it.”—= 
Westminster Quarterly. 


Say pe es 
SERVE WHERE YOU ARE 


A policeman in Birmingham, becom- 
ing a Christian, was so greatly troubled 
by the sights and sounds of sin among 
which he worked, that for a long time 
he and his wife prayed: 


“Lord, take me out of the police 
service. Gives me some other work.” 

Still no answer came and no other 
work was opened for him. At last he 
said to his wife: 

“TI think we have been making a great 
mistake. We have been praying that I 
may be taken out of the force, and I 
begin to think that he has put me there 
to work for him. Now I am just going 
to pray that he will help me serve him 
where I am.” 

That was the beginning of a life of 
marvelous usefulness... His influence 
over the men was so great that he was 
promoted to be the head of detectives. 
He was instrumental in the salvation of 
many criminals.. The place God has put 
you is the place you can do the best 
service for him.—Selected. 


414" 


— 799 — 
BEING A GOOD SOLDIER 


A soldier’s life is full of hardships,’ 
many of which cannot be helped, and 
yet how manfully so many of them did 
and still do endure their hardships, 

Let me give you one incident out of 
many that I might give you to illus- 
trate this. 

At the battle of Ft. Donelson it was 
two days and two nights before all the 
wounded were properly taken care of. 
When the battle began the ground was 
soft and muddy but before the battle 
was over a hard frost came on and the 
ground was frozen quite hard, so hard 
that some of the wounded men had to be 
cut out of the frozen ground. One of 
these men tells his story to Mrs. Liver- 
more who relates it in her book: 

“We fellows on the ground cheered 
I tell you, when the fort showed the 
white flag and we knew the rebels had 
surrendered. I had dropped into a 
drowse when I heard the boys cheering 
enough to stun you. I couldn’t cheer 
myself for I was most gone, but Jerry, 
over there in that bed—his left arm was 
gone and his right hand shot away but 
he threw up his right stump of an arm 
and hurrahed enough to split his throat. 

“Well, boys!’ I said to some of 
them, ‘You got more than you bargained 
for this time. Don’t you wish you had 
remained at home?’ : 

“Not a bit of it,? was the plucky 
answer. ‘We enlisted as folks marry, 
for better or worse and if it is for the 
worse we ought not to complain.’” 

Here was endurance in a soldier fight- 
ing for home, for family, for friends, for 
country. Should not the soldier of Jesus 
Christ be ready to endure the hardships 
that come to him? Hardships come to 
every soldier; to some more than to 
others. Paul’s word to Timothy was 
“Take thy part” and it is for us to take 
our part. The Christian to-day needs 
this endurance as much as Timothy 
needed it. He may not have the same 
sort of hardships to endure, but if he is 
a whole hearted Christian he will find 
many to endure.—Rev. A. §. Cameron. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


" — 800 — 
LOVING JESUS IS CONVERSION 


The venerable Dr. Tyng told of be- 
ing called to visit a sick young man at 
a hotel. He and his widowed mother 
were on their way to their distant home 
when the young man became very ill. 
“He lay before me, a splendid youth 
of nineteen, his eyes like jets of the 
brilliancy of diamonds. ‘Dr. Tyng,’ 
he said, ‘my mother has always told me 
that I must be converted; that I could 
not be saved except I was converted. 
How can I be converted?’ I sat by the 
side of that youth and told him the 
story of Jesus. I showed him the sim- 
plicity of the Gospel plan of salvation. 
I bade him realize that his heavenly 
Father had received and accepted him 
in Christ when Christ willingly died to 
bear his load, and he was to come in the 
simplest faith of a little child, and rest 
himself gratefully, hopefully upon it. 
We spent an hour in conversation. 
Twenty-four hours after I called again. 
Oh! how changed the face! It shone 
like an angel’s. He reached out his 
long, tapering, trembling hand to me 
with the sweetest smile and said: ‘Ch, 
sir, I understand it. I understand it. 
Love for Jesus is conversion. Sir, all 
night I was asking Jesus to let me love 
him; to show me how to love him.’ ”’— 
Christian Herald. 


— 801 — 


“THE JESUS WARD.” _ 


In a certain hospital the child’s ward 
was called “The Jesus Ward.” One 
of the little sufferers asked his nurse 
why they called it by that name. She 
told him it was said that Jesus passed 
through that ward every night and 
blessed each suffering child. The little 
fellow said: “I shall raise my hand so 
that Jesus will be sure to see me.” In 
the morning the nurse found a little 
hand raised in the air, but stiff and cold 
in death. Jesus had indeed come, and 
by that little hand had lifted the little 
sufferer into a realm where there is no 
more pain.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


=— 802 — 
“I JES’ LOVE LO PINT HIM OUT” 


Why should a man be required to love 


Christ? Is it not enough to admire him 
as the chiefest among ten thousand? 
Is it not enough to imitate him as the 
ideal man? 

A traveler who was being rowed 
across the Mississippi by an old negro, 
was surprised to see the boatman drop 
his oars suddenly and spring to his feet 
in great excitement, shouting, “Look! 
Look! Dere’s de Captain!” 


On a sloop coming down the river 
stood a man leaning against the mast. 
This was “the captain,” at whom the 
old negro was frantically waving his 
hat, 

The traveler said presently, “Who is 
this man? And what has he ever done 
for you?” The answer was: “He’s de 
man dat saved me. I fell into de water 
an’ he jumped in an flung his arms 
around me and saved me!” Then he 
added: “I’d jes’ like to slave for him all 
my life; only my rheumatism’s so bad I 
ain’t no good. He runs by here once a 
month an’ I watch for him; an’ I love 
to pint him out. Ain’t he de kindest- 
lookin’ man you ever saw? I jes’ love 
to pint him out.” 


In view of such a natural demonstra-° 


tion of gratitude as this, one is led to 
wonder how it is that any man who 
trusts in Christ for salvation should ever 
fail to love him—Rev. David James 
Burrell, D.D. 


— 803 — 
WHY HOUSE IS UNFINISHED 


People who pass Lord Rothschild’s 
mansion in Piccadilly, says a writer in 
the “Quiver,” often notice that the end 
of one of the cornices is unfinished. 
One is likely to ask: “Could not the rich- 
est man in the world afford to pay for 
that cornice, or is the lack due simply 
to carelessness?” .The explanation is a 
very simple yet suggestive one when it 
is known.. Lord Rothschild is an or- 
thodox Jew, and every pious Jew’s 
1ouse, tradition says, must have some 


415 


part unfinished, to bear testimony to the 
world that its occupant is only like 


‘Abraham, a pilgrim and stranger upon 


the earth. The incomplete cornice on 
the mansion seems to say to all who 
hurry by in the streets, bent on amassing 
worldly wealth, or going along with the 
maddening crowd in the paths of folly: 
“This is not Lord Rothschild’s home, he 
is traveling to eternity !” 


B04 
CHRISTIANS AND TIGERS 


A traveler who returned from India 
spoke slightingly of missionary efforts 
and declared that he had never seen a 
real native convert. 

“Did you see any tigers?” asked an 
old missionary who heard the remark. 

“Oh, yes, I was hunting tigers, that 
was one reason for my going,” was the 
quick reply. 

“And if you had been hunting native 
Christians, you could have found them, 
too,” said the old teacher, “I spent 
many years in India without coming in 
contact with tigers, but I found hundreds 
of converts. We find what we are look- 
ing for.” 

This truth holds good not only of life 
in India, but of life everywhere, the 
world over—it is Christians or tigers as 
we look for them.—Selected. 


— 805 — 
A WATERMELON SEED 


“I am not so much of a farmer as 
some people claim,” said Mr. Bryan, 
with a twinkle, “but I have observed the 
watermelon seed. It has the power of 
drawing from the ground and through 
itself 200,000 times its weight; and when 
you can tell me how it takes this mate- 
rial and out of it colors an outside sur- 
face beyond the imitation of art, and 
then forms inside of it a white rind and 
within that again a red heart, thickly in- 
laid with black seeds, each one of which 
in turn is capable of drawing through 
itself 200,000 times its weight—when 
you can explain to me the mystery of a 
watermelon, you can ask me to explain 
the mystery of God.”——-Wm. J. Bryan. 


416 


— 806 — 
“NOT THE RIGHTEOUS” 


It is related that in the early part of the 
reign of Louis XVI., a German prince 
travelling through France visited the 
Arsenal at Toulon, where the galley 
slaves were kept. The Commandant, as 
a compliment to the prince’s rank, said 
he was welcome to set free any one 
galley-slave whom he should choose to 
select. 

The prince, wishing to make the best 
use of the privilege, spoke to many of 
them in succession, inquiring why they 
were condemned to the galleys. Injus- 
tice, oppression, false accusations, were 
assigned by one after another as the 
causes of their being there. In fact, ac- 
cording to their own contention, they 
were all “injured and ill-treated” per- 
sons! 

At last he came to one who, when 
asked the same question, answered to 
this effect: “Your Highness, I have no 
reason to complain—I have been a very 
wicked, desperate wretch. I have de- 
served to be broken alive on the wheel. 
I account it a great mercy that I am 
here.” 

The prince fixed his eyes upon him, 
and said: “You wicked man, it is a pity 
you should be placed among so many 
‘honest’ people. By your own confes- 
sion you are bad enough to corrupt them 
all; but you shall not stay with them an- 
other day.” Then, turning to the officer, 
he said: “This is the man, sir, whom I 
wish to be released.” 

“Not the righteous, but sinners,” Jesus 
came to save. “This man receiveth 
sinners.” A beggar who boasts of his 
wealth gets small alms. His recom- 
mendation is his poverty, not his pros- 
perity. 

‘So a man must first know himself a 
sinner; and when he knows this, there is 
a Saviour who stands ready to receive 
him, The man who boasts of his right- 
eousness may be self-deceived—not real- 
izing what sin is-—-or he may be one who 
denies what he knows, and seeks to de- 
ceive others. But no such man can de- 
ceive the Lord. And it is only when 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


a sinner knows himself lost, and con- 
fesses himself ruined and helpless, that 
the almighty hand of God is stretched 
cut to lift him up, and the love that 
never faileth receives the wanderer— 
Herald of Mercy. 


— 807 — 
A SLAVE BOY’S MISSION 


The little captive maid who told her 
mistress about the prophet was as real 
a laborer with God for the healing of 
Naaman as was Elisha. 


A little Christian Chinese boy was 
stolen and carried to a heathen city and 
sold. He became the slave of a rich 
officer. He was fond of the baby whose 
cradle he was set to watch, and his mis- 
tress was fond of him. When she would 
kindly ask him about his home, the 
tears would come into his eyes and he 
would not talk about it, but would say, 
“Shall I tell you about my Jesus?” 

And the fond mother would answer, 
“Oh! no, Ah Fung, I do not need any 
Jesus now. I have my baby.” 

But by and by her delicate blossom 
began to droop. Paler and thinner the 
tiny, yellow face grew, until after a little 
the broken-hearted mother saw the one 
object of her love die. Then in her sor- 
row, she said, “Ah Fung, you may tell 
me about your Jesus.” 

The child began where he knew it 
would mean the most to her, and told 
her how Jesus loved the little children 
and took them in His arms, and how her 
baby was in the beautiful home that He 
had gone to prepare for His people. 

Then the mother asked, “Did He love 
my baby? Are you sure she is with 
him?” 

“I am sure He loved her, and that she 
is with Him.” replied Ah Fung.. “Our 
missionary said He had many little chil- 
dren there, and He makes them happy. 
He will give her back to you if you go 
there.” 

“But where is it? How can I get 
there,” eagerly asked the mother. 

“TI don’t quite know,” said Ah Fung. 
“But if we love Him, and trust in Him, 
He will take us somehow. He said so. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Won’t you let Jesus be your Saviour, 
too? And then we will both go there 
and He will give our darling back to us.” 

The little captive’s words were not 
in vain. This heathen mother was the 
first convert to Christianity in Korea, 
which had been so long shut up to the 
preaching of the Gospel. Ah Fung 
sowed the first fruit-bearing seed. And 
I am sure that in heaven the Israelite 
maiden and Ah Fung will sing loud 
notes of praise for the privilege of being 
laborers together with God.—Bible 
Morning Glories. 


— 808 — 


REVEALING CHRIST 


In the early days of the war, when 
Great Britain was calling her Indian 
troops to the colors, the Young Men’s 
Christian Association asked permission 
to put a secretary upon each transport. 
The Indian government refused fearing 
to offend the Hindu soldiers. Again the 
Association made the request, and again 
it was refused. The Association would 
not give up, and finally after the seventh 
request, the government offered to com- 
promise: it would permit the secretaries 
to go, but upon the condition that they 
should not mention the name of Jesus 
Christ. The Young Men’s Christian 
Association considered the compromise 
long and earnestly, and finally agreed 
to it. 

“Our secretaries,” they promised, 
“shall not mame the name of Jesus 
Christ, but they will live as nearly as 
they know how to live like Him.” 

So the secretaries went. At first it 
seemed as if there were nothing for 
them to do. Then a strange thing hap- 
pened. The hair of the Indian soldiers 
had grown long and needed cutting, and 
there was no one to do it, for among 
orientals a barber is the lowest man on 
earth; and although these soldiers were 
themselves of a very low caste, there 
was not one of them who was low 
enough to act as a barber for another. 
So came the opportunity of these uni- 
versity men. They began serving as 
barbers. It was not long before the sol- 


417 


diers began writing home: 

“When we left there was no Moham- 
medan who cared for our souls, no Bud- 
dists to look after us. But these Chris- 
tians have been brothers to us. They 
have acted as servants to us. There is 
nothing they have not done for us. Put 
my daughter or my son into the mission- 
ary school. We want to know what the 
Christian religion is.” 

Two thousand years ago the greatest 
missionary the world has ever known 
wrote one of his churches: “Put ye on 
the Lord Jesus Christ”; speak His 
words, do His deeds, reveal His char- 
acter. Wherever in all the world the 
humblest soul does that, there will His 
kingdom begin to come, and there will 
faith shine clear.—Youth’s Companion. 


— 809 — 


THE COW-BOY’S IDEA 


Men have different ideas of religion. 
With some it is mainly feeling, with 
others it is largely form; with some it 
is mostly faith, with others it is gen- 
erally talk! 

A converted cow-boy gives this as his 
idea of what religion is: “Lots of folks 
that would really like to do right think 
that servin’ the Lord means _ shout- 
in’ themselves hoarse praisin’ His name. 
Now I'll tell you how I look at that. 
I’m workin’ for Jim here. Now, if I’d 
sit around the house here tellin’ what a 
good fellow Jim is, and singin’ songs to 
him, and getting up in the night to ser- 
enade him, I’d be doin’ just like what 
lots of Christians do, but I wouldn’t 
suit Jim, and I’d get fired mighty quick. 
But when I buckle on my straps and 
hustle among the hills and see that 
Jim’s herd is all right, and not sufferin’ 
for water and feed, or bein’ off the range 
and branded by cow thieves, then ?m 
servin’ Jim as he wants to be served.” 

This was the converted cow-boy’s 
idea. Doesn’t it sound a little like the 
voice of Him, who, when His disciple 
said, “Lord, Thou knowest all things, 
Thou knowest that I love Thee,” only 
answered, “Tend my sheep; Tend my 
lambs?”——-The Armory. 


“418 


~—— 810 — 
THE FAITHFUL MOTHER 


After a fire in which a barn was al- 
most completely destroyed, the owner, 
walking over the ruins, came upon an 
old black hen. He wondered that she 
did not move her head to look at him 
as he came near her, but he thought she 
must be asleep. He poked her with his 
cane, and to his surprise the wing which 
he touched fell into ashes. Then he 
knew that she had been burnt to death. 
But out from under her came a faint, 
little peep, and pushing her aside with 
his cane, the man found ten live, yellow 
chickens. The hen had sacrificed her 
own life to save them. 

This was the love of a hen for her 
chickens. But he who made all living 
things and planted a portion of his own 
affection in every one of them, yet feels a 
deeper love than they can for the creat- 
ures he has made. And yet how many 
despise his goodness and reject his love! 

Thus of old the Jews rejected the Sav- 
iour of mankind, while he wept over their 
folly and said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
thou that killest the prophets, and ston- 
est them which are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy chil- 
dren together, even as a hen gathereth 
her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not! Behold, your house is left 
unto you desolate. For I say unto you, 
Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye 
shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in 
the name of the Lord.”—The Common 
People. 


LS Sidi 
HOW TRACTS PREACH 


These little preachers have more in- 
fluence than we think. A Philadelphia 
boy took some small tracts with him 
when he went to the country for his 
summer vacation. He gave one to a 
lad whose acquaintance he had made. 
The lad said, “I can’t read, but I will 
take it home; they can read it there.” 
A few days after the country boy met 
his city friend.. “Well,” said he, “that 
tract you gave me made a stir at home.” 


{LLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“What do you mean?” “Why,” he re- 
plied, “they read the tract, and then 
they got out the Bible, and read that, 
and when Sunday came they made me 
get out the old carriage and clean it up, 
and then we all got in that could, and the 
rest got on before and behind, and rode 
off to church.. That tract’s done great 
things, I can tell you.” Subsequently it 
was learned that the tract had been the 
direct and indirect means of the conver- 
sion of several persons.—Rev. G. B. F. 
Hallock, D. D. 


— 812 — 


SHE SAVED TWO HUNDRED 


Miss Kate Skelly, whose bravery 
twenty years ago saved from death two 
hundred passengers on a train, the 
wrecking of which she prevented, died 
at Boone, Iowa, the other day as the re- 
sult of an operation for appendicitis, 

On the evening of July 10, 1891, heavy 
rains destroyed eleven out of the twenty- 
one bridges on the Des Moines River on 
the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. 
Miss Skelly, a girl sixteen years old, 
asked her mother to let her look for her 
father, a section foreman on the road. 
The girl took a lantern and went out 
into the storm. She found a bridge down 
near by and knew that a train would be 
due soon. She started on the run for 
the station at Moin Goma, four miles 
away. The wind blew her lantern out 
and she had to crawl on her hands and 
knees over some ttestle work that re- 
mained. She reached the station just 
as the train pulled in and then fell faint- 
ing on the ground. The legislature of 
her State rewarded her bravery with a 
grant of $5,000. In 1904 she was made 
station agent of the place where she had 
saved the train, 

Here is but another act of superb 
womanly heroism; but women have 
worked just as hard and unselfishly for 
the salvation of the souls of people from 
moral evil. “He that converteth the 
sinner from the error of his way shall 
Save a soul from death, and shall hide a 
multitude of sins.”—Christian Herald. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


— 813 — 
AN EVANGELIST IN PRISON 


Paul Graynor, who fifteen years ago, 
was sent to the penitentiary at Gal- 
veston under a forty years’ sentence for 
murder, has refused an offered pardon 
from the governor on the ground that he 
can do more good in the penitentiary 
than outside it. Graynor is 37 years old 
and says he expects to serve out the re- 
maining twenty-five years of his sen- 
tence. 

Not long after he entered the peniten- 
tiary this remarkable convict experi- 
enced a remarkable conversion to Chris- 
tianity, and has since proved his faith 
most abundantly by his works. No less 
than fifteen men who have been released 
from the institution since that time, and 
who are now leading consistent Chris- 
tian lives, attribute their own conver- 
sion, and present religious strength, to 
his influence. Besides helping all these 
men to a vital faith, Graynor taught six 
of them stenography, by which they are 
now earning comfortable livings.—The 
Continent. 


— 814 — 
MORSE’S LIGHT” 
The Rev. George Winifred Hervey re- 


lates that long ago, while pursuing in- - 


vestigations in Astor Library, New 
York, he used often to meet Professor 
Samuel F. B. Morse, the renowned in- 
ventor of the electric telegraph. Once 
he asked him this question: “Professor 
Morse, when you were making your ex- 
periments yonder in the university, did 
you ever come to a stand, not knowing 
what to do next?” 

“O, yes; more than once.” 

“And at such times, what did you do 
next?” 

“I may answer you in confidence, sir,” 
said the professor, “but it is a matter of 
which the public knows nothing. When- 
ever I could not see my way clearly, I 
prayed for more light.” 

“And the light generally came?” 

“Yes. And 1 may tell you that when 
flattering honors came to me from Eur- 
cpe and America on account of the in- 


419 


vention which bears my name, I never 
felt that I deserved them. I had made 
a valuable application of electricity, not 
because I was superior to other men, 
but solely because God, who meant it for 
mankind, must reveal it to some one, and 
was pleased to reveal it to me.” 

This utterance by a distinguished man 
of science reminds us again, as many 
similar utterances have done, not only 
that true greatness has no vanity, but 
that superior minds, as a whole, rever- 
ently acknowledge the Supreme. They 
who climb highest see farthest, and the 
light which comes from above shines the 
longest way.—Youth’s Companion. 


— 815 — 
KNOW AND KNOW THAT YOU 


KNOW 


Henry Ward Beecher used to tell how 
the teacher of mathematics taught him . 
to depend upon himself, 

Once I was sent to the blackboard. 

“I want that problem; I don’t want 
any reason why you haven’t it,” said the 
teacher. 

“I did study two hours,” I said. 

“That’s nothing to me,” replied the 
teacher, “You need not study at all or 
you may study ten hours, just suit your- 
self. I want that lesson.” 

I proceeded a bit when he calmly said: 
“No,” shaking his head. I then went 
back to the beginning and on reaching 
the same point again, “No,” barred my 
progress. 

“Next boy step up,” snapped the 
teacher, and I sat down in red confusion. 

He too was stopped with a “No,” but 
went on, and as he sat down was re- 
warded with “Very Well.” “Why,” 
whimpered I, “I recited it just as he did 
and you said ‘No!’” 

“Why didn’t you say Yes, and stick 
to it?” asked the teacher. “It is not 
enough to know your lesson. You must 
know that you know it. You have 
learned nothing till you are sure. If all 
the world says—No, your business is to 
say—Yes, and prove it.” Decision 
makes some men; lack of it unmakes 
others.—-Albany Sales News. ‘ 


420 


— 816 — 
THE ROCK OF MORAL HEROISM 


At Santa Cruz, Calif., I have watched 
the huge waves march in great battalions 
up to the seacliffs and with a mighty 
roar fling their spray high into the air. 
The more yielding portions of the preci- 
pices have been worn away, making deep 
gashes or holes in the rocky formation, 
but the firmer sections stand like ada- 
mant against the savage assaults of the 
sea. So itis with the Christian character 
of many men and women. Their adher- 
ence to conviction make them the un- 
answerable exponents of the religion of 
Christ. The following simple stories 
may help to interpret my meaning: 

Not many years ago, in the reign of 
Edward VII, of England, the mayor of 
Doncaster was the late Joseph Firth 
Clark, a Friend or Quaker. During his 
mayoralty the celebrated Doncaster 
races occurred and the mayor received 
an invitation—a royal invitation being 
a command—to meet the King on the 
race course immediately after the St. 
Leger race had been run. Clark refused 
the proffered dignity, replying in a strain 
that must have been appreciated by the 
broad-minded monarch whom he ad- 
dressed. He wrote to Edward: “I have 
a profound respect and regard for the 
most gracious King whom I desire to 
honor in every way as one of his most 
loyal subjects. Though I have lived in 
Doncaster all my life I have never once 
attended the races, and did not therefore 
feel I could consistently break through 
the rule even for so great an honor.” 

This incident created a sensation at 
the time. Many people were scandal- 
ized because the mayor of Doncaster had 
declined to meet the King. But the 
moral value proved to be very great— 
an open blow had been administered to 
a demoralizing sport. 

A few years since Baron Morimura, 
president of one of the great banks of 
Japan and a commercial leader of that 
country, landed in America, and with 
his suite took apartments in one of the 
large hotels of San Francisco. Pressed 
with business cares and desiring to avoid 
intrusion, he commanded that if visitors 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


wished to see him they should be told 
he was out. Before long a caller unex- 
pectedly appeared in his presence. The 
baron was very angry. Upon investiga- 
tion he ascertained that a chambermaid 
had disobeyed orders and had acknowl- 
edged that he was in. He called for the 
disobedient servant and severely repri- 
manded her. She flung at him the reply, 
“I cannot lie for any man!” 

After his anger had subsided Baron 
Morimura began to think. He became 
impressed with the belief that the 
Strength of character indicated by the 
chambermaid must have been based on 
Christianity. He said: “Nobody but a 
Christian would stand for not lying.” He 
commenced to study the Bible and be- 
came a secret believer. Finally he made 
public confession of his faith and has 
been a sturdy advocate of his Lord from 
that day to this. It has since been his 
great joy to preach Jesus all over Japan, 
whilst his large influence and gifts have 
in numerous ways been dedicated to the 
cause of righteousness. So much for the 
fearlessness of a hotel servant! So much 
for the possession of genuine conviction 
and living up to it! 

The moral heroism of some men and 
women is as impregnable as the rocks of 
Santa Cruz and withstands the “curling 
lips and gleaming teeth” of sin and fear. 
This splendid heroism is what the world 
needs today—shall we not practice it?-— 
William C. Allen. | 


— 817 — 
INASMUCH 


Tolstoi has told of a shoemaker who, 
left alone in the world, turned to God for 
counsel and help. He reformed his own 
bad ways, read the Bible, and tried in 
vain to discover what he might do to 
serve God. One night he had a vision 
of the Saviour, who said to him, “Mar- 
tin, look for me tomorrow on the street. 
I shall meet you there!” 

Although the shoemaker did not place 
much faith in his dream, still on the next 
day he could not help watching every 
one he met. But Jesus did not reveal 
himself. 

Nothing happened save two or three 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


trifling incidents. Seeing an old street 
sweeper, Martin called him in, gave him 
refreshment, and warmed him by his 
fire. A little later he noticed a poor 
woman with a child, shivering with cold 
as she begged from the passers-by. He 
gave her an old cloak and a few pennies 
to buy food for herself and her baby. 
Just before night he made peace between 
an apple-woman and a boy who had 
stolen one of her apples; got the urchin 
to restore the fruit, and then taught to 
ask forgiveness, and her to forgive. They 
walked off together good friends, the boy 
carrying her basket. Nothing else hap- 
pened. A very disappointing day! 

But that night the Saviour stood 
again by the shoemaker’s bedside, and 
said gently, “Martin, Martin, did you 
not recognize me?” 

And when Martin awoke, his soul re- 
joiced ; for his New Testament was open, 
and his eyes fell upon these words, “In- 
asmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me.’—American Messen- 
ger. 


-— 818 — 
THE QUEEN 
AND THE UMBRELLA 


When Queen Victoria of England | 


lived in the palace known as Windsor 
Castle, she took great pleasure in going 
through the streets of the village of 
Windsor without letting the people 
know who she was. 

One day, when the queen was passing 
through the village in this quiet way, a 
rainstorm came up, and she stepped into 
a cottage and asked the woman who 
lived there for the loan of an umbrella. 

The woman looked at the queen, who 
was very plainly dressed, and at last she 
said: “I have two umbrellas, one an old 
shabby one, and the other, which is my 
Sabbath umbrella. I shall give you the 
shabby one, for I never expect to see it 
again.” 

Queen Victoria quietly accepted the 
old umbrella without telling the woman 
who she was, and went on her way. 
The next day, however, a messenger 


ANECDOTES 421 


from the royal castle brought back the 
shabby umbrella and with it a handsome 
present of money. 

The woman was greatly startled. 
“O sir, who was it that borrowed my 
umbrella?” she asked of the royal mes- 
senger. 

“It was your queen,” was the answer. 
--“Oh!” exclaimed the woman, “My 
queen, my queen, would that I had 
known you, for I would so gladly have 
given you my best!” 

But the woman’s lament was in vain. 
She had missed her opportunity to show 
full respect to her queen, and never again 
could she do the favor, which she would 
gladly have done if she had only realized 
that Queen Victoria stood before her on 
that rainy day.—Apples of Gold. 


— 819 — 
THE MIST OF DEATH 


One beautiful moonlight night on the 
Hudson River, the engineer heard the 
quick, sharp ring of the pilot’s bell. He 
stopped his engine and looked out, won- 
dering why he had been stopped in the 
middle of the stream. The night was 
lovely ; the river calm; the moon shining 
brightly. He put his engine in charge 
of his assistant and went up to the 
pilot’s house to see what was the matter. 

There stood the pilot holding to the 
wheel as if he were looking out. “Why 
did you stop me?” said the engineer. 

In a low, husky voice the pilot re 
plied, “There is a mist upon the river, 
and I cannot see to steer the boat. We 
had better anchor until the morning. 
See the captain and tell him so.” 

The engineer looked into the face of 
the man and saw that death was there. 
He caught the pilot in his arms and laid 
him down, only to see him breathe his 
last. 

Soon the mist will gather around you 
and me; soon the thick shadows will 
fall across our path; but as followers of 
Jesus there is nothing to fear. “Though 
I walk through the valley of the shadow 
of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art 
with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they 
comfort me.”—-H. M. Wharton. 


422 


— 820 — 
SO EASY TO WIN A SOUL 


Some years ago, at a conference of 
Christian workers at East Northfield, 
Massachusetts, Henry M. Moore, a mer- 
chant of Boston, a man much used of 
God for the salvation of souls, in ad- 
dressing an audience of ministers on the 
importance of personal effort to save 
the lost, said if we would only open our 
mouths and speak to them, we would be 
surprised at times to see how easy it 
is to win a soul to Christ. And he illus- 
trated this point from his own first at- 
tempt. 


After his conversion he became very 
desirous of winning someone else. To 
him it seemed a very great undertaking. 
But if he tried, as he meant to do, he 
hoped the Lord would let him live long 
enough to save at least one. But he had 
not yet mustered up the courage to 
speak to anyone on the subject of their 
salvation. 

Finally he thought his chance had 
come. An unconverted young woman 
had come to his home to do dressmak- 
ing for his wife. She was to stay more 
than a week, and he determined to speak 
to her concerning her salvation. But 
day after day passed, as he put off the 
dreaded duty, and he had not yet the 
courage to speak to her.. Finally the 
time of her departure came, and he was 
filled with seli-reproach because he had 
failed so miserably. But as he took her 
hand to say, “Good bye,” he stammered, 
“Oh, Hattie, how I wish you were a 
Christian !” 

With no reply, she was gone. She 
was gone, and he was left to reproach 
himself for not having even tried to win 
her. A day or two later, however, he 
was surprised to get a letter from Hattie 
thanking him for his interest in her 
soul’s welfare. She said his parting 
words continued to ring in her ears, and 
she could not sleep that night until she 
arose from her berth, and, kneeling upon 
the floor of her stateroom, gave herself 
to Christ, in whose saving favor she 
was now rejoicing.—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES. 


— 821 — 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL BOYS 


Perhaps no higher tribute has been 
paid to Sunday-school boys as a class 
than was the one given by County Judge 
Fawcett, of Brooklyn, a few days ago. 
In sentencing George H. Lott, nineteen, 
to a term in Elmira Reformatory for 
burglary, Judge Fawcett said: 

“Of all the undesirable professions, 
that of burglary is the worst. No matter 
how good a burglar you may be, you 
will be caught and sent to prison sooner 
or later. I have seen your friends who 
wished to speak to me about you, and I 
find that all attempts to have you go to 
Sunday-school have failed. In the five - 
years I have been sitting on this bench I 
have had 2,700 boys before me for sen- 
tence and not one of them was an at- 
tendant of a Sunday-school. Had you 
gone there I am sure you would not be 
before me to-day.” 

Instead of being ashamed of attend- 
ance at Sunday-school, a boy should be 
proud of it—Christian Work and Evan- 
gelist. 

— 822 — 


THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST 


My little boy, since taken to heaven, 
once asked me, “Papa, how is it that one 
person, Christ, could atone for the sin 
of millions of men?” We were in a 
garden at the time. I replied, “Suppose 
that there was on the ground there a 
handful of worms; don’t you think that 
you would be more valuable than those 
worms?” “Yes,” he said. “Suppose 
that that wheel-barrow was full of 
worms; would you not be more valuable 
than all of them?” “Yes.” “Suppose 
all the millions of worms in the earth 
were gathered together; would you not 
still be more valuable than they, no 
matter how many?” ’“Yes; I am sure I 
would.” “Then is there not a far greater 
difference in the scale of being between 
Christ and man than between man and 
the worm? We are creatures; God is 
the Creator. Had many other worlds 
sinned as well as ours, the blood of 
Christ would be more than sufficient to 
atone for them all.”—R, C. Morgan. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 823 — 
HIS BIBLE 


One night, just before the late Cap- 
tain Bickel was retiring to rest, he met 
at the deck house door a rufhan who had 
been wonderfully converted on one of 
these voyages. Although a rough, un- 
tutored man he had gone at once to 
others telling the story of his conversion 
and of Christ as he had received Him. 

Mr. Bickel was very tired, but he had 
a little talk with the man. He asked 
him if he would take a Bible to a certain 
manonthe morrow. He shook his head. 
“No, no, Captain; he does not need 
that.” “But why note?” “It won’t do 
him any good.” “But why?” “Because 
it is too soon. That is your Bible, and, 
thank God! it is now mine; but it is not 
his Bible.” “What do you mean by 
that?” “Why, simply that he has an- 
other Bible; you are his Bible; he is 
watching you. As you fail, Christ fails. 
As you live Christ, so Christ is revealed 
to him.” 

Writing of this incident, Captain 
Bickel said: “Friends, I did not sleep 
well that night. I knew it in a way, of 
course, but to say: ‘As you live, so 
Christ lives in that man’s soul in that 
house, in that village, in four hundred 
villages.’ God help me! 
called a thief, liar, foreign spy, traitor, 
devil in public and private, and had not 
flinched; but to face this! As you live, 
Christ lives in a hundred thousand 
hearts. As you fail to live Christ, Christ 
is crucified again. What wonder that 
the message of the converted ruffian 
sank deeply into my heart! What won- 
der that I slept not.”—-Men and Mis- 
sions, 


— 824 — 


»~HOW TO MAKE LIFE HAPPY 


Take time; it is no use to fume or fret 
or do as the angry housekeeper who has 
got hold of the wrong key, and pushes, 
shakes, and rattles it about in the lock 
until both are broken and the door is 
still unopened. 

The chief secret of comfort lies in not 


I had been” 


423 


suffering trifles to vex us, and in culti- 
vating our undergrowth of small pleas- 
ures. 

Try to regard present vexations as you 
will regard them a month hence. 

Since we cannot get what we like, let 
us like what we can get. 

It is not riches, it is not poverty, it is 
human nature that is the trouble. 

The world is like a looking-glass. 
Laugh at it and it laughs back; frown 
at it and it frowns back.—London §&. S. 
Times. 


— 825 — 
HOW TO HEAR GOD’S VOICE 


A man was standing in a telephone 
booth trying to talk, but could not make 
out the message. He kept saying, “I 
can’t hear, I can’t hear.” The other man 
by-and-by said sharply, “If you'll shut 
the door you can hear.” 

His door was not shut, and he could 
hear not only the man’s voice, but the 
street and store noises, too. Some folks 
have gotten their hearing badly confused 
because their doors have not been shut 
enough. Man’s voice and God’s voice 
get mixed in their ears. They cannot 
distinguish between them. The bother 
is partly with the door. If you'll shut 
that door you can hear.—S. D. Gordon. 

— 826 — 
ACCURACY OF THE BIBLE 


The Springfield Republican recently 
declared that Ex. il, 3, gave the Stand- 
ard Oil Company the idea that oil was 
to be found in Egypt. This is reported 
to be the assertion of Charles Whitshott, 
geologist and oil and gas expert for the 
Standard Oil Company: “The verse tells 
of the use of pitch in making the craft in 
which the babe Moses was set adrift. 
Alphant, of the Standard Oil Company, 
reasoned that where there was pitch 
there was oil. I was sent to investigate, 
and three wells are now in operation, 
with more being developed as the 
result.” 

When men’s eyes are opened to divine 
light they may see science as they have 
never seen it—let us hope and pray that 
they may.—Herald of Gospel Libery. 


424 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 827 — 
LESSONS FROM A BLACK BUG 


One vacation, going across lots in 
Rose, N. Y., I came to a well where 
Gideon Barrett watered his stock. As 
I neared the well I heard a tinkling 
sound coming from a tin pail close by. 
Investigating the cause, I found it was 
made by the efforts of a good-sized black 
bug to escape from the pail. How it got 
in I do not know, but it was easy to see 
why it wanted to get out. The hot mid- 
day sun was pouring down on the pail, 
and not a comfortable spot could Mr. 
Bug find therein, so naturally he was 
doing his best to get out. 

He would climb up the side of the pail 
until near the top, then his strength 
would fail, or more likely the hot metal 
would cause him to let go his hold, and 
he would fall to the bottom again. His 
striking the bottom was the sound I had 
heard. But no sooner did he reach the 
hotter bottom than up he would get and 
start again for the top and liberty. 

As I watched his efforts, this opera- 
tion of climbing and falling was repeated 
perhaps a dozen times, and still the bug 
did not give up. His persevering earn- 
estness to escape awakened my interest, 
and I determined to effect his release, 
and yet to do it my own way. So I 
plucked a timothy stalk, and let it down 
to him. At first he failed to avail him- 
self of the help I was extending, and 
continued to persevere in the use of his 
own method of escape. But my deter- 
mination to help him was not lessened 
by his lack of apprehension of what I 
was doing, and persevering in my efforts 
the bug at last laid hold of the cool grass 
stalk with an unfailing grasp, and was 
quickly raised to a comfortable life and 
liberty. 

As I looked upon this little bug trying 
to escape from its misery, and felt an 
interest in its efforts and determined to 
save it, I could not but think of the great 
God in whose sight the inhabitants of 
earth are as grasshoppers (Isa. 40:22) 
and I could better understand his com- 
passion for mankind. 

As I aided the bug because of a spark 


cannot the great God be moved with 
compassion for struggling humanity, 
however small we are in his sight? 

As the bug was unable to comprehend 
me and my method for its salvation, so 
we cannot understand the Infinite One 
and His ways. 

As the bug ventured to clutch the 
straw extended for its relief, without 
knowing my purpose of mercy, shall not 
we lay hold upon the hope set before us 
in the gospel, which comes to us with 
such assurance of salvation? 

When I had determined to save the 
struggling insect, I was bound to carry 
it through though it should require turn- 
ing the pail upside down. So shall not 
the Almighty succeed in his purposes 
of mercy when he has once undertaken 
our salvation?—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 828 — 
BE HONEST 


The great explorer, David Livingston, 
writes in one of his books: 

Grandfather could give particulars of 
the lives of his ancestors for six genera- 
tions of the family before him; and the 
only part of the tradition I feel proud of 
is this. One of these poor, hardy island- 
ers was renowned in the district for great 
wisdom and prudence, and it is related 
that when he was on his deathbed he 
one all his children around him and 
said: 

“Now, in my lifetime I have searched 
most carefully through all the traditions 
I could find of our family and I never 
could discover that there was a dishonest 
man among our forefathers. If, there- 
fore, any of you, or any of your children, 
should take to dishonest ways, it will not 
be because it runs in our blood; it does 
not belong to you. I leave this precept 
with you, ‘Be honest.’” — Children’s 
Friend. 


oom 829) mess 
“MY MASTER IS ALWAYS IN” 
A little boy was once taking care of a 
store while his master was out. Pres- 


ently a man came into the store and 
asked for some goods. Then, seeing the 


of pity felt for so worthless a creature, boy was alone, he added, “Johnny, you 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


must give me an extra measure; your 
master is not in.” 

Johnny looked up into the man’s face, 
very seriously, and said quietly, “My 
master is always in.” 

Johnny’s Master was the all-seeing 
God, and Johnny was trying to please 
Him ail the time. 

Whenever we are tempted to do wrong 
let us say as Johnny did, “My Master 
is always in.” If we take this as our 
motto and live up to it faithfully, we 
shall find that we can overcome every 
temptation that attacks us. — Christian 
Intelligencer. 


— 830 — 
LIVING IN THE HEIGHTS 


IT once climbed up to the magnificent 
fortress of Salzberg, which overlooks 
wide leagues of emerald plains with the 
snowy Tyrolese Alps in the background. 
It is one of the most enchanting out- 
looks in all Europe. But while I could 
enjoy the splendid prospect only for an 
hour, I found that a hundred or more 
people were living up there. So it is 
with a soul that has been redeemed by 
the blood of Jesus, and has repented of 
sin, and been regenerated by the Holy 
Spirit; he has got into a new position, 


breathes a new atmosphere and has a 


new outlook. He lives up with God. 
This is the true higher life. The morn- 
ing sun of God’s favor shines on him, 
and at evening it is still light. There 
is such a thing as keeping our heads and 
our hands busy in all the useful activi- 
ties of life and yet having our hearts 
dwelling “in fellowship with the Father, 
and with His Son Jesus Christ.”—Rev. 
T. L. Cuyler, D.D. 


— 831 — 
CHRISTIAN UNWORTHINESS 


No man in Scotland has a more 
Saintly memory than Robert Murray 
McCheyne, and yet he said: “No one but 
God knows the abyss of sin in my 
heart.” 

To another saintly man of England 
someone said, when he was on his death- 
bed, “How happy you must be; the 


425 


gates of heaven will be crowded with 
your converts waiting to greet you.” 
But he replied, “Take the man away; 
if I can but crawl into heaven, on my 
hands and knees, before the gate shuts, 
Pll be the blessedest man in heaven!” 

An aged father when complimented 
on his work for Christ said, “Call me not 
a saint, I am a devil.” It is only after 
pardon you see that real tears and ten- 
derness came.—Rev. Alexander Whyte, 
D.D. 


— 832 — 
A SAFE REFUGE 


I once spent a night in the ancient 
castellated convent of Mar Saba in the 
gorge of the Kidron. All night I lay 
secure in the strong fortress while the 
jackals howled down beneath us, and the 
Bedouin prowled without the wails. So 
may every follower of Christ who has 
lodged himself in the stronghold of the 
divine promises rest securely and let 
Satan’s jackals howl as fiercely as they 
choose, or the adversary lie in wait out- 
side the gateway. When I put my soul 
and my eternal interests into Christ’s 
keeping, why should I worry? Duty is 
mine; service of the Master and my fel- 
lowmen is mine; my salvation belongs 
to Him who hath promised it. Who can 
separate me from the love of God which 
is in Christ Jesus our Lord?—Rev. T. L. 
Cuyler, D. D. 

— 833 — 


TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY 


The strawberry that ripens slowly in 
the garden has a sweetness unknown to 
the hot-house fruit. When I was in 
California I asked for strawberries in a 
hotel, The waiter was an Englishman 
and recognized me for an Englishman. 
When I gave the order for strawberries 
he hesitated, and then said, “You will 
not like our strawberries. They have 
not the flavor and sweetness of English 
strawberries. They grow too fast. We 
get three crops a year out here. But if 
you insist on it I will bring you some.” 
It is the same with the soul as with 
strawberries. We must take time to be 
holy.—-Thomas Tiplady. 


426 


— 834 — 
A SLUM CHILD’S FAITH 


During the years I was at work in the 
slums of southeast London the following 
magnificent example of a simple, confid- 
ing faith came to my knowledge. The 
story is authentic—the facts precisely as 
stated. A poor little slum child of about 
eleven years old developed a terrible 
malady which demanded an instant 
operation. He was taken to Guy’s Hos- 
pital, where the great surgeon who 
examined him had to tell the little waif 
that, although there was just a fighting 
chance for his life, he would, in all prob- 
ability, die on the operating table. 

The seats of the operating theatre, 
rising tier above tier, like the gallery of 
a church, were filled with long rows of 
students, come to witness the greatest 
surgeon of his time use the knife. The 
little patient was brought in, and during 
the performance of certain preliminaries, 
placed in a cushioned chair. Looking 
around at the great throng of men, he 
said timidly to one of the assistant 
doctors: 


“Please, sir, I am a Christian, and I 
should be very glad if one of you gentle- 
men would just say a little prayer for 
me. You've told me I’m in great danger, 
but a little prayer to Jesus would help 
me ever such a lot in my trouble.” 


The surgeon patted him on the head. 

“We'll do our best, my little man,” 
he said kindly. “You must try to be 
brave.” 


“Yes,” answered the lad, “I’ll be brave, 
sir. But I’d like a little prayer, to ask 
God to help you to use the knife right— 
and to help me, too.” 


There was a profound silence. No- 
body moved, so the little slum child 
knelt down and said: 


“Dear Jesus, will you please have 
mercy on me now, and if I die will you 
take me to be with you in heaven? I’m 
only a poor, weak little lad, but please, 
I'd like to live. So, dear Jesus, will you 
please help this kind gentleman so that 
he will be able to do his work right? 
Amen.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES — 


Having said his prayer, the boy 
climbed onto the table with a quiet 
smile lighting up his face. The anaes- 
thetic was promptly administered, but 
so long as there was any consciousness 
the boy was heard praying. 


The great surgeon stood at the head of 
the table, fully aware that he was about 
to perform an operation that would test 
his skill to the utmost limit—an opera- 
tion that required exceptional coolness, 
calmness and delicacy of touch. Yet for 
a moment or so he was visibly agitated. 
The students exchanged significant 
glances. Never had they seen their 
great chief unnerved before, and the 
fact of his being so now augured but ill 
for the life of the city waif. 

Yet as he looked at the still moving 
lips of the prostrate boy a great calm 
stole over the doctor. He commenced 
to operate, and immediately realized that 
the slum child’s prayer was being an- 
swered. Coolness of head, steadiness of 
hand, and delicacy of touch, all came as 
they were needed. The boy’s life hung 
on a mere thread, but the skilful surgeon 
did not snap it. Though quite the most 
critical he had ever undertaken, the 
operation was performed with consum- 
mate ease and complete success. . 


The next morning the surgeon stood 
in the ward by the bedside of his little 
patient. Taking his hand he said: “Well, 
Tommy, the good Jesus heard your 
prayer yesterday.” 

A happy, confident smile lit up the 
sick boy’s face as he answered: “I knew 
He would.” Then his face clouded over 
and he said: “And you were very good 
to me, and I have nothing to give you— 
nothing at all.” Then a happy thought 
came to him, and his face lit up again 
as he whispered: “But I can keep on 
praying to Jesus for you, can’t I?” 

A great lump came into the doctor’s 
throat. “That you can,” he answered 
huskily, “and that will be heaps better 
than any kind of money, for God knows 
I sorely need the continual prayers of a 
brave little soul like you.”—Philip I. 


Robert in The Christian Work and 
Evangelist. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


ee (ea 
TESTIMONY OF IRENAEUS 
CONCERNING JESUS 


Tertullian, who lived in the time of 
Polycarp, tells us he was ordained bishop 
of the Church at Smyrna by the Apostle 
John. Polycarp suffered martyrdom, as 
eminent authorities agree, on Saturday, 
February 23, in the year 155. When 
offered his life by the proconsul, who 
wanted to spare the venerable man, on 
the condition that he should revile 
Christ, Polycarp replied in the memor- 
able words, “Eighty and six years have 
I served Him and He has done me no 
wrong, and how can I now blaspheme 
my King that has saved me.” This reply 
of Polycarp indicates that he must have 
been born before the year 79. 

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, born be- 
tween the years 120 and 140, and who 
died probably in 202, in his letter to 
Florinus says: ~ 

“I saw you when I was yet as a boy, 
in lower Asia with Polycarp. 

“I could even now point out the place 
where the blessed Polycarp sat and 
spoke, and describe his going out and 
coming in, his manner of life, his personal 
appearance, the addresses he delivered 
to the multitude; how he spoke of his 


intercourse with John, and with the. 


others who had seen the Lord, and how 
he recalled their words. And everything 
that he had heard from them about the 
Lord, about his miracles, and his teach- 
ing, Polycarp told us, as one who had 
received it from those who had seen the 
Word of Life with their own eyes, and 
all this in complete harmony with the 
Scriptures. To this I listened, through 
the mercy of God vouchsafed to me, with 
all eagerness, and wrote it not on paper, 
but in my heart, and still by the grace 
of God I ever bring it into fresh remem- 
brance.” 

How precious these words from this 
pupil of one who had seen the Apostles 
of Christ! How short the chain—only 
three links—that connects us with the 
times of the Word of Life. Irenaeus, 
Polycarp, John, Jesus.—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


ANECDOTES 427 


— 836 — 
THE PENNY COLLECTION 


In central Texas a rich drover, whose 
son had committed murder, engaged the 
best criminal lawyer that money could 
procure to defend his boy. He was ac- 
quitted. The lawyer presented his bill. 
It was staggering. The attorney said: 
“I hope you do not think it too large?” 
“Oh, no, not at all,” he responded. “You 
have saved my boy. I would gladly 
have paid you twice the amount.” 

That winter a faithful pastor won that 
boy to Christ, and thus saved him from 
a continuance in drunkenness and sin. 
When the pastor asked the drover for a 
contribution toward the kingdom of God, 
the thank offering was—a dollar! 

How much should we give to Him 
who saves us? 

“Give till it hurts,” is a term, much 
abused, that is current. 

It sounds pat, but I’ll confess that I 
don’t like it. It sounds like cant, and 
we all hate cant. I believe in self-sacri- 
fice, but not in the kind implied. What 
is the implication in “Give till it hurts?” 
Plainly that you don’t want to give. 

If you walk till it hurts, at the end of 
a week you will hobble. You've lost the 
force and value of the exercise. 


If a man reads till it hurts his eyes, 
his head swims and his mind is muddled. 


If we do anything till it hurts, it ceases 
to be beneficial. We are to make sacri- 
fices in our giving, but they won't hurt. 
They wouldn’t be true sacrifices if they 
did. A man sacrifices for the woman he 
loves, but it doesn’t hurt—he’s happy to 
do it. You may give with the feeling of 
debt-paying and duty-doing, but when 
love, and loyalty, and eagerness impel 
us the sacrifice is full of joy. 

I like the Bible on that. Hear it: 

“He that soweth sparingly shall reap 
also sparingly; and he that soweth boun- 
tifully shall reap also bountifully. Every 
man as he purposeth in his heart so let 
him give; not grudgingly or of necessity, 
for God loveth a cheerful giver.”——-S. W. 
Purvis. 


428 


A STORY OF THE BLIZZARD 


In the ‘month of January, 1888, a tear- 
ful blizzard swept over the plains in the 
Northwest country. You perhaps read 
of it in the daily papers or heard others 
tell of the fearful suffering it caused in 
Dakota. The day was bright, and no 
one thought of danger, when, as if by 
magic, the sky grew black, the air in- 
tensely cold, and a hurricane swept all 
before it; snow came with the storm, 
and so fine, hard, and thick that no one 
could see a yard before them. Hundreds 
of people and even cattle were frozen to 
death. Mothers waited anxiously for 
the return of their children who had 
gone to school. Some perished on the 
way and their little bodies were taken 
home. Many brave deeds were done by 
men and women during that dreadful 
storm, and I will tell you about one of 
them. 

A young girl taught in a country 
school-house. That day she had only 
thirteen scholars, and when the storm 
came on they became frightened; so was 
the teacher, but she did not let the chil- 
dren know of her fear. She gathered 
them around the stove, and told them to 
wrap up, as they soon would go home; 
but all the time she was thinking what 
she should do with the children to secure 
their safety. They were all small, and 
if she let them separate, some, if not all, 
would be lost. She determined to stick 
to the school-house as long as she could. 
But the next minute the door was blown 
from its hinges. Then she remembered 
a ball of twine which she had taken from 
a boy. With this she tied the children 
together, and then tied the end of the 
string to her own arm. Just then the 
roof was blown from the house, and she 
‘knew that they must leave. It was 
three-quarters of a mile to the nearest 
shelter. She took the youngest child in 
her arms and told the others to follow 
her, and so they went in single file. If 
one fell the others knew it, for they were 
tied together; or if one, blinded by the 
snow, strayed out of the way, the string 
brought it back. Some of the children 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


had their ears and noses frozen, and the 
teacher had her fingers and cheeks frost- 
bitten. But they were all saved, for the 
brave girl led them through the dreadful 
blizzard to a place of safety. They were 
saved by sticking together, by none of 
them breaking the string, and by follow- 
ing their brave teacher—Edward Cars- 
well, 


— 838 — 
YOU CAN IF YOU WILL 


Don Basilo was a captain in the army 
of Isabella of Spain, and Ramon, though 
a friend, was serving with the Carlists. 
Don Basilo, with twenty fothers, was 
captured by the Carlists and sentenced 
to be shot. The shooting began, and 
already seven had fallen. Regardless of 
what might befall him, Ramon rushed 
forward and seizing Don Basilo, cried 


out to his general, “Not this one! Not 
this one!” “Why not this one? Is he 
a musician?” asked the general. The 


Carlists were not executing musicians, 
for they needed them in their bands. 
“Yes, yes, General, he is a musician.” 
Ramon replied. “Upon what instru- 
ment does he play?” “T-th-ah, the 
French horn!” The general spared Don 
Basilo and he was allotted to a band 
that was to be organized in fourteen 
days. 

But Don Basilo had never played any 
instrument, did not know one note from 
another, and the French horn is a most 
difficult instrument to learn. Death for 
both him and his friend Ramon seemed 
the inevitable fate. 

But Don Basilo said to Ramon, “In 
fourteen days I shall know music; in 
fourteen days I will play upon the 
horn!” 

How he accomplished this feat which 
anyone would call impossible he thus 
tells: “In fourteen days—ah, the power 
of the will!—in fourteen days, with the 
fourteen nights (I did not sleep for half 
a month)—yes, you have cause to be 
astonished—in fourteen days I learned 
to play the horn! What days they were! 
Ramon and I went to the fields and 
spent our days with a musician who 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


came from a neighboring town to in- 
struct me. I spoke nothing, I thought 
nothing, I ate nothing. My only thought 
was music—the French horn. I wanted 
to learn, and I learned it. Had I been 
dumb, I should have learned to speak; 
if lame, to walk; if blind, to see—because 
it was my will to do it. Ah, the will; 
that is the greatest power on earth. I 
had the will to do it; therein lies the 
whole deed. I had the will—and I suc- 
ceeded.”—-Martha Tarbell. 


— 839 — 
ELIJAH’S GOD OURS 


On one occasion the author of “The 
Bank of Faith” had been greatly exer- 
cised with debt and embarrassment, and 
his patience was severely tried, not only 
on account of himself, but his friend, 
who was in great distress, and stood 
much in need of a little relief. His never- 
failing resort was to the great Father of 
bounties, in earnest and sincere prayer. 
And God, who heareth the ravens when 
they cry, thus answered him. 

It was the evening previous that he 
made the subject a matter of special 
supplication. The next morning a per- 
son knocked at the door, desiring to see 
him. When he came into the study, he 
says: “I looked at him, and perceived 


him to be a gentleman that I had never - 


seen before. He told me that he had 
once heard me preach at Dr. Gifford’s 
meeting-house, and once or twice at 
Margaret Street Chapel, and that he had 
heard me greatly to his satisfaction; 
and the reason of his coming to see me 
now was that he had been exercised 
the last night with a dream—that he 
dreamed the Word of God came to him, 
saying: ‘If thy brother be waxed poor, 
thou shalt open thy hand to thy poor 
brother, etc.’ He asked me if there was 
such a portion of Scripture; I answered 
the words were these: ‘If there be 
among you a poor man, one of thy 
brethren, within any of thy gates, in the 
land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, 
nor shut thy hand from thy poor 
brother’ (Deut. xv:7-11). He then told 


429 


me that these words came to him in his 
sleep; and in the morning when he 
awoke, he felt the power of them. In 
wondering who this poor brother could 
be, he informed me it was impressed 
upon his mind that I was the brother 
about whom he had dreamed; and asked 
me concerning my circumstances. I 
then told him of the trial I was in; and 
as he was fully satisfied it was of God, 
he wondered much at it. At his de- 
parture, he gave me money and goods 
sufficient to relieve my own circum- 
stances and also the condition of my 
friend. 

Thus God, who commanded a widow 
to sustain Elijah, commanded this man 
to relieve me.”—“‘God in Providence.” 


en 8A0 cs 
THE END OF THE GAME 


“When you get through with this 
hand I wish that you would let me use 
your table for a pulpit,” said a mission- 
ary to a crowd of gaming lumberjacks. 
The hand was finished, the service was 
held, every man remaining to it, and 
after the benediction the game was re- 
sumed. 

After such a service Fred Davis en- 
tered into conversation with a man, who 
said; “I’m making a little money work- 
ing days, but I’m making more at the 
card game at night, and I’m not going 
to quit till I have my pile. I know I 
ought to be a Christian, but not just 
yet. After a while I will.” Later this 
lumberjack shot a man at the card table. 
One day Davis preached in a California 
prison, and the warden told him that one 
of the prisoners wanted to speak to him. 
At the cell an arm was thrust through 
the bars and the man in the shadowed 
place said: “I’m the lumberjack you 
pleaded with to change my life and be- 
come a Christian. I wouldn’t because I 
was making money by gambling. Now 
look at me! Help me to get right with 
God.” With the bars between them they 
knelt and while they prayed together 
Christ fulfilled his promise and gave lib- 
erty to the captive.—Missionary Review 
ef the World. 


430° 


— 841 — 
STORY OF A JAPANESE GIRL 


In her lesson one day a young Japan- 
ese girl found the word “Creator,” but 
did not know its meaning. Turning to 
the dictionary, she read, “Creator, one 
who creates; a name given to God, who 
made all things.” 

A startling thought to her, for she had 
never heard of such a God; and it filled 
her mind by night and by day. She 
looked at the stars and said, ““God must 
have made all these stars.” The sun and 
even the trees suggested the thought, 
“God made them.” 

She went to the temple and looked 
at the image of Buddha, and she said 
to herself, “It was not you, Buddha, for 
I never heard that you made anything.” 

When she went to Tokyo an old 
woman in the same-house said to her, 
“Tasshee, J am going to a meeting; come 
with me.” 

“What meeting?” 

“A meeting to hear about God.” 

“Oh, no,” said Tasshee. “I do not 
want any of your god. I have a God of 
my own, if I only knew where He is.” 

Tasshee, however, went to the meéeet- 
ing. The missionary opened the Bible 
and read, “In the beginning God created 
the heaven and the earth.” Tasshee was 
startled. “Why,” she said, “this is the 
God I am looking for,’ and she became 
so agitated that she could hardly keep 
her seat, and so eager was she to put the 
question, “Where is He?” 

When the meeting was over, she 
rushed to the missionary and said, “Tell 
me, where is this God that made the 
heaven and the earth?” Her desire was 
met by proper instruction. 

She came to the next meeting and 
heard, “God so loved the world that he 
gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in him should not per- 
ish, but have everlasting life.” 

Here again Tasshee was startled. A 
God of love! Her gods were gods of 
hate of revenge. This God gave his Son. 
All the gods she had ever heard of never 
gave anything; the people had to give 
them offerings. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Thus a thirsting soul received the 
water of life. Tasshee is now a Christian 
teacher, dispensing the water of life to 
others, teiling them of a God who spared 
not his Son, but gave him up for as all. 
—Church at Home and Abroad. 


Bayt 
A GOOD INVESTMENT 


Several winters ago a woman was com- 
ing out of a public building where the 
heavy doors swung back and made 
egress somewhat difficult. A little street 
urchin sprang to the rescue, and, as he 
held open the door\ she said “Thank 
you,” and passed on. 


“D’ye hear that?” said the boy to a 
companion standing near him. . 


“No; what?” 
“Why, that lady said ‘Thank ye’ to 
the likes o’ me.” 


Amused at the conversation, the lady 
turned and said to the boy: 

“It always pays to be polite, my boy, 
remember that.” 

Years passed away, and last December 
when doing her Christmas shopping, this 
same lady received exceptional courtesy 
from a clerk in Boston, which caused her 
to remark to a friend who was with her: 


“What a great comfort to be civilly 
treated once in a while—though I don’t 
know that I blame the store clerks for 
being rude during the holidays.” 

The young man’s quick ear caught the 
words, and he said:’ 

..“‘Pardon me, madam, but you gave me 
my first lesson in politeness a few years 
ago.” 

The lady looked at him in amazement 
while he related the little forgotten inci- 
dent, and told her that the simple “Thank 
you” awakened his ambition to be some- 
thing in the world. He went and applied 
for a situation as office boy in the estab- 
lishment where he is now an honored and 
trusted clerk. 

Only two words dropped into the 
treasury of a street conversation, but 
they yielded returns most satisfactory.— 
The Congregationalist. | 


‘oa ves 
3 i eter 
aN el a — 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


— 843 — 
WHILE THEY YET PRAYED 


It is said that Jay Gould and another 
magnate were once, while travelling, de- 
layed in a small western town. Taking 
a walk they saw a crowd and heard an 
auctioneer crying out, “Fifteen hundred 
dollars!” Mr. Gould touched a tall 
Mexican on the arm and asked him what 
the sale was for.» “Pard,” said the 
ranger, “this be a knock-out for the 
parson.” “In what way?” asked Mr. 
Gould. “You see, pard, the parson built 
this church; but the tin petered out, and 
now the wood-butcher is selling the 
whole crowd out for his coin.” Mr. 
Gould stepped up to the auctioneer, 
asked for the contractor who was clos- 
ing out his lien. The auctioneer pointed 
out the man, and Gould approached him 
and asked the amount of his claim. 
“Seventeen hundred dollars and costs,” 
said he. “What will you take in settle- 
ment,” asked Mr. Gould, “I'll settle for 
fifteen hundred dollars, and donate the 
balance,” said the contractor. Mr. Gould, 
taking from his pocket several bills of 
large denomination, gave them to the 
contractor and took his receipt in full, 
with the cancelled lien. An old man 
going up to Mr. Gould, said: “Stranger, 
what are you going to do with the claim 
_ you've just bought?” Mr. Gould asked 
why he wanted to know. “Why,” said 
he, “I am the steward of the church. 
The members and Sabbath-school schol- 
ars are in the church, with the presiding 
elder and pastor on their knees, praying 
God to come to our help and save the 
church.” Mr. Gould gave the receipted 
bill and cancelled lien that he had in 
his hand, to the steward, and walked 
back to his train. The steward entered 
the church, now free, and told the peo- 
ple what the Lord had done, and they 
sang the doxology on their knees. Then 
they went out on the streets to find the 
stranger, and learned that it was Jay 
Gould. His train had gone, and only a 
cloud of dust on the far-away prairie 
indicated where their benefactor was. 
Mr. Gould said afterward a letter he 
received from that congregation, signed 


431 


by every one in it, gave him more pleas- 
ure than clearing a million dollars.— 
Selected. 


ub gadis 
THE FATALITY OF SIN 


“A professor in Scotland was lectur- 
ing to a class of students. While dis- 
secting the body of a snake, he spoke of 
the fatality and the suddenness of death 
as a consequence of its bite, and added, 
‘Gentlemen, I have made a small hurt 
in my hand, and such is the deadliness 
and quickness of the poison that should 
I neglect or fail from any cause to cau- 
terize the wound— While he stood 
holding his finger tightly to prevent the 
circulation, and still talking to the class, 
in rushed a messenger announcing a 
dangerous accident to one of the mem- 
bers of his household; whereupon, he, 
forgetting to cauterize his wounded fin- 
ger, rushed from the room to his home. 
Within less than an hour he was dead. 
Sin may not always be so quick in its 
action; but it is as fatal as blood poison- 
ing, and equally certain to produce death 
to the soul.” 


ne R45 er 


TROUBLES TURNED INTO 
PEARLS 


Things that cause pain are often trans- 
formed into things that give pleasure. 
Think, for example, how pearls are 
formed. A grain of sand or some other 
foreign matter has found its way into 
the shell, and causes irritation to the 
tender body of the living inmate. This 
incites the animal to secrete from its 
own resources the means of coating the 
intrusive substance, which it is not able 
to eject. Around the irritating object, 
therefore, thin layers are deposited, one 
after another, until it is completely sur- 
rounded, and a pearl is formed. May it 
not be so with those things in our lives 
that are most unwelcome to us? Love 
to God in the heart will enable us to 
turn into pearls those troubles of ours 
which would otherwise so vex and dis- 
tress us.—Thomas Yates. 


432 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


~— 846 — 
APPLIED FAITH 


When Sir Walter Scott was a boy he 
was counted a great dullard. His accus- 
tomed place in the schoolroom was in 
the ignominious dunce corner, with the 
high and pointed paper cap of shame 
upon his head. He never seemed to 
have any interest in his studies or any 
ambition in life. So he had become an 
object of ridicule to the whole commun- 
ity. But one evening when he was a 
boy of twelve or fourteen, he chanced 
to be in a home that was entertaining a 
party of famous literary guests. Among 
them was Robert Burns, then just at the 
height of his fame. Late in the evening 
this great poet stood admiring a picture 
hanging on the wall. Underneath it was 
a couplet of verse; and when the poet 
asked who had written the words, none 
of the noted people present knew. But 
presently the little boy crept up timidly 
to his side and whispered in his ear the 
name of the author—and to show that 
he was familiar with the lines, he quoted 
the rest of the poem. .Burns was sur- 
prised and delighted, and, laying his 
hand on the youth’s head, he exclaimed: 
“Ah, bairnie, ye will be a great mon yet 
in Scotland some day!” 

That night Walter Scott went home 
walking as if on air. For had not the 
greatest man in all Scotland said that 
he would be a great man some day! 
From that very hour there came a won- 
derful change in the lad, a change in 
spirit and ambition that made him one 
of the greatest literary men of the world. 
Discouraged and hopeless, he became 
transformed by putting into his life the 
faith and hope that a great man had for 
him, 

Something like this must take place 
in the heart of every man and woman 
who would be successful in their Chris- 
tian experience. It is not enough to 
believe that God has a great plan for 
our lives, and believes that we can work 
it out together with Jesus Christ. We 
must come to believe that of ourselves, 
too. Every man must come to have 
faith in himselfi—faith that he can be 


what God wants him to be and do what 
God wants him to do.—Herald of Gos- 
pel Liberty. 


847 
THE OLD MAN AND HIS BOWL 


An old man sat by himself at a corner 
table, eating his food out of a wooden 
bowl. Once he had had a place at the 
dining table, but his hands had grown 
so shaky he spilled his food, and his son 
and daughter declared they could no lon- 
ger endure his presence at the table with 
them. At first he had been given an 
earthen dish, but after he let that fall 
his food was always given him in the 
wooden bowl. The five-year-old grand- 
son was busily hacking away at a piece 
of wood, for he had finished his meal 
before the others, and had rushed to this 
interrupted occupation. .“‘What are you 
making there so fine?” asked the father. 
“Y’m making a bowl,” the boy promptly 
answered, “for you and mother to eat 
out of when I am big.” The parents 
looked at each other, then rose without 
a word and began preparing a place at 
the table, and the father led the old man 
back to his rightful place, from which 
he was never again dispossessed. The 
parents had seen themselves in their 
father’s place, and had been made to 
realize they did not love him as they 
loved themselves.—Sel. 


— 848 — 
I CANNOT FEEL SAVED 


Martin Luther was asked by his arch 
enemy if he felt his sins forgiven. “No,” 
said the great reformer, “I don’t feel that 
they are forgiven, but I know they are, 
because God says so in His Word.” 
Paul did not say, “Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt feel saved,” 
but “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved.” 

Ask that man whose debt was paid by 
his brother, “Do you feel that your debt 
is paid?” “No,” is the reply, “I don’t 
feel that it is paid. I know from this 
receipt that it is paid, and I feel happy 
because I know it is paid.” 


So with you, dear reader. You must 





Rat ss ee cc eee 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


believe in God’s love to you as revealed 
at the cross of Calvary, and then you 
will feel happy, because you may know 
that you are saved. 

A dear old Christian, on hearing per- 
sons speaking of their feelings, used to 
say, “Feelings! Feelings! Don’t bother 
yourself about your feelings. I just 
stick to the old truth that Christ died 
for me, and He is my surety right on to 
eternity; and Ill stick to that like a 
limpet to the rock.”—-The Lutheran. 


ee BAG oe 
THE INFLUENCE OF A TRACT 


A young Frenchman who had been 
wounded at the siege of Saint Quentin 
was languishing on a pallet in the hos- 
pital, when a tract that lay on the cover- 
let caught his eye. He read it and was 
converted to God by it. You can see 
the monument of that man before the 
Church of the Consistory in Paris, stand- 
ing with a Bible in his hand. He is 
known in history as Admiral Coligny, 
the leader of the reformation in France. 
But the tract had not finished its work. 
It was read by Coligny’s nurse, a “sister 
of mercy,” who penitently placed it in 
the hands of the abbess, and she, too, 
was converted by it. She fled from 
France to the Palatinate, where she met 
a young prince and became his wife. 
The influence which she had upon that 
man reached out-into the reformation 
on the entire continent of Europe, for 
he was William of Orange. .“How far 
yon little candle threw its beam!” Who 
knows what a power a tract may be?— 
Selected. 


— 850 — 


GOD-GIVEN SIGHT 


Congenital blindness is incurable by 
modern science, but God is equal to its 
“curing.” A few months ago, in one of 
our Western States, a little one was 
born blind. Not a sign of a pupil in the 
little eyes. Prominent physicians pro- 
nounced him “stone blind.” But the 
parents and the household believed God 
was as able and as willing to work a 


ANECDOTES 433 


miracle today as when Jesus walked the 
streets of Galilee, so they prayed that 
God would give the little one his eye- 
sight. They knew the Word of God, 
“What things soever ye desire, when ye 
pray, believe that ye receive them, and 
ye shall have them.” Mk. 11:24. They 
believed and kept on believing until four 
months afterward the pupils appeared 
and the child could see, and God was 
glorified in their home as He had never 
been before.—Wayland Hoyt. 


— 851 — 


FAITH CASTS OUT DOUBT 


There was a good man and his wife 
who had kept a lighthouse for years. 
A visitor who came to see the light- 
house, looking out from the window 
over the waste of water, asked the good 
woman: “Are you not afraid of a night 
when the storm is on, and the big waves 
dash right over the lantern? Do you 
not fear that the lighthouse and all that 
is in it will be carried away?” The 
woman remarked that the idea never 
occurred to her now. She had lived there 
so long that she felt as safe on the lone 
rock as ever she did when she lived on 
the mainland. As for her husband, when 
asked if he did not feel anxious when the 
wind blew a hurricane, he answered: 
“Yes, I feel anxious to keep the lamps 
well trimmed, and the light burning, lest 
any vessel should be wrecked.” As to 
anxiety about the safety of the light- 
house, or his own personal security in 
it, he had outlived all that. 

Even so itis with me. “I know whom 
I have believed, and am persuaded that 
he is able to keep that which I have 
committed to him against the day. 
From henceforth let no man trouble me 
with doubts and questionings; I bear in 
my soul the proofs of the Spirit’s truth 
and power, and I will not have any of 
your artful reasonings. The gospel to 
me is truth: I am content to perish if it 
be not true. I risk my soul’s eternal fate 
upon the truth of the gospel, and I know 
no risk in it. .My one concern is to keep 
the lamps burning, that I may thereby 
enlighten others—Spurgeqn, =~ 


434 


— 852 — 
THE KURDISH MOTHER’S GIFT 


A missionary from Kharput, making 
his annual visit to a Kurdish village, saw 
in the congregation two faces that fasci- 
nated him. In a lad’s face there was the 
promise of great powers; in his mother’s 
face, a poor washerwoman, suffering and 
sorrow and hope and patience and 
passionate devotion seemed to have 
wrought their perfect work. At the 
close of the meeting he asked to have 
them brought to him. 

“Mother, do you love Jesus?” he 
asked the trembling woman. “I do,” she 
said, “I do.” “How much would you give 
to him?” “Oh, missionary, I have noth- 
ing! yet all I earn I give, saving only 
enough for food for this little boy and 
myself.” “Would you give your little 
boy?” “He is my all—my life!” “Think 
well of it tonight and pray. I return to 
Kharput tomorrow.” And the widow 
went out sobbing, “My only son, my 
Thomas!” 

The remaining hours of the mission- 
ary’s visit were very busy ones, and 
when the morning came and his horse 
was saddled, he had forgotten about 
Thomas. But just about the time he 
was ready to start there came the 
mother leading her boy by the hand. At 
the missionary’s feet she laid the little 
bundle of clothing on which she had 
worked all night. She placed one hand 
on her boy’s head, and with the other 
pointing upwards, said two words, 
“Thomai— Christos.” She then went 
back to her lonely life. But not to a 
narrowed or mournful life; hers was the 
joy of one who made the supreme sacri- 
fice, 

Thomas made good. He led his class. 
He advanced by leaps and bounds. And 
when he was graduated he went back 
to his old home where the mother waited 
for him, then far beyond into the Kurd- 
ish mountains to preach the Gospel. 
And they called him “The prophet of 
Kurdistan.” The black year of 1895 
came with its awful massacres. Thomas 
was shot and cruelly cut and left for 
dead. Against all probabilities he re- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


covered and resumed his work, giving 
himself to it with new courage and hope. 
The sacrifice of the mother bore its 
abundant fruit in the comfort he gave 
to orphans and brought to hundreds of 
widows, and they call him “The Saviour 
of Kurdistan.”—Selected. 


— 853 — 
LINCOLN’S MAGNANIMITY 


Secretary Chase spoke of President 
Lincoln as “the old coward,” “the old 
fool,” “the old gorilla,” “Congress ought 
to impeach him,” and the like. All this 
was repeated to Mr. Lincoln. He an- 
swered it, saying: “This does not make 
it so, does it? Mr. Chase is a good sec- 
retary. The people believe in him and 
take his money. That is what we want, 
is it not? I think we will have to keep 
him at it.” 

Mr. Chittenden was Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Treasury under Chase, and 
he gave me this item concerning Mr. 
Chase’s resignation. “I went over to 
Mr. Lincoln’s offices that morning, and 
found Mr. Lincoln sitting there with his 
head down, with his chin on his chest, 
evidently much depressed. He handed 
me a letter he had just read. It was 
Chase’s letter resigning. I read the let- 
ter and felt overwhelmed, and said: 
“President Lincoln, you must hold Chase 
to it. You cannot afford to divide the 
party in such a time as this. You must 
hold Chase to it!” 

Mr. Lincoln said: “Mr. Chittenden, 
Mr. Chase has determined the matter, 
and I will hold him to that.” After a 
few minutes without lifting up his head, 
he said: “Mr. Chittenden, Mr. Chase 
will make a good Chief Justice, and I 
will appoint him.” 

Mr. Chittenden said to me: “I had 
long known and loved Mr. Lincoln but 
when I saw him that hour, under the 
sting of personal insult and the shadow 
of threatened calamity, put that man in 
the highest place in the nation for the 
good of the Republic, he went up and 
up into an atmosphere of which I never 
dreamed. He was the greatest man I 
ever saw.’’—Bishop Charles H. Fowler. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 854 — 
IMPERFECT MADE PERFECT 


There is a beautiful story told of 
Professor von Herkomer, the celebrated 
sculptor and painter. His father, who 
was himself a sculptor, lived to a great 
age; and in his declining years the keen 
sight and sensitive touch, so necessary 
to the modeling which up to the end of 
his life he delighted to do, departed to 
a large extent from him. The model- 
ing he did in these latter days was, of 
course, far from reaching his accustomed 
standard. 


After he went to bed, however, each 
night the brilliant son who loved him 
would go into the studio where the old 
man had been at work, and, taking his 
work in hand, would correct all its de- 
ficiencies, giving it here a touch and 
there a touch, and rounding off its cor- 
ners and crudities, as he was so well 
able to do. Then when the old man 
came to the studio in the morning, the 
time when his failing eyesight was 
keenest, he did not see the imperfections 
and was happy in the work, all uncon- 
scious that someone who loved him had 
been correcting his work and beautify- 
ing it. 

I do not know if the story is true, but 
_ believe it is, and anyhow I am sure that 
is what Jesus does for us when we hon- 
estly do our best for Him. He Who 
has begun the work by inspiring us to 
begin, will overrule its mistakes and 
transform its poorness by His own beau- 
tifying touch until it is something of 
real value to His cause in the world. 
Yes! His faithfulness is our security, 
now and always.—Rev. J. Stuart Hol- 
den, D.D. 


— 855 — 
MONEY NOT THE MOTIVE 


Recently there came to our notice a 
story which very impressively teaches a 
lesson that needs constant repetition in 
these days of the reign of Mammon. 
We have read several stories of tempt- 
ing offers of various kinds having been 


ANECDOTES 435, 
made to Dr. John R. Mott to undertake 
certain forms of Christian or other work, 
but the following is the latest: 


A committee of wealthy influential 
men in New York City called upon Dr. 
Mott, and offered him the presidency of 
a strong business corporation at a salary 
of one hundred thousand dollars a year. 
On hearing the proposition, Dr. Mott 
became thoughtful and serious. Then 
tears showed in his eyes. Observing 
his serious mood and tears, the commit- 
tee, thinking he was troubled about 
what his decision should be, suggested 
that they did not wish him to take the 
matter of a decision so much to heart. 
Dr. Mott’s reply was that he was not at 
all troubled about how to decide, and 
assured them that his decision was 
reached the moment the proposition was 
made. 

“What pains-me,” he said, “is that 
I should have so lived before you that 
it would come into your minds to come 
to me with such an offer.” — British 
Weekly. 


— 856 + 
STILL CHISELING 


S. M. Haines gives this very apt illus- 
tration of the duty of doing one’s own 


‘work and not worrying because the great 


plan, as a whole, is not comprehended: 

A gentleman who was walking near 
an unoccupied building one day saw a 
stone-cutter chiseling patiently at a 
block of stone in front of him. The 
gentleman went up to him. 

“Still chiseling?” he remarked, pleas- 
antly. 

“Yes, still chiseling,’ replied the 
workman, going on with his work. 

“In what part of the building does this 
stone belong?” asked the gentleman. 

“T don’t know,” replied the stone- 
cutter; “I haven’t seen the plans.” 

Then he went on chiseling, chiseling. 
Now, that is what we should do. We 
have not seen the great plans of the 
Master Architect, but each of us has 
his work to do, and we should chisel 
away until it is done. 


430 


mmm 857 
LOVE BROUGHT HIM BACK 


Down in Jacksonville, Florida, a man, 
Judge Owen, quarreled with his be- 
trothed and, to try to forget, he took a 
position in a hospital. 

Finally he caught a disease and had 
almost succumbed to it. He had passed 
the critical stage of the disease, but he 
was dying. One day the lady, his sweet- 
heart, met the physician on the street 
and asked about the judge. 

“He’s sick,” he told her. 

“How bad?” she asked. 

“Well, he’s passed the critical stage, 
but he is dying,” the doctor told her. 

“But I don’t understand,” she said, 
“if he’s passed the critical stage, why 
he isn’t getting well.” 

“He’s dying of undying love for you, 
not the fever,” the doctor told her. 

She asked him to come with her to 
the florist, and he went, and there she 
purchased some smilax and intertwined 
lilacs and wrote on a card, “With my 
love,’ and signed her name. 

The doctor went back to the hospital, 
and his patient was tossing in fitful 
slumber. He laid the flowers on his 
breast, and he awoke and saw the flow- 
ers and buried his head in them. 

“Thanks for the flowers, doctor,” he 
said. But the doctor said: 

“They are not from me.” 

“Then who are they from?” 

“Guess.” 

“T can’t; tell me.” 

“J think you will find the name on 
the card,” the doctor hold him, and he 
looked and read the card: “With my 
love.” 

“Tell me,” he cried, “did she write 
_ that of her own free well, or did you 
beg her to do it?” 

The doctor told him she had begged 
to do it herself. 

Then you ought to have seen him. 
The next day he was sitting up. The 
next day he ate some gruel. The next 
day he was ina chair. The next day he 
could hobble on crutches. The next day 
he threw one of them away. The next 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


day he walked with a cane. The next 
day he threw the cane away, and the 
next day he could walk pretty well. 

On the ninth day there was a quiet 
wedding in the annex of the hospital. 

This old world is like a hospital. 
Here are the wards for the libertines. 
Here are the wards for the drunkards. 
HKere are the wards for the blasphemers. 
Everywhere I look I see scarred hu- 
manity. 

Nineteen hundred years ago God 
looked over the battlements of heaven, 
and He picked a basket of flowers, and 
one day He dropped a baby into the 
manger at Bethlehem, and when the 
wise men saw Him they read: “For 
God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth on Him should not perish but 
have everlasting life.” 

What more can He do?” 

—Billy Sunday. 
— 858 — 
NOT BY OUR GOOD WORKS 


Some time since, Dr. Rogers, then of 
Albany, gave an account of a dream 
which led to the conversion of a gentle- 
man who became a member of his 
church. Before his conversion, the man 
prided himself on the high-toned moral- 
ity of his life. He was a moralist in the 
strict sense of the word, and felt that he 
was ready to go before God in judgment 
at any time. One night he dreamed that 
he left this world and went to another. 
He soon found himself in a large au- 
dience-room, the door of which led to 
the abode of the blest. Over this door 
were written these words: “None can 
enter here, but those who have led a 
strictly moral life, and have paid their 
honest debts.” The words did not alarm 
him; he felt that he was sure of entering. 
He had led that moral life, and paid his 
honest debts. Oh, yes, he could surely 
enter there. 

Very soon a poor, wretched old man 
came up to him, and said, “You cannot 
enter; you have not paid your honest 
debts.” “Why, yes, I have.” “Ah, no; 
don’t you remember me? Once while on 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


earth you were riding in your carriage, 
and I asked you for alms, but you rode 
swiftly and scornfully by. You have not 
paid your honest debts.” 

Shortly another, seeing him, stepped 
up to him and said, “My dear sir, you 
cannot pass that door; you have not 
paid your honest debts.” “Certainly I 
have.” “Do you remember buying a 
yoke of oxen of me?” “Yes, but I paid 
the price you demanded.” “So you did; 
but you cheated me; you took advantage 
of my necessity. You cannot enter 
there.” 

And so it was with one after another. 
He began to feel that his morality would 
avail him nothing. Shortly the letters 
faded away, and then came in their place, 
shining in clear, beautiful characters, 
this sentence: “The blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth from all sin.” In his 
agony he grasped Christ as his only 
hope. And when he awoke, he renounced 
all his boast of morality, accepted Christ 
as his only salvation, and became a liv- 
ing example of faith and trust in Him.— 
Selected. 


— 859 — 
POOR, MAKING MANY RICH 


Yesterday during a call at a basement 
home on one of our poorest parishioners, 
the owner of the house, residing in an- 
other part of the city, called and was 
introduced. She is a Christian woman 
and in the conversation which ensued 
expressed her surprise that a Protestant 
church could be maintained in this 
community. We told her that the cost 
of supporting a church in New York 
may be very great or it may be very lit- 
tle, and that ours is a church that can 
get along comfortably on a little. To 
begin with, our church is not obliged to 
raise a salary of several thousand dol- 
lars for its pastor, aS are most city 
churches. 

“Yes,” she replied, “the pastor of —— 
church receives a salary of fifteen thou- 
sand dollars.” 

On the other hand, the only obligation 
of the members of the People’s Taber- 


437 


nacle is a moral one. They are expected 
to give only what they reasonably can, 
and this, supplemented by the free-will 
offerings of those who believe that a 
church like ours should be maintained 
here, has always been sufficient for its 
support, and as long as we live and can 
labor we expect it will continue to be so. 
We told her that no man can be so poor 
as to be unwelcome at the Tabernacle, 
and that the charter of the church pro- 
vides that its seats shall be free to any 
person behaving himself with propriety, 
and shall never be rented or sold.—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 860 — 
THE WOMAN WHO COULDN'T 
SPEAK IN MEETING 


Dr. Grenfell, of Labrador, tells how 
some years ago he buried a young 
Scotch fisherman and his wife in a deso- 
late spit of sand running out into one of 
the long fiords of Labrador. Amidst the 
poverty-stricken group that stood by as 
the snow fell, were five little orphan 
children. Having assumed the care of 
all of them, he advertised two in a 
‘Boston newspaper and received an ap- 
plication from a farmer’s wife in New 


Hampshire. 


Later on he visited the farm, which 
was small and poor and away in the 
backwoods. The woman had children 
of her own. Her simple explanation 
as to why she took the children is worth 
recording: “I cannot teach in the Sun- 
day school or attend prayer meetings, 
Doctor. They are too far away, and I 
wanted to do something for the Master. 
I thought the farm would feed two more 
children.” | 

“T was glad,” says Dr. Grenfell, “that 
she could not speak at the prayer meet- 
‘ings. Perhaps, after all, we grade our 
Christians by a wrong standard. How 
many are losing the chances of preach- 
ing sermons that need no oratory? It 
is one of the causes of the failures of the 
churches that so much undeveloped 
capacity remains in the pews.” -—- The 
Christian. 


438 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 861 — 
DID NOT WANT AN EASY JOB 


One cold winter day, forty-five years 
ago, James Hamilton, station agent at 
Sioux City, stood on the platform 
wrapped in a warm fur coat. He was 
watching a gang of section hands ping 
cord-wood alongside the track. Woo 
was cheap and plentiful in the West in 
those days, and coal had not supplanted 
it as fuel, 

Among the workers, Hamilton noticed 
a ruddy-faced youth who put more en- 
ergy and intelligence into hig work than 
any of the rest. He was agile, lost no 
time passing from one pile to the other 
and did his work as if it were the most 
important of the railroad. Hamilton 
strolled over and watched him at closer 
range. Finally he said: 

“Say, boy, how would you like an 
inside job? I need an active young 
fellow like you to work around the sta- 
tion. The job would be easier than 
what you are doing now.” 

“Thank you,” replied the boy, “but 
I’m not looking for an easy job.” 

“What’s your name?” 

“Brown.” 

Hamilton walked back to the plat- 
form and remarked: 

“Strange boy, that; he doesn’t want 
an easy job. You'll hear more about 
him some day.” 

And we did. This boy who was a 
section hand on the Chicago, Milwaukee 
& St. Paul Railroad at one time was 
the W. C. Brown who recently resigned 
from the presidency of the New York 
Central Lines. He started to scale the 
ladder from a lowly position, but he 
planted his feet on the very top round. 
_—H. Twitchell. 


— 862 — 
ONE PAGE WAS ENOUGH 


There was once a caravan crossing 
the north of India. It numbered in its 
company a godly and devout mission- 
ary. As it passed along, a poor old man 
was overcome by the heat and labors of 
the journey, and sinking down was left 


to perish on the road. The missionary 
saw him, and kneeling down at his side, 
he whispered in his ear, “Brother, what 
is your hope?” 

The dying man raised himself a little 
to reply, and with great effort succeeded 
in answering, “The blood of Jesus Christ 
cleanseth from al] sin”; and immediately 
expired with the effort. 

The missionary was astonished at the 
answer; and in the calm and peaceful 
appearance of the man, he felt assured 
he had died in Christ. Presently he 
observed.a piece of paper grasped tightly 
in the hand of the corpse, which he suc- 
ceeded in getting out. Great was his 
surprise and delight when he found it 
was a single leaf of the Bible, containing 
the first chapter of the First Epistle of 
John, in which these words occur. On 
that page he had found the Gospel— 
Presbyterian 


wm 863 mms 


HE WAS THE OTHER FELLOW 


A shrewd world agnostic and a 
clergyman dressed in a modest clerical 
suit, says Eli Perkins, sat at the same 
table in the Pullman dining-car. They 
were waiting for the first course at the 
dinner, a delicious Hudson River shad. 
Eyeing his companion coldly for a mo- 
ment, the agnostic remarked: 

“T judge you are a clergyman, sir?!” 

“Yes, sir; [ am in my Master’s ser- 
vice.” . 

“Yes, you look it. Preach out of the 
Bible, don’t you?” 

“Oh, yes; of course.” 

“Find a good many things in the old 
Book that you don’t understand-—eh ?” 

“Oh, yes; some things.” 

“well, what do you do then?” 

“Why, my dear friend, I simply do 


just as I do while eating this delicious 


shad. If I come to a_ bone, I quietly 
lay it on one side and go on enjoying 
the shad, and let some fool insist on 
choking himself with the bones.” 

Then the agnostic wound up his 
watch and went into the smoker.— 
Evangelical Messenger. 


Pe Ce ee ee Se ee 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 864 — 
PRAYER IS A WIRELESS 
TELEGRAPH 


Some two years ago a poor woman, 
accompanied by her neighbors, came to 
my vestry in deep distress. Her hus- 
band had fled the country; in her sorrow 
she went to the house of God and some- 
thing I said in the sermon made her 
think I was personally familiar with her 
case. Of course I had known nothing 
about her. It was a general illustration 
that fitted a particular case. She told 
me her story and a very sad one it was. 


I said, “There is nothing we can do 
but to kneel down and cry to the Lord 
for the immediate conversion of your 
husband.” 


We knelt down and I prayed that the 
Lord would touch the heart of the de- 
serter, convert his soul and bring him 
back to his home. When we rose from 
our knees, I said to the poor woman: 
“Do not fret about the matter. I feel 
sure that your husband will come home 
and that he will yet become connected 
with our church.” She went away and 
I forgot all about it. 

Some months after she reappeared, 
with her neighbors and a man, whom 
she introduced to me as her husband. 
He had indeed come back and he had 
returned a converted man. On making 
inquiry and comparing notes, we found 
that the very day on which we had 
prayed for his conversion, he being at 
that time on board a ship far away on 
the sea, stumbled most unexpectedly 
upon a stray copy of my sermons. He 
read it. The truth went to his heart. 
He repented and sought the Lord and, 
as soon as possible, he returned to his 
daily calling. 

He was admitted a member and last 
Monday his wife, who up to that time 
had not been a member, was received 
among us. That woman does not doubt 
the power of prayer. All the infidels in 
the world could not shake her convic- 
tion that there is a God that answereth 
prayer.—C. H. Spurgeon. 


439 


— 865 — 
THE HEAD OF THE FIRM 


It makes a great deal of difference by 
whom our sin is covered. The trusted 
agent of a large firm had, in time of 
unusual expense, run past his allowance, 
and had taken company funds for a 
wrong use. He became distressed for 
fear he would be discovered and regard- 
ed as a criminal. 


Thinking to gain advice he disclosed 
his trouble to a fellow-agent, who re- 
sponded, “Oh, don’t worry, I can cover 
that up for you.” 


“But you're not the man to cover it 
up,” he replied, and he went straight to 
the head of the firm and explained every- 
thing to him, 

“You've made a serious mistake,” 
said the man, “but I’ll cover the dis- 
crepancy for you this time,’ and he 
wrote a check for the amount. 

“Ah, if you cover it, I am all right,” 
said the relieved man. 

When God buries a man’s sin and 
puts his seal on the door of the tomb, 
the man will find a peace which he had 
never known before.—Selected. 


— 866 — 
THE IDLE FOOT WAS TIRED 


A lady was watching a potter at his 
work, whose one foot was kept, with 
“never-slackening speed, turning his 
swift wheel round,” while the other 
rested patiently on the ground. When 
the lady said to him in sympathetic tone, 
“How tired your foot must be!” the 
man raised his eyes and said: “No, 
ma’am, it isn’t the foot that works that 
is tired; it is the foot that stands.” 


If you want to keep your strength, 
use it. If you want to get tired, do noth- 
ing. As a matter of fact, we all know 
that the last man to go to for a helping 
hand for any new undertaking is the 
man who has plenty of time on his hands. 
It is the man and woman who are doing 
most who are always willing to do a 
little more.—-Selected. 


440 


—~ 867— 
A LOST DIAMOND. 


A quaint preacher of the olden days 
in our country, the Rev. Dan Baker, 
puts the danger of delay in the way of 
a story. He tells of a man who was 
crossing the ocean. He was leaning 
over the side of the vessel; it was a 
bright sunny day, and not a wave broke 
the surface of the water, just a little 
ripple here and there kissed by the rays 
of the sun. And the man, as he leaned 
over the rail of the vessel, was tossing 
something in the air, something which, 
when it fell through the sunlight, 
sparkled with singular radiance and 
glory; and he watched it so eagerly as 
he tossed it up and caught it as it fell. 
He tossed it up again and again and 
again, and it threw out its marvelous 
light as it fell through the sunlight. 

At last an onlooker came and said, 
“May I ask what that is that you are 
tossing up so carelessly?” “Certainly,” 
he replied, “look at it, it is a diamond.” 
“Ts it of much value?” asked the on- 
looker. “Yes, of very great value. See 
the color of it, see the size of it. In 
fact, all I have in the world is in that 
diamond. I am going to a new country 
to seek my fortune, and I have sold 
everything I have, and have put it into 
that diamond, so as to get it into port- 
able shape.” ‘Then if it is so valuable, 
is it not an awful risk you are running 
in tossing it up so carelessly?” “No 
risk at all. I have been doing this for 
the last half hour,” said the man. “But 
there might come a last time,” said the 
onlooker; but the man laughed and 
threw it up again, and caught it as it 
fell, and again and again, and once more, 
and it flashed and blazed with glory as 
it fell through the sunlight, and he 
watches it so eagerly as it falis. Ah, 
but this time it is too far out. He 
reaches as far as he can over the rail 
of the vessel, but he cannot reach far 
enough. There is a little splash in the 
ocean. He leans far over the rail and 
tries to penetrate with his eager gaze 
ine fathomless depths of deep blue 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ocean. Then cries, “Lost! lost! lost! 
All I have in the world is lost!” 

You say, “No man would be so great 
a fool as that; that story is not true.” 
That story is true, and the man is here 
to-night. Thou art the man! . That 
ocean is eternity; that vessel, life; that 
diamond, your soul, that soul of such 
priceless value that Christ died to save it. 
And you have been trifling with it! I 
come to you to-night and say, “My 
friend, what is that in your hand which 
you are playing with so. carelessly?” 
You say, “It is my soul.” “Is it worth 
much?” “Worth much? More than the 
whole round earth, ‘for what shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul?’”—Rev. R. A. 
Torrey. 


— 868 — 


THE BEGINNING OF FAITH. 


For forty-three years, Rev. A. Toomer 
Porter was pastor of a church at 
Charleston, S. C. He also maintained 
a school for boys, where more than three 
thousand were educated, many gratu- 
itously. His was a life of trust in God. 
and of notable achievement. Relating 
an incident of his boyhood, he tells how 
his faith got its start. 

“On the evening! before the forced 
auction of my widowed mother’s home, 
we had our usual family prayers, and 
went to bed. I could not sleep for 
distress. . 

“The light had been put out, and I 
was laying in bed, when I heard the 
buzzing of a fly. I listened for some 
time, and it annoyed me so much that 
I got out of bed and lit the candle. Up 
on the ceiling I saw a large fly entangled 
in a spider’s web, and the old spider at 
a little distance off, looking on, ready at 
the right moment to make his fatal at- 
tack. The poor fly, by his desperate 
efforts to get out, was only making 
things worse. 

“My sympathy was excited; so, get- 
ting on a chair and taking a stick, I 
managed to break the web and get the 
fy out. It shook itself vigorously and 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


flew off, while the spider beat a retreat 
and got beyond my reach. I went back 
to bed, and began to think. If I was 
sorry for the fly, and let it out of its 
danger, would not God be sorry for the 
widow and her fatherless_ children, 
Christians; and would He not send 
somebody to let us out of the trap that 
a worse than spider had put us in? I 
fell asleep.” 

Was the lad’s trust in God betrayed? 
Not at all. Unexpectedly a friend of 
his father was present next day and bid 
off the property, turned it over to the 
family and took the boy’s note for one 
thousand dollars —Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


— 869 — 


PROFANITY REBUKED. 


Kilstein, a pious German minister, 
once heard a laboring man use the most 
awiul curses and imprecations in a fit of 
passion, without reproving him for it. 
This so troubled him that he could 
scarcely sleep the following night. In 
the morning he arose early, soon saw 
the mancoming along, and addressed 
him as follows: 

“My friend, it is you I was waiting 
to see.” : 

_ “You are mistaken,” replied the man; 
“you have never seen me before.” 

“Yes, I saw you yesterday,” said Kil- 
stein, “while returning from your work, 
and heard you praying.” 

“What! heard me pray?” said the 
man, “I am sure now that you are mis- 
taken, for I never prayed in my life.” 

“And yet,” calmly but earnestly re- 
plied the minister, “if God had heard 
your prayer you would not be here, but 
in hell; for I heard you beseeching God 
that He might strike you with blindness 
and condemn you to hell fire.” 

The man turned pale, and trembling 
said: “Dear sir, do you call this prayer? 
Yes, it is; I did this very thing.” 

“Now, friend,” continued Kilstein, “as 
you acknowledge it, it is my duty to be- 
seech you to seek with the same earnest- 
ness the salvation of your soul as you 


441 


have hitherto its damnation, and I will 
pray to God that He will have mercy 
upon you.” 

From this time the man regularly at- 
tended upon the ministry of Kilstein, 
and ere long was brought in humble 
ere to Christ as a true believer. 
—Sel. 


— 870 — 


REWARDED RESCUER OF BAG. 


Through an open drawbridge a wom- 
an fell by accident into the canal at 
Trenton, N. J., and was drowning. 
George Washington McIntyre, a news- 
boy only eight years of age, known as 
“Reddy Tough,” jumped into the canal, 
kept the woman from sinking, and got 
her part of the way to shore, when those 
on the bank pulled them both out. 

“Yellow” Dunn was playing ball with 
“Reddy” when the accident occurred, 
and, noticing the woman’s handbag 
floating on the water, jumped in and 
made for that and saved it, paying little 
or no attention to the woman who was 
drowning. The first thing the woman 
did when taken out of the water was 
to ask for her purse, which contained 
$200. “Yellow,” taking off his hat, po- 
litely said, “Here it is lady, I almost 
drowned getting it out.” The woman, 
opening the bag, took a new five dollar 
bill out and handed it to “Yellow” as 
an expression of her gratitude for 
having saved her money; but to little 
“Reddy,” who had saved her life, she 
did not give a penny, only said, “Thank 
you, my little man.” 

We trust there was some mistake in 
the newspaper report, because it is hard 
for us to think that any person, man or 
woman, young or old, could be so lost 
to gratitude and so frozen with avarice 
as to act in such a manner, contrasting 
her greed for money with the little 
newsboy’s heroism and yet her conduct 
suggests that of thousands of people 
who count health and even life as sec- 
ondary to the bag with money in it 
floating on the water—The Christian 
Herald. 


442% 


— 871 — 


UNKNOWN RICHES 


A few years ago an old man living in 
New Jersey discovered about $5,000 in 
a family Bible. The bank notes were 
scattered throughout the book. In 1874 
the aunt of this man had died and one 
clause of her will was as follows: 

“To my beloved nephew, Stephen 
Marsh, I will and bequeath my family 
Bible and all it contains, with the rest- 
due of my estate after my funeral ex- 
penses and just debts are paid.” 

The estate amounted to a few hundred 
dollars, which was soon spent, afd for 
about 35 years his chief support had 
been a small pension from the govern- 
ment. He lived in poverty, and all the 
time within reach there was the precious 
Bible containing thousands of dollars, 
sufficient for all his wants. 

He passed that Bible by. His eyes 
rested on it, perhaps his hands handled 
the old leather bound Book with its 
brass clasps, but he did not once open 
it. At last while packing his trunk to 
move to his son, where he intended to 
spend his remaining years, he discov- 
ered the unknown riches. 

What thoughts of regret must have 
come to his mind. If he only had opened 
that Bible years ago, he then might have 
used the money to great advantage. In- 
stead of that the treasure laid idle for 
35 years. And he might have had it and 
enjoyed it all that time.—Our Hope. 


we 872 meme 
MIRACULOUS JOY IN SORROW 


Is it practically possible to be happy 
while we are suffering? Or is this only 
the futile imagination of the visionary? 
Listen to the answer given by a mission- 
ary who, when his labors were unusually 
blessed, was stricken with leprosy. The 
English magazine, “The Faith and the 
Flock,” gives this man’s testimony after 
he was obliged to cease from active ser- 
vice and live a life of seclusion and of 
“daily dying”: “I thought sometimes 
that the Lord had forgotten and for- 
saken me, that he had hidden his face 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


from me. But it was fot ¥6. Thé more 
sorrow I had to bear, the easier it has 
become; and now I am rejoicing in my 
Saviour every hour. You ask how I am. 
I have lost my eyesight now and my 
voice; I have no feet or ankles; no arms; 
but my heart is far from, dead, I still 
feel, and long, and sympathize. ... I 
have no doubts in these days, and if I 
had my voice, I should be singing all the 
day long.” It takes more than a “vision- 
ary imagination” to work this miracle 
in aman. But the same Christ who is 
accomplishing it triumphantly for him 
can also bring your joy to flood tide in 
the midst of whatever suffering he asks 
you to endure.—Sunday School Times. 


| — 873 — 
ANYWHERE FOR CHRIST 


A young minister was at his annual 
conference, and had just received the 
Bishop’s announcement of his appoint- 
ment for the following year. He was 
greatly disappointed. He took his griev- 
ance to Bishop Simpson, and said: 
“Bishop, I can not go to that appoint- 
ment. The salary is too small, and it is 
too far away from the city.” 

The Bishop tenderly remonstrated 
with him, and told him not to decide 
hastily, and urged him to pray over it. 

On Sunday the noble Bishop occu- 
pied the pulpit, and preached his famous 
sermon from the text: “None of these 
things move me; neither count I my life 
dear unto myself, so that I may finish 
my course with joy and the ministry 
which I have received of the Lord 
Jesus.” 

As the Bishop was vividly describing 
St. Paul crying after every pain and 
agony: “None of these things move 
me,’ a great commotion was observed 
in the rear of the congregation, and a 
voice of a young man was heard by the 
startled audience, crying: “Anywhere, 
anywhere, my Lord!” 

Nobody understood that cry except 
the young man preacher who uttered it 
and the Bishop in the pulpit. But it 
meant a soul baptized: for Christian 
duty.—Evangelist. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


monn 874 won 
LINCOLN’S FAITH IN PRAYER. 


When President Lincoln left his home 
in Springfield, Ill., February 11, 1861, on 
his way to Washington, he made the 
following farewell address to his friends 
and neighbors: “My friends, no one not 
in my position can appreciate the sad- 
ness I feel at this parting. To this people 
I owe allI am. Here I have lived more 
than a quarter of a century; here my 
children were born, and here one of 
them lies buried. I know not how soon 
I shall see you again. 

“A duty devolves upon me which is 
perhaps greater than that which has 
devolved upon any other man since the 
days of Washington. He would never 
have succeeded except for the aid of 
Divine Providence, upon which he at 
all times relied. 

“T feel that I cannot succeed without 
the same Divine aid which sustained 
him, and on the same Almighty Being 
I place my reliance for support; and I 
hope you, my friends, will all pray that 
I may receive that Divine assistance, 
without which I cannot succeed, but 
with which success is certain. Again, I 
bid you all an affectionate farewell.” 

At a Sabbath-school convention in 
Massachusetts, a speaker stated that a 
friend of his, during an interview with 
the President, asked him if he loved 
Jesus. Mr. Lincoln buried his face in 
his handkerchief and wept. He then 
said, “When I left home to take this 
chair of state, I requested my country- 
men to pray for me. I was not then a 
Christian. When my son died, the 
severest trial of my life—I was not a 
Christian. But when I went to Gettys- 
burg and looked upon the graves of our 
dead heroes who had fallen in defence 
of their country, I then and there con- 
secrated myself to Christ. I do love 
Jesus.” Rev. Mr, Adams, of Philadel- 
phia, stated in his Thanksgiving sermon 
that, having an appointment to meet the 
President at 5 o’clock in the morning, he 
went a quarter of an hour before the 
time. While waiting for the hour, he 


443 


heard a voice in the next room as if in 
grave conversation, and asked the ser- 
vant, “Who is talking in the next 
room?” “Tt is the President, sir.” “Is 
anybody with him?” “No, sir, he is 
reading the Bible.” “Is that his habit 
so early in the morning?” “Yes, sir. 
He spends every morning from 4 o’clock 
to 5 in reading the Scriptures and 
praying.”—Sel. 


— 875 — 
A VOICE WITHIN. 


When I was a little boy in my fourth 
year, one fine day in spring my father 
led me by the hand to a distant part of 
the farm, but soon sent me home alone. 
On the way I had to pass a little pond, 
then spreading its waters wide; a rho- 
dora in full bloom, a rare flower which 
grew only in that locality, attracted my 
attention, and drew me to the spot. I 
Saw a little tortoise sunning himself in 
the shallow waters at the roots of the 
flaming shrub. I lifted the stick I had 
in my hand to strike the harmless rep- 
tile; for, though I had never killed any 
creature, yet I had seen other boys do 
so, and I felt a disposition to follow 
their wicked example. 

But all at once something checked my 
little arm, and a voice within me said 
clear and loud: “It is wrong!” I held 
my uplifted stick, in wonder at the new 
emotion, the consciousness of an invol- 
untary but inward check upon my ac- 
tions, till the tortoise and the rhodora 
both vanished from my sight. I has- 
tened home and told the tale to my 
mother, and asked what it was that told 
me it was wrong. She wiped a tear 
from her eye, and taking me in her arms, 
said: “Some men call it conscience, but 
I prefer to call it the voice of God in 
the soul of man. If you listen and obey 
it, then it will speak clearer and clearer, 
and always guide you right; but if you 
turn a deaf ear or disobey, then it will 
fade out, little by little, and leave you 
in the dark without a guide. Your life 
depends on heeding that little voice.”— 
Dean Farrar. 


444 


~— 876 — 
SCOTTISH HONESTY. 


At one time in the highlands of Scot- 
land, to ask for a receipt or promissory 
note was considered an insult, and such 
a thing as a breach of contract was 
rarely heard of, so strictly did the people 
regard their honor. There is a story of 
a farmer who had been to the lowlands, 
and had there acquired worldly wisdom. 

“After returning to his native place 
he needed some money, and requested 
a loan from a gentleman in the neigh. 
borhood. The latter, Mr. Stewart, com- 
plied and counted out the gold, when the 
farmer immediately wrote a receipt. 
“And what is this, man?” cried Mr. 
Stewart, on receiving the slip of paper. 
“That is a receipt, sir, binding me to 
give ye back your gold at the right 
time,” replied Donald. “Binding ye, in- 
deed! Well, man, if ye canna trust 
yoursel’, I’m sure I’ll na trust ye! Such 
as ye canna hae my gold”; and gather- 
ing it up, he returned it to his desk and 
locked it up. 

“But, sir, I might die,” replied the 
needy Scot, unwilling to surrender his 
hope of the loan, “and perhaps my sons 
might refuse it to ye, but the bit of paper 
would compel them.” ‘“‘Compel them to 
sustain their dead father’s honor!” cried 
the enraged Celt. “They'll need com- 
pelling to do right if this is the road 
ye’'re leading them. Ye can gang else- 
where for money, I tell ye; but ye’ll 
find nane about here that’ll put more 
faith in a bit of paper than a neighbor’s 
word of honor and his love of the right.” 
—Selected. 


— 877 — 
BREAD DAY BY DAY. 


How true the saying of Jesus, “The 
poor ye have with you always.” And 
perhaps it was never more true any- 
where than in this city. 

As an indication of this, take the fol- 
lowing statement in an evening paper 
of July 20th of the year 1915: “There 
were 798 dispossess cases in seven of 
the municipal courts of New York City 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


yesterday.” At the usual average, five 
persons to a family, what a procession 
of misery would these ejected families 
make, were they to march before us. 
Old men and women, some hobbling 
along with canes and crutches, little chil- 
dren just able to toddle, infants borne 
at the breasts of gaunt-faced half-fed 
mothers, youths and maidens with 
downcast eyes and shamed-faced, a pro- 
cession of 4,000 persons, down and out 
homeless because unable to pay rent. 

“Which of you by taking thought can 
add one cubic unto his stature?” Anx- 
iety will lessen strength and shorten 
life but will not increase one’s stature. 
God only can do that. So also must 
the Lord give us food and shelter or we 
shall go without. We are to pray, “Give 
us this day our daily bread,” and if God 
limits the supply sent (exert ourselves 
as we may) to the needs of the day, we 
should learn to trust in Him and not be 
afraid. 

Those thus straitened may be given 
faith to trust God and also grace to 
honor Him with their gifts. The regu- 
lar income of one faithful family of 
our church is $5 a month, and a place 
to live for the janitor work done. For 
weeks none of the three members of 
that family have had regular employ- 
ment. Yet last Sunday evening the wife 
brought for the church offering the last 
two cents in the house. A friend who 
came with her gave her ten cents and 
half of that also was put into the offer- 
ing, and the remaining five cents was 
reserved for bread for the morrow’s 
breakfast—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 878 — 
BULLET AND BIBLE. 


Not long since, Rev. Charles Ingles, 
in an address at London, related the 
following wonderful incident: Twenty 
years ago I was at a convention in the 
city of Dublin, and after the meeting a 
gentleman put a Bible in my hand in 
which was a round hole in one of the 
covers. He said, “I want you to look 
at it.” I took took it up to look at it, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


and as I opened the Bible, I found leaf 
after leaf had this hole through it, and 
I said, “What does it mean?” 

He said, “Five or six years ago, in a 
troubled part of the country where I 
was preaching, I had just finished a ser- 
vice in a farmhouse, and had got into 
my cart to ride home. Something said 
to me, ‘Don’t put your Bible into your 
coat pocket,’ and I put it in my breast 
pocket. While riding I saw a ilash, 
heard a report, and felt something had 
struck me. I said, ‘Drive on quickly; 
I think I am shot, but I am not much 
hurt::.” 

The gentleman shortly afterwards 
found a hole in his overcoat, and he 
found the bullet embedded in that Bible, 
and it had stopped at the 17th of St. 
John, where it says, “Father, keep them 
through thy own name.” 

God ever watches over his children, 
and is never at a loss in devising means 
to effect their escape, even though they 
may have to pass through fire and 
water. 


— 879 — 
WHY YOU SHOULD BELIEVE 


There are lots of things you don’t 
understand that you believe. 

Supposing I could transform this au- 
dience into a clinic and I had a dead 
body on the table for my subject. I 
bring on the scalpel; I make an incision 
and remove two pinkish threads and 
hold them up. They are just alike in 
form, shape and color, and the most 
powerful magnifying glass could not 
distinguish one iota of difference. One 
is the nerve of sight and the other the 
nerve of hearing. 

Can you explain how it is that one 
nerve will take up the sounds of every- 
day life and through your ears portray 
them upon your brain, notes of harmony 
and discord, so that you can tell whether 
it is the barking of a dog, the blow of 
a whistle, the cry of a child? Can you 
explain how it is that the other nerve 
will take up that which is absolutely 
imperceptible to the former nerve and 
through the retina of the eyes paint on 


445 


your brain the picture of nature so that 
you can revel in its beauties? Do you 
understand it? No. Do you believe it? 
You have to, or acknowledge that you 
are a fool. Yes, there are lots of things 
you believe but don’t understand. Then 
don’t go to hell because you haven't 
sense enough to understand all there is 
in the Bible. There are a lot of things 
you don’t understand.—Billy Sunday. 


— 880 — 
DAILY FAMILY PRAYERS. 


What America needs more than rail- 
Way extension and western irrigation, 
and a lower tariff, and a bigger wheat 
crop, and a merchant marine, and a new 
navy, is a revival of piety, the kind 
mother and father used to have—piety 
that counted it good. business to stop 
for daily family prayers before break- 
fast, right in the middle of the harvest; 
that quit work a half hour earlier on 
Thursday night, so as to get the chores 
done and go to prayer meeting; that 
borrowed money to pay the preacher’s 
salary and prayed fervently in secret 
for the salvation of the rich man who 
looked with scorn on such unbusiness® 
like behavicr{ That’s what we need 
now to clean this country of the filth of 
graft and greed, petty and big; of wor- 
ship of fine houses and big lands and 
high office and grand social functions. 
What is this thing which we are wor- 
shiping but a vain repetition of what 
decayed nations fell down and wor- 
shiped just before their light went out? 
Read the history of Rome in decay and 
you'll find luxury there that could lay 
a big dollar over our little doughnut 
that looks so large to us. Great wealth 
never made a nation substantial nor 
honorable. There is nothing on earth 
that looks good that is so dangerous for 
a man or a nation to handle as quick, 
easy, big money. If you do resist its 
deadly influence the chances are that it 
will get your son. It takes greater and 
finer heroism to dare to be poor in 
America than to charge an earthworks 
in Manchuria.—Wall Street Journal. 


446 


— 881 — 
A REBUKE TO INGERSOLL. 


Eugene Field tells in the Chicago 
News Record the following touching 
story of the aged Simon Cameron and 
Col. Bob Ingersoll: One cheerless, 
rainy night, some years ago, the ven- 
erable Simon Cameron was sitting in 
the office of the Ebbit House, gazing 
out through the window into the fog 
and darkness. He was lost in thought 
and his face was the picture of melan- 
choly. Presently Col. Ingersoll entered, 
“What has happened, general?” he 
asked. “You look as if youd lost your 
last friend.” “Ah, Bob,” said the old 
man, with a sigh. “I have just seen a 
cruel, pitiable sight. An aged and crip- 
pled soldier was painfully toiling up the 
street yonder and, was making’ some 
progress, when a big double-fisted, 
broad-shouldered fellow kicked the 
crutches out from under the old cripple, 
leaving him feeble and helpless, to pick 
himself up as best he could.” “I would 
to God I had been here!” cried Inger- 
soll angrily. ‘“I’d have trounced the 
rufhan! I never heard of so brutal an 
outrage! What, abuse an old and crip- 
pled man like that! Id make quick 
work of the brute!” “Wait a moment, 
Bob,” interposed old Simon Cameron, 
gently. “I was that aged and crippled 
veteran, and I was toiling along to my 
grave. And it was you, Bob, who came 
across my path and kicked from under 
me the crutches that supported me in 
that last journey.” Col. Ingersoll made 
no answer, and the old man continued 
to look mournfully out into the night. 


— 882 — 
WHEN GOD ANSWERS PRAYER 


Sometimes God answers our prayers 
before we pray them. Several years 
ago, when telegraph wires were being 
put up in the Shetland Isles, off the 
coast of Scotland, the islanders, who had 
never seen a piece of coal or a locomo- 
tive in their lives, came by hundreds to 
look at the wires hanging from the poles. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


They could not imagine how messages 
were going to be transmitted by these 
wires. 

Among the crowd of people was a 
sharp, shrewd business man, and by his 
side stood a half-witted Christian boy. 
Turning to the boy the man said: “What 
a wonderful thing! When these wires 
are completed, you will be able to send 
a message from here to Aberdeen, two 
hundred miles away, and get an answer 
back in twenty minutes. Isn’t that won- 
derful?” 

“I know something far more wonder- 
ful,” said the boy. | 

“What is it?” asked the man. 

“Well,” said the boy, “did you ever 
hear of people getting an answer before 
they sent their message?” 

“What do you mean?” was the reply. 

The answer came: “I mean what the 
Bible says: ‘And it shall come to pass, 
that before they call, I will answer: and 
while they are yet speaking, I will 
hear.’ ”—Rev. Charles Inglis. 


— 883 — 
AN ANARCHIST WAS SAVED. 


In 1849 Dostoievsky, a Russian an- 
archist, was banished to Siberia. For 
four years he was herded with felons 
in what was known as the “House of 
the Dead.” But he had with him one 
book, a New Testament. This he read 
over and over, until anger died down 
in his soul, and he became a disciple of 
Christ. 

After ten years of banishment, Dos- 
toievsky returned to his home, to be 
known thenceforward as a philanthro- 
pist, a succorer of the helpless and 
fallen, a teacher of the faith once for al] 
entrusted to the saints. George Bran- 
des, by no means sympathetic with the 
new opinions of the whilom revolution- 
ary, asserts that the sorrow over his 
death was the grief of the nation, and 
even Nietzsche acknowledges the reality 
of his new life in Christ. This great 
change was wrought solely through the 
reading of the New Testament.—David 
M. McIntyre. 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 884 — 
GOD LEADS HIS CHILDREN. 


The infallible Word, and the promised 
help of the Holy Spirit, and the teach- 
ings and example of our Lord and Sav- 
ior are not all that we have to direct 
us. There is also what we may call 
the pillar of Providence. We some- 
times talk about “special providences,” 
because we can detect the leadings of 
God’s hand more clearly than at other 
times; but the whole government of 
God in regard to every one of us is a 
complex series of special oversights and 
orderings. 


It has not been my habit to open my 
Bible when in great perplexity, and to 
take the first text I lighted on as a 
direct answer from Heaven; and yet 
sometimes a single text has flashed on 
me like a lantern suddenly held out over 
a dark road. For instance, I was once 
in long and perplexing doubt whether 
I ought to accept a call to a distant 
city. I happened to open a favorite de- 
votional volume, and my eyes rested 
on this passage: “Changes in life are 
often full of danger; ‘wherefore caddest 
thou about to change thy way?’” That 
text—which I had never noticed before 
—settled me. I declined the call, and 
have beer thankful for it ever since.— 
Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D. 


— 885 — 


SABBATH LAW NOT ARBITRARY. 


The Creator in the very constitution 
of man ordained that nightly repose 
should succeed daily labor, and that six 
days’ toil should be followed by a full 
day of rest—a Sabbath. All are familiar 
with the fact that the atheistic French 
revolutionists soon discovered that their 
prescribed week of ten days was too 
long. So of necessity they returned to 
God’s plan of one day’s rest in every 
seven, 

The experience of the early gold seek- 
ers of California may not be so well 
known. Miller, in “Physiology in Har- 
mony with the Bible,” says: “At first 


ANECDOTES 447 
they worked, worked incessantly. Sab- 
bath and Saturday knew no change. ... 
But very soon they were obliged to 
pause and ponder; they had begun to 
dig something else than gold—they 
were digging graves; and no long time 
elapsed ere they were brought to the 
conviction that it was essential, on the 
score of mere life and strength, that one 
day out of the seven should be devoted 
to rest. And having come to that con- 
clusion, they made a virtue of necessity. 
They searched out the Sabbath, of 
which they had lost all reckoning, and 
kept it, under a physiological compul- 
sion.”’—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 886 — 
THE COUNTERSIGN. 


..The following incident was often re- 
lated by Mr. George H. Stuart, president 
of the United States Christian Commis- 
sion. He was with the Army of the 
Potomac. Going about one dark night, 
he was suddenly halted by the guard, a 
mere boy: “Halt! Who goes there?” 
“A friend with the countersign.” 


“Advance and give the countersign.” 
“Blennerhassett.” 


“Mr. Stuart,” said the guard, lowering 
his gun, “I recognize your voice, but 
you have not got the countersign. Stand 
where you are till I call the officer of the 
guard.” 


By some unaccountable oversight the 
countersign of the previous day had been 
given him, and by the rules of war he 
might have been shot. 


When the officer came he was admit- 
ted to the lines. Tapping the guard on 
the shoulder, Mr. Stuart said to him: 
“My boy, if you should be taken off in 
one of these battles, could you give the 
countersign at the gate of heaven?” 

“Yes, Mr. Stuart, ‘The blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth us from all sin.’ ” 


Two days later Mr. Stuart found this 
boy mortally wounded. He gave Mr. 
Stuart his watch and a parting message 
to his mother, and died in the triumph 
of faith. 


448” ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 887 — 
AMAZING GRACE. 


Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, years ago, re- 
lated the following remarkable incident, 
which occurred during his pastorate at 
St. George’s Episcopal Church, New 
York. It illustrates the power of the 
Holy Spirit to subdue a most rebellious 
will, and it should encourage Christian 
wives to be faithful to Christ if they 
would see their unconverted husbands 
brought to the feet of the Master: 


“Many years since, a gay and fashion- 
able pair lived near me and attended my 
ministry. The wife was beautiful, social 
and admired. The husband was rich and 
worldly, and delighted in the admiration 
which, in society, his wife received. 
They lived a reckless, gay, and worldly 
life. Except in the worship of an oc- 
casional Sunday morning, they knew 
nothing of religion, and cared nothing 
for what they heard even then. But in 
the wonders of grace this gay and fash- 
ionable woman was converted there, and 
in the most open and decided manner 
renounced her life of folly, and cast her 
lot among the followers of the Lord. 
Her sudden change of life and purpose 
intensely enraged her unconverted hus- 
band, who had no sympathy with her, 
and could not understand her. He tried 
in every possible manner to overthrow 
her plans, and drive her from her choice. 
He forbid her union with the church, in 
any personal act. He watched at the 
gates of the church-yard to prevent her 
entrance by force. So far was this hos- 
tility carried, that at last she found ac- 
cess to the church for her appointed 
baptism only through the window in the 
rear. Thus matters went on for weeks, 
every day bringing me some tidings of 
his violence and her sufferings. How 
much their domestic affairs were known 
to others, I never knew. The people and 
the generation have since passed away. 
Their young children are now mature, 
and several of them parents themselves. 


“Some weeks of this new history had 
passed, when late one evening, after I 


ANECDOTES 


had retired to my chamber for the night, 
my door-bell was violently pulled, and a 
messenger said Mrs. desired to see 
me immediately. I dressed myself and 
went, anticipating some scene of viol- 
ence, and simply saying to my wife 
where I was going, in case I might be 
prevented from returning. The streets 
were solitary and still. As I ascended 
the steps the door was quietly opened to 
me, and I was directed to the parlor, 
where, to my surprise, I found the two 
sitting together on the sofa, with no 
other person present. The man looked 
up to me in an agony of tears, as in as- 
tonishment I sat by his side and asked 
an explanation. ‘Oh, sir,’ he cried, ‘can 
I be saved, can I be saved?’ ‘Yes, 
surely,’ I answered; “but you amaze me 
—what has led you to do this?’ .“This 
angel,’ he replied, with eagerness, ‘you 
know how I hated her religion. But 
you do not know how I hated you. I 
thought you the blackest of human 
beings. You had broken up my hap- 
piness, you had destroyed my peace, 
you had separated my family, you had 
alienated my wife from me. I laid it 
all to you. I was intensely enraged 
with you. I have several times watched 
for you at night with the intention of 
killing you. But it is all over now. I 
am thankful to see you. But this angel 
wife—I have cursed her; I have perse- 
cuted her in every way. I have beaten 
her, I have pulled her down by the hair; 
and she has received it all in silence and 
meekness. She has never said one un- 
kind word in reply; but she has prayed 
for me and loved me. And I can stand 
it no longer. I am miserable, because I 
am so guilty. I have rebelled so horribly. 
I have been loved and treated so affec- 
tionately. Can I be saved?’ The wife sat 
silently and heard the whole, and then 
gently said, ‘My dear husband seemed 
so distressed to-night that I took the 
liberty to send for you.’ How fresh and 
vivid is that whole scene before me as I 
write, with all its incidents and details, 
which I will not describe. With what de- 
light did I preach the Saviour’s love to 
this lost one thus at last aroused by that 





| 
: 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


love to see his own voluntary and agegra- 
vated guilt! 

“We passed more than an hour thus 
together, and closed our conversation 
with earnest prayer. Blessed, indeed, 
was the result. The strong man armed 
had found a stronger than he, who had 
taken from him all his armor wherein 
he trusted, and spoiled his goods. He 
was subdued by love, converted by Di- 
vine power. He, too, came into the 
Saviour’s flock, and on the side of Jesus. 
How changed the mad one became, ‘sit- 
ting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in 
his right mind.’ He witnessed among 
us for years a good confession; he was 
honored and beloved in the church; a 
pattern of gentleness and fidelity at home 
and abroad. After some years of earn- 
est Christian life on earth, his course 
was finished and his rest attained.” 


— 888 — 
THE BIBLE IN THE HOME 


Illustrating the influence of the Bible 
in family life the Rev. W. H. Griffith 
Thomas, D.D., recently related an in- 
cident, essentially as follows: 

Years ago, a Bulgarian weaver se- 
cured a Bible from a colportuer of the 
American Bible Society. As he worked 
at his loom he read and meditated upon 
passages from that wonderful book; and 
in the evening at his supper table he 
related to his wife and children what he 
had read. 

In process of time that Bulgarian 
family immigrated to America, and of 
course that precious volume came with 
them. Minus its cover, but prized for 
what it had done for their family, that 
old book was found not long since in 
the possession of the eldest son, in 
Cieveland, Ohio, the pastor of a church 
in that city. 

Speaking of the influence of that Bible 
in the family of his father he said: “One 
of my three brothers is a pastor in Min- 
nesota, another is a teacher in a Chris- 
tian college and one is a Y. M. C. A. 
secretary. My four sisters are Chris- 
tians, and all are Bible Lovers.”—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


ANECDOTES 449 
—~ 889 —< 
THE PROMISE THAT HELD. 


On the top floor of a tenement house, 
one morning, I found a woman very ill. 
Her bodily suffering was great, but her 
distress on account of her sins was 
greater, 

“Oh,” she moaned, “if God would only 
have mercy on me! If it was only well 
with my soul!” 

She felt she had wandered so far 
from God that she could not get back. 
She had stayed away so long He would 
not now receive her, 

I spoke of the love Christ has for sin- 
ners, and His willingness to receive 
them. Yet nothing seemed to afford 
her relief. Finally I repeated the pre- 
cious words of our Lord, “Him that 
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast 
out.” 

At that her moaning ceased, and she 
exclaimed, “Say that again!” And I 
slowly repeated, ““Him that cometh unto 
me I will in no wise cast out.” 

That poor woman grasped that prom- 
ise as eagerly as a drowning man would 
a rope, and I went away rejoicing that 
it was my high privilege to bear such 
glad tidings to lost sinners.—Rev. Henry 
M. Tyndall, 


— 890 — 
SHAMED BY HIS OX. 


A farmer who had listened to an ex- 
position of the text from Isa. I.—“The 
ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his 
master’s crib; but Israel doth not know. 
My people doth not consider” ——was giv- 
ing food to his stock, when one of his 
oxen, evidently grateful for his care, fell 
to licking his bare arm. Instantly, with 
this simple incident, the Holy Spirit 
flashed in conviction on the farmer’s 
mind. He burst into tears, and ex- 
claimed: “Yes, it is all true. How won- 
derful is God’s word! This poor dumb 
brute is really more grateful to me than 
I am to God, and yet I am in debt to 
Him for everything. What a sinner I 
am!” The lesson had found its way to 
his heart, and wrought there effectually 
to lead him to Christ.—Selected, 


450 


— 891 — 
A FORTUNATE MISTAKE 


General Oliver O. Howard is famed 
as a capable and courageous officer, (he 
lost his right arm at Fair Oaks), yet his 
more enduring fame rests on the fact 
that he was justly styled the “Christian 
soldier.” 

His type of piety was not such that 
he was satisfied to lead a good life, and 
yet keep his light hidden under a bushel. 
He believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and openly acknowledged Him as his 
King and Saviour, and was zealous in 
his efforts to persuade others to become 
followers of Christ also. te 

General Howard was a Congregation- 
alist, and was probably the most widely 
known man of his denomination in this 
country. And we shall always regard 
his becoming an incorporator of the 
People’s Tabernacle as quite provi- 
dential. 

In 1898, when planning to incor- 
porate the work, since it was to contin- 
ue interdenominational in character, of 
course I wanted the Congregational 
church represented on the list of its in- 
corporators, and thought of the desir- 
ability of securing, if possible, General 
Oliver O. Howard as one of them. 
There was one difficulty: I had no ac- 
quaintance with General Howard, and 
doubted if he knew of the work of the 
People’s Tabernacle, and consequently 
was not intending to put forth any effort 
to secure him as an incorporator. 

But a few days before the work was 
to be incorporated, calling at the office 
of a friend one day in the vicinity of 
23d Street, he asked if I had a copy of 
the recently issued American Revised 
Version of the Bible. Learning that I 
had not he made me a present of one. 
Having business farther down town, I 

left the Bible at the store of the Ameri- 
'can Tract Society on 23d Street. Some 
time later I called at the store for the 
book. The clerks for the present were 
engaged, and being in a hurry I was 
somewhat annoyed by the delay in get- 
ting the book. But had I got it at once 


FLLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES. 


probably I should never have become 
acquainted with General Howard. 

While I was waiting a gentleman en- 
tered whom I took to be a ministerial 
acquaintance. Advancing to meet him 
and extending my hand, I greeted him 
with, “How do you do, Dr. Sproull!” 
He put forth his left hand and then I 
was aware of my mistake, and said, “I 
see I am mistaken, you are not Dr. 
Sproull, but General Howard!” “Yes,” 
said he, “but who is Dr. Sproull? I 
have been taken for him before.” I told 
him that Dr. Sproull was pastor of the 
church of Sea and Land. 

Then I told him who I was, and that 
I had been wishing to meet him and 
why, and learned he knew something of 
the People’s Tabernacle. When he 
came into the store had I known him 
to be the celebrated General Howard, 
it is safe to say I would not have ven- 
tured to introduce myself to him. But 
I found him very cordial, and after ex- 
plaining to him the principles of the pro- 
posed charter, he remarked, “If you 
don’t get incorporators enough without 
me, call and see me.” I thanked him 
and said he could rest assured we should 
not have enough without him, nor did 
we.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 892 — 
A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT 


One of the workers of our new Dig- 
beth Institute, Birmingham, works all 
day to earn twenty-five shillings a week, 
and finds refreshment and recreation at 
night in getting into the gap between 
sinners and God. He had his eye on a 
man that was a perfect beast—Devil- 
ridden, lust-ridden, battered, bruised, al- 
together in bondage. Night after night 
he went to this man’s slum house and 
tried to keep him from the public house. 

Finally one night my working-man | 
brother came to my vestry and said, 
“Mr. Jowett, the eightieth time did it!” 
Eighty nights, seventy-nine failures; 
the eightieth time he got the man to the 
Institute. By the mercy of man he led 
him to the mercy of God, and tonight he 
is at home in Christ.—Dr. J. H. Jowett. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


— 893 —— 
EXPERIENCE TRUSTING GOD 
Some years ago the writer was pastor 

of a small home mission church at Iron 
Mountain, Michigan,. It was his first 
charge, and he must say he toiled hard 
to make the cause of the Master flour- 
ish. The church had been newly or- 
ganized, and the little band of members 
although devoted were poorly off as to 
worldly possessions, The growth of the 
church was at an encouraging rate not- 
withstanding the encumbrance of a 
debt, incurred by the erection of a 
church and the purchase of a parson- 
age. To meet the payments as they fell 
due, and also to pay the pastor his sal- 
ary, which they esteemed their first ob- 
ligation, taxed the financial strength of 
the congregation to its utmost. 

For three years, his salary was paid 
promptly month by month, but other 
obligations could not be met with the 
same alacrity. One claim was being 
pressed vigorously, and the struggling 
little flock were becoming disheartened. 

At that time, 1889, the pastor after 
due consideration and prayer, resolved 
upon a course of action contemplated 
for a long time.. So after the sermon 
one Sabbath morning, he told the people 
that he had decided to no longer accept 
a stated salary while he remained their 
pastor. But he would take for his sup- 
port what might be cheerfully given in 
the collections. He told the people they 
were now free to pay their debts and 
give him what they had left. He then 
proposed that they abandon socials as 
a means of money getting, and asked 
them to give, from love to Christ, $900 
within the next nine months, to apply 
on church debt. This was twice as 
much as had ever been raised in any 
year before. 

Presbytery met in our church that 
Spring, and when the action of the 
pastor became known, the general opin- 
ion seemed to be voiced by one of the 
oldest and most influential ministers 
when he arose and said: “Brother Tyn- 
dall means well, but he has made a mis- 
take. He will yet be glad to have some 


451 


of his brethren come over and help raise 
some money for him.” 

This prediction was never fulfilled. 
The people knew their pastor was de- 
pendent upon his salary for a livelihood, 
and they had no disposition to starve 
him out. On the other hand his example 
was contagious, and more cheerfully 
and freely than ever their gifts flowed 
into the Lord’s treasury, and in the 
nine months the $900 was paid, and the 
church was blessed spiritually and 
financially as never before. 

The writer remhained there two years 
longer, and while the money he received 
was $200 a year less than it would have 
been had he retained his salary, yet 
God made it sufficient so that he always 
had enough and some to spare. 

That experience was needed to help 
us face the greater difficulties of this 
New York City field. Here many thou- 
sands of souls were perishing without 
the gospel. But to come, salary must 
be resigned. No congregation invited, 
and no support was offered. But thanks 
be to God, we came! He has prospered 
our labors, provided for our needs, and 
kept us in peace. 

If this testimony, given for His glory, 
shall help any one, we shall be glad.— 
Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 

— 894 — 
FAME’S DURATION 


Henry van Dyke writes thus of fame: 
“One thing is certain in regard to fame; 
for most of us it will be very brief in 
itself; for all of us it will be transient in 
our enjoyment of it. When death has 
dropped the curtain we shall hear no 
more applause. And though we fondly 
dream that it will continue after we 
have left the stage, we do not realize 
how quickly it will die away in silence 
while the audience turns to look at the 
new actor and the next scene. Our 
position in society will be filled as soon 
as it is vacated, and our name remem- 
bered only for a moment—except, please 
God, by a few who have learned to love 
us, not because of fame but because we 
have helped them and done them some 
good.” 


452 


m= 895 — 
THE REWARD OF FAITH 


In 1893, a year after starting the work 
of the People’s Tabernacle, we wrote 
the subjoined article, which then ap- 
peared in the little paper which we have 
published nearly twenty-seven years. 

From that time to this, 1920, the work 
has gone on, and our hope respecting 
a building has been more than realized. 
We have a church, a parsonage and a 
hotel. No debt and some endowment. 
Thousands of souls have been brought 
under the power of the gospel. Ought 
we not now to thank God for the past, 
and with increased faith trust Him for 
the tens of thousands, and for long con- 
tinuance? 

“We suppose there are some doubting 
Thomases who are watching for our 
halting. When the work was started 
they said it could not succeed, that we 
would soon get discouraged and give it 
up as a bad job. 

“Tf such ones only knew how far we 
are from abandoning our undertaking, 
and that every week the likelihood of 
our doing so is growing less and less, 
they would conclude that they are more 
likely to die of old age while waiting for 
the work to cease than it is to stop. 

“The task to which we felt called was 
indeed no easy one. It was nothing less 
than, with God’s help and blessing, to 
build a church here for these poor and 
neglected people. Now, while we are 
not unmindful of the magnitude of this 
undertaking, we have great confidence 
in its worthiness and importance. It is 
well worth the best part of one’s life to 
succeed in such an effort. 

“What does success in this case mean? 

“It means that a large commodious 
building, consecrated to the work and 
worship of God, shall here be erected. 
That multitudes of children shall be im- 
pressed with gospel truth in the Sab- 
bath-school provided. That thousands 
of eager listeners shall be gathered 
within its walls to hear the message of 
Salvation. And more important still, it 
means that this down-pour of blessing 
shall be continued for generations, until 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


this desert shall blossom as the rose. 
Yes, success means nothing less than the 
eternal salvation of tens of thousands of 
souls.”’—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 

— 896 — 


GEN. 0. 0. HOWARD'S 
CONVERSION 


I was preaching in Tampa, Florida, to 
the soldiers, just before they sailed for 
Cuba. General Howard was present 
one night, and gave us his experience. 

He said: “Forty-two years ago, at 
Fort Brook, two miles from here, I sur- 
rendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. I 
went to a little Methodist Church one 
August night. I need not have gone, be- 
cause the village is small, and the preach- 
er preached loud enough to be heard all 
over the place. That night the preacher 
invited enquirers (‘mourners,’ he called 
them) to come to the altar and seek for- 
giveness of their sins, and about twenty 
plain people went forward. Just behind 
me sat two officers from the Fort in their 
regimentals, and they were amused by 
the proceedings. They kept nudging each 
other, and having some fun at the ex- 
pense of the ‘mourners.’ 

“That made me feel indignant,” Gen- 
eral Howard went on. “I said to myself, 
‘I would rather be up there with those 
simple people, trying to get right, than 
back here with these sneering officers ;’ 
so I quietly rose, walked down the aisle 
and knelt at the Communion-rail, not be- 
cause I wanted to be a Christian, but 
because I wanted the people to see that 
I did not want to be with the scoffing 
crowd, but with those people trying to 
do right. The preacher came and knelt 
by my side, and I had not been there five 
minutes before I got more than I came 
for. He began to talk about my mother’s 
Bible and Heaven, and tears dropped on 
the carpet. I said to myself, ‘There is 
something in this after all; I am going 
to be a Christian.’ I rose from my knees, 
went back to the barracks, and took out 
the Bible I had scarcely looked at since 
my mother gave itto me. I laid it on the 
table, knelt Before it, then I surrendered 
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and peace came 
into my soul. I began to walk the floor 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


and said, ‘Praise the Lord for salvation!’ 
I went out under the stars; they seemed 
to shine more brightly, and I spent the 
whole night praising God, for I did not 
want to go to sleep.” 

General Howard went on to relate 
how, next morning, he met an officer, 
who said, “Howard, I hear you have 
turned pious.” .“I have, and I am not 
ashamed of it,” Howard replied. “Oh,” 
he said, “if you will come to my room, 
I can show you ever so many mistakes 
in the Bible.’ Howard said, “I am not 
caring about that now; but I can tell 
you one thing you cannot contradict, 
and that is that last night I surrendered 
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and have been 
so happy that I could not sleep.” The 
officer shut his mouth, opened his eyes, 
and went on. 

General Howard continued: “I prayed 
to God to give me every soldier in Fort 
Brook, and before we broke camp—I 
think it was three years afterwards— 
every man was converted except one 
man, who became a general in the Civil 
War.” Then Howard’s voice trembled 
and his eyes filled with tears, as he said: 
“On the battlefield in Virginia, I was 
standing in the midst of bursting shells 
and whistling bullets, when General 
Cassard came up, covered with powder- 
smoke, and said, “Howard; in Fort 
Brook you had something which I had 
not’; and there, in the midst of the 
battle, I preached Jesus to my old 
friend. God answered my prayer to the 
letter. In three weeks General Cassard 
was in eternity.”—-Dr. A. C. Dixon. 


— 897 — 
THE LOST HANDKERCHIEF 


One day, when the streets were espec- 
ially muddy, in crossing Fourth avenue 
to Wanamaker’s store, I spied on the 
cross-walk a large, beautiful handker- 
chief, lost by somebody. Its linen 
whiteness made it conspicuous above the 
black mud of the street. Just as I was 
stooping to pick it up, I discovered it 
had been trodden upon, and so was de- 
filed by the filth of the street. As I did 
not want to put it into my pocket, nor 


‘as new.”’ 


453 


catry it in my hand, I passed on and left 
it to its fate. 

But my interest was aroused, and I 
waited on the curb to see what would 
become of the handkerchief. As I 
watched, I saw one or two persons, ob- 
serving it, make a motion to pick it up, 
but not knowing what to do with in its 
filthy condition, they hesitated and then 
passed on. 

Finally a poorly-dressed boy of about 
twelve years came along, and I called his 
attention to it, saying: “There is a valu- 
able pocket handkerchief out there. Go 
and getit. With a little soap and water 
your mother can easily make it as good 
So he walked to where it lay, 
picked it up; gave it a flirt or two, and 
went off, evidently well-pleased with his 
find. 

The predicament of that lost handker- 
chief reminded me of the condition of 
the unsaved sinner. The size and tex- 
ture of the handkerchief were all that 
could be desired. But it would be of no 
use for one to plead: “The linen is the 
finest, and the most of the handkerchief 
is still white.” 

Until cleansed from its filth, it was 
utterly useless for the purpose for which 
it was made. No decent person could 
tolerate it as a handkerchief until 
cleansed. 


Just so with the sinner with unre- 
newed nature. He may possess many 
admirable qualities, but his heart is cor- 
rupt. Jesus says: “Out of the heart 
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulter- 
ies, fornications, thefts, false witness, 
blasphemies: These are the things which 
defile a man.” Matt. 15:19, 20. 


And if a man’s heart be filthy with sin 
where can God find a place for him? 
Certainly not in His holy presence. 

As the soiled handkerchief was valu- 
able because it could be easily cleansed, 
so the sinner, even the vilest, because 
his nature may be renewed, and his sins 
be washed away in that fountain opened 
in the house of David for sin and un- 
cleanness, is precious beyond all price. 
But he is of no worth if he is to remain 
uncleansed.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. — 


454 


— 893 — 
THE BIBLE AS A WEAPON 


A number of years ago an incident oc- 
curred which greatly endeared the Bible 
to me, and caused me to feel safe with- 
out any carnal weapon. 


All in a moment I found myself sur- 
rounded by six men demanding my 
purse. I was where I could not defend 
myself or obtain help from man. [I con- 
fess to a strange palpitation in my heart. 
It seemed clear that my purse or life 
must go. At that instant something 
seemed to say: 

“Tell them who you are.” 

With much difficulty I said to them: 

“T am a minister of Jesus Christ. My 
business is to preach Christ wherever I 
go, and you know you are making a de- 
mand upon me that you cannot meet at 
the judgment seat of Christ.” 

After a little I distinctly heard one of 
them say: 

“Let him go.” 

Then I knew God’s revolver had taken 
effect. I now became calm, and pointed 
them to the Judgment seat, where they 
must meet me and this whole transac- 
tion. Strange to tell, they were silent 
for a little, then one by one went away, 
and left me alone. This was plainly the 
effect of preaching to them the great 
Day of Judgment, accompanied by the 
Divine Spirit. 

I can never forget my feelings as I 
walked away from the spot, seeing 
“Jesus only” with me. I seemed to 
grasp the “Bible” with a new love and 
confidence, and silently said: 

“T shall never need any other revolver 
than this.”—Rev. A. B. Earl. 


— 899 — 
“TO THE POOR THE GOSPEL” 


One Sunday after church, learning 
that a little five-year-old girl of our 
Sunday School had been burned to 
death, and was to be buried that after- 
noon, I went around to see if I could be 
of any service. After speaking a few 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


words of sympathy, I 48ked the father 
if he. was going to have a minister. He 
said: “I am a poor man and not able to 
pay a minister.” I told him I never 
charged for such services, and would 
like to come if he desired it. Bursting 
into tears, he said he would not have 
me to come for nothing, but if I would 
come for a small sum, he would be 
thankful. Then he told me that his wife 
had been so insane since the death of 
an older child, that she would never 
own this little girl. And that he had 
been both father and mother to her. 


That afternoon, as I stood by that 
little casket, I was thankful for the priv- 
ilege of trying to comfort that father, 
broken hearted over the loss of that 
sweet child. Is it not too bad, that it is 
possible for the poor to feel that they 
must bury their dead without the com- 
fort of the Gospel, because too poor to 
pay a minister?—Rev. Henry M. Tyn- 

all. 


— 900 — 


DUTY MORE THAN LIFE 


Some time ago, in a deaconess hos- 
pital, fire was suddenly discovered in 
the frail wooden structure which con- 
tained the patients. All from the first 
and second floors had made their escape. 
Suddenly a girl’s white face appeared at 
the third-story window. It was the 
nurse, Minnie Baumer, in whose charge 
was a patient strapped to a bedstead, 
under treatment for a broken hip. “Help 

me save my patient!” she cried. But 
the lower part of the house was a mass of 
flames, and no one could help. “Jump 
and save yourself!” they shouted back. 
She could have dropped to the broad 
roof of the veranda. Eager hands were 
waiting to assist her, but she only re- 
plied, “I can’t leave my patient,” and 
disappeared. When it was over, they 
found the poor charred body fallen by 
the bedside, the hands still clutching 
the cruel fastenings which bound her 
helpless charge, in a last attempt, in 
blindness and pain, to undo them. 
Selected. : 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


a= 90] m= 
HELP SENT VIA CHICAGO 


I sat down to read a portion of God’s 
Word in a Pullman sleeper early one 
morning, when a young gentleman, an 
entire stranger, in passing, paused, and 
upon inviting him to a seat by my side, 
he gave this experience, says a writer in 
the Sunday School Times. 

“I am a ‘bond’ salesman from Chi- 
cago. Returning from Freeport, Illi- 
nois, one day, I discovered that I should 
reach Chicago too late for my work in 
the cffice that day; so I determined to 
stop off at a small town between trains 
and pay an old friend a visit. It was to 
be a surprise. Upon going to his home, 
I found the house locked up, and the 
neighbors informed me that my friend 
had gone away for a three weeks’ stay. 
This was a disappointment. 

“A wait of five hours for the next 
_ train confronted me, but I determined 
to make the best of it; so I walked out 
into the country to pass away the time, 
and came upon an aged man in a field by 
the roadside, who was slowly turning 
hay, preparing it for the barn. After 
exchanging greetings, I engaged the old 
man in conversation, but I soon discov- 
ered that while he was very .courteous 
and kind in his replies to my questions, 
he kept at his work. The thought came 
to me, ‘Why not help him?’ Telling him 
of my disappointment, I took an idle 
fork standing near by, and side by side 
we worked and talked. When the hay 
was all raked up and gathered in small 
heaps, I found that I must return to the 
station. Extending my hand to bid him 

gojod-bye I remarked that my disap- 
pointment had been turned into genuine 
pleasure by his acquaintance. 

“Holding my hand,” he said, “Let me 
tell you something before you go. This 
morning, aS we awoke, mother and I 
talked about getting up this hay. I re- 
marked that I was feeling so badly that 
I feared I should be unable to accom- 
plish the task; but mother encouraged 
me, and assured me that the Lord would 
help me. At family prayers we both 


455 


asked our heavenly Father for his help. 
I arose feeling refreshed, and felt sure 
that in some way he would help, -but,” 
he added, as he pressed my hand tighter 
and a tear glistened in his eye, “I really 
did not expect the Lord to send a man 
from Chicago with kid gloves and pat- 
ent-leather shoes to help me do it.” 


— 902 — 


TYNDALE’S NEW TESTAMENT 


The following is a striking example of 
the manner in which sometimes the 
enmity of men is turned to good. 

Soon after Tyndale’s New Testament 
was published, 1526, a royal proclama- 
tion was issued to prohibit the buying 
and reading of such translation or trans- 
lations. But this served to increase the 
public curiosity, and to occasion a more 
careful reading of what was deemed so 
obnoxious. One step, taken by the 
Bishop of London, afforded some mer- 
riment to the Protestants. His lordship 
thought that the best way to pre- 
vent these English New Testaments 
from being circulated, would be to buy 
up the whole impression, and therefore 
employed a Mr. Packington, then at Ant- 
werp, for this purpose; assuring him, at 
the same time, that, cost what they 
would, he would have them, and burn 
them at St. Paul’s Cross. 

Upon this, Packington applied him- 
self to Tyndale (who was then at Ant- 
werp), and upon agreement, the Bishop 
had the books, Packington great thanks, 
and Tyndale all the money. This en- 
abled Tyndale immediately to publish 
a new and more correct edition, so that 
they came over, thick and threefold into 
England, which occasioned great rage in 
the disappointed Bishop and his friends. 
A man named Constantine being soon 
after apprehended by Sir Thomas More, 
and being asked how Tyndale and others 
subsisted abroad, readily answered, “It 
is the Bishop of London who has been 
their chief supporter, for he has be- 
stowed a great deal of money upon them 
in the purchase of New Testaments to 
burn them.”—Selected. 


456 
ts 503 


A SCOFFER SILENCED 


In the early days of the People’s Tab- 
ernacle, I went one Sunday evening after 
church to a home, where I was a 
stranger, to baptise a little child. It was 
the first-born, and much was made of 
the occasion, and a score or more of the 
friends of the parents were present. 
During the evening the father had 
helped himself so freely to the wine 
served to the guests that when [I ar- 
rived his face was flushed, and tongue 
unloosed. After the ceremony, address- 
ing me he said, “Of course this is only a 
form. None of us believe in religion. 
It is all a humbug. Ministers are 
preaching for money. They are after 
the money, just as we all are.” Such re- 
marks from her husband greatly morti- 
fied the wife, who was an estimable 
lady, and in embarrassment she left the 
room. Assuming he only expressed his 
honest conviction, and that he intended 
no offense, I encouraged him to free his 
mind. And he referred to certain in- 
stances which he thought proved his 
opinion correct. 

When he had’ freely expressed his 
views, he turned to his circle of friends, 
all strangers to me, and said, “We all 
think alike here.’ There were smiles of 
approval on the faces of some, and ex- 
clamations of dissent from others. 

Then it was my turn. I told the 
company that I was glad for the expres- 
sion of such sentiments, not that they 
were true, but because they were se- 
cretly held by many, as it afforded me 
an opportunity of expressing my mind 
on the subject. I remarked that ail 
coins are not genuine, neither are all 
counterfeit. Each one is tested separ- 
rately, and we do not refuse a good piece 
of money because of having been im- 
posed upon some time by a counterfeit. 
Then to clear myself of the charge of 
preaching the gospel for money, I said 
that when I left my church in the West, 
and came to New York, it was because 
T believed I could do more good here. 
At this point I was interrupted with, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“Now, do not say it was because you 
could do more good here, but be honest, 
and say it was because you got a larger 
salary.” I said, “I must admit that my 
salary here was larger, but just wait a 
little before you judge.” 

..I then related how three years before, 
I found myself living in a district of 
about a mile square, and learned that for 
its sixty or seventy thousand people 
there was not one Protestant church, 


_and for swarms of its children there was 


no Sabbath School. I told how I tried 
but in vain to induce those having 
money to do something to supply this 
need. Then with my family to support 
and no other income, I at last gave up 
my salary of $1,500 a year at the Broome 
St. Tabernacle to work in this field. 
And though there was no congregation 
here to invite me to come, and no prom- 
ised support from any quarter, yet I was 
willing to expend my savings of less 
than $500 to start this work, and to trust 
God to provide for it and for my family. 

I said my salary here for the first 
three months was $17.79, and for the 
first year $438, about $1100 less than it 
would have been had I remained where I 
was. Now if you think I am preaching 
the gospel for money, please explain 
why I should have done as I have.” Of 
course no reply was attempted. I then 
showed how God had sustained and 
prospered the work. That although no 
one had ever been asked for a dollar, yet 
in answer to prayer, money had been 
sent from eighteen different states to 
help the work, and nearly all was given 
by strangers too. 

I ended by speaking of my own con- 
version. How at that time God gave 
me a love for souls, and that since then 
it had been my joy to labor for their 
salvation. And that for eighteen years 
I had been proving that religion is a 
divine reality and no humbug. 

To say that my skeptical friend was 
abashed, and that our attentive listen- 
ers were impressed by the turn matters 
had taken, would but lightly express the 
effect of that short talk on the evidences 
of Christianity. I found some present 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


who were glad to hear more on the same 
subject, and I exhorted them to come to 
the great Teacher himself and learn of 
him. My critic was very apologetic, and 
when, during a call some time after, I 
urged upon him the claims of Christ, he 
had no doubts to offer, but seemed will- 
ing to concede that I was in earnest, and 
evidently knew more about the subject 
than himself. 

I was thankful to be in a position to 
refute so easily that slander against the 
ministry, and to be able to present an 
unanswerable argument, founded upon 
personal experience and conduct, in 
favor of the truth of the gospel. It was 
one of the compensations given me in 
lieu of a large salary.—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


O04 
GOD’S JUDGMENTS 


A few years ago, on the island of 
Martinique, the people were so wicked 
that they drove the missionaries from 
the island. They got so heinously full 
of the devil that they crucified a hog in 
derision of the Lord Jesus Christ. God 
could not abide their crime. There lay 
near the foot of Mt. Pelee, a city of 
some 35,000 people | 

When God got ready to pronounce 
His judgments upon those people and 
upon that city, the rumbling of the 
mountain was heard; and when the ex- 
perts went up there to see if there was 
any danger, they reported, “All is safe.” 
But the rumbling began again, and the 
experts again reported, “All is safe.” 
But the very reptiles, lizards and birds 
of the mountain side, had more sense 
than the people in the city, for they left 
the mountain. God uncapped Pelee, 
and it vomited out its contents, and 
buried St. Pierre beneath its ashes. 

Early one morning a few years ago, 
God began to shake San Francisco, 
probably the wickedest city in this na- 
tion. I have lived in that city, and con- 
ducted mission work there, and I know 
something of its crimes before high 
Heaven. 


497 


God Almighty shook San Francisco 
until the buildings toppled down, and 
the earth opened up, and the people 
rushed to the streets, and were kilied 
by the hundreds, the city was in a con- 
flagration, and $200,000,000 worth of 
property went up in smoke.—W. E. 
Shepard. 


— 905 — 
HOW MARY BUILT THE BARN 


Do you know how Mary built the 
barn? 

Her parents were dead, and she and 
her two brothers worked the farm. 
They had no barn, and year after year, 
they stacked the grain, and much of it 
was wasted. Mary insisted that they 
ought to build a barn. Her brothers 
were oOver-grown, able-bodied, good- 
natured fellows, but altogether too easy- 
going. They admitted that they needed 
a barn, and they meant to build one, but 
kept putting it off from season to sea- 
son. Finally, Mary said she should wait 
no longer. She herself would build the 
barn. But her brothers only laughed at 
her, and thought it all a joke. 

However, Mary was in earnest. She 
had a load of lumber drawn to the spot 
for the barn. And to the amazement of 
her brothers, she took a saw, an ax and 
a hammer, and started for the lumber- 
pile, and began pounding away. 

Her brothers now saw she was really 
in earnest and that something would be 
built.. So they concluded to take hold 
and help her. This was what Mary ex- 
pected, and the work went forward until 
the barn was completed. Mary alone 
could not have built it. But she could 
start it, and by her earnestness of spirit 
win the aid of her brothers. 

Encouraged by this story, and acting 
upon the principle underlying it, we 
have undertaken here the erection of a 
church. We cannot do it alone. But 
we can do what we can, and we mean to. 
Already many have come to our help, 
and others will, and with God’s blessing 
no doubt a church will be the outcome. 
—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall, November, 
1893. 


458 ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 906 — 
GOD THE ONLY HELPER 


The story is told of two beggars, one 
of whom as he went through the streets 
of the city would cry out: “He is helped 
whom the King helps!” The other beg- 
gar, his companion, possibly with more 
faith in the Deity would raise the cry: 
“He is helped whom God helps!” 

It so happened that one day the King 
heard his two begging subjects as they 
uttered their respective cries, and he di- 
rected his footman to tell the beggars to 
call at the royal bakery at a certain hour 
the next day. Meanwhile, the King’s 
baker was instructed to make two loaves 
of equal size and appearance. But in 
the loaf to be given to the beggar who 
cried in honor of his King, a number of 
gold coins were to be put. This was 
done, and the heavy loaf was given to 
the King’s favorite. 

The two men received their loaves 
gratefully. But after their departure the 
one receiving the heavy loaf, discovering 
it by balancing the two in his hands, and 
having a keen relish for light bread and 
wanting the best, proposed trading 
loaves with his companion, and this was 
accordingly done. 

Shortly after, to the King’s surprise, 
the beggar to whom he had given gold 
enough to relieve from want for a long 
time was seen by his majesty begging 
and crying as lustily as ever: “He is 
helped whom the King helps!” 

Calling the man to him he said: “Why 
is it that you are still begging? Did 
you not get the loaf which I ordered my 
baker to give you?” 

“Yes, your Majesty, I thankfully re- 
ceived the loaf. But as I always prefer 
light bread to heavy, I persuaded the 
other fellow to trade with me.” 

The King made no explanation, but 
as he drove away he said: “Indeed, he is 
helped whom God helps!” 

“Man proposes, but God disposes.” 
God cares for all his creatures, but his 
providence is especially gracious to- 
wards those who honor Him. It is bet- 
ter to trust in the Lord than to put con- 


ANECDOTES. 


fidence in princes. Psalm 118: 9.— Rev. 


Henry M. Tyndall. 
— 907 — 
A LOVING REBUKE 


Rev. Dr. J. G. Paton, missionary, was 
on the steamship “Hero,” Capt. Logan, 
for New Zealand. Fast men and 
gamblers returning from Melbourne 
races were on. Their language was ex- 
tremely profane. Praying over it, at 
the second day at dinner, he said: 

“Gentlemen, will you bear with me a 
moment? I am sure no man at this 
table wishes to wound the feelings of 
another or to give needless pain.” 

Every eye stared at him as to what 
was meant. 

“Gentlemen, we are fellow passengers 
for a week or more. Now I am cut and 
wounded to my very heart to hear you 
cursing the name of my Heavenly 
Father and taking in vain the name of 
my blessed Saviour. It is a God in 
whom we live and move, and it is Jesus 
who tried to save us, and I would rather 
ten times over you would abuse me, 
which no gentleman here would think 
of doing, than profanely use those Holy 
Names so dear to me.” 

There was a silence and faces crim- 
soned with anger and shame. A con- 
sumptive banker replied with oaths and 
wrath. Dr. Paton, calmly, kindly eyed 
him and responded: 

“Dear sir, you and I are strangers. I 
pity you in your heavy trouble and hack- 
ing cough. You ought to be the last to 
curse that blessed name, as you may 
soon have to appear in His presence. 
If the Saviour was as dear to your heart 
as he is to mine you would better under- 
stand me.” 

Little was said that meal. An hour 
later Capt. Logan said in his room: “I 
am a Christian, sir. My hour with my 
Bible is more than all the pleasure of the 
world. You did your duty, now leave 
it to their conscience and to God.” 

He heard not another oath on that 
ship. The banker met Dr. Paton in 
New Zealand and took him to his home. 

Better pray than swear. Kindly re- 
buke sin.—Presbyterian Witness. 


Yr ——- = 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 908 — 
THE AMBITIOUS SHOEMAKER 


Henry Wilson, Vice-President of the 
United States, was a native of New 
Hampshire. His parents were poor, 
and it was the poverty which strong 
drink so often causes. The family name 
was Colbath; and to free himself en- 
tirely from surroundings so unhappy 
and repulsive, the young man left his 
home and changed his name. He set out 
for Natick, Mass., going by way of Bos- 
ton, and visiting Bunker Hill. The ex- 
pense of his journey of about one 
hundred miles, mostly performed on 
foot, was one dollar and five cents. In 
Natick he was employed in the shoe 
shop of one William P. Legro, who 
agreed to teach him shoemaking for five 
months’ work. It was rather a hard 
bargain as Wilson soon found, and he at 
length agreed with his employer to re- 
lease him for fifteen dollars; and so at 
the end of seven weeks, instead of five 
months, he had mastered the trade, and 
was earning regular wages. 

The present division of labor in the 
shoe trade was then unknown. Each 
man made an entire shoe, instead of 
learning to polish a heel, or put on a 
sole. As each man began and completed 
his shoes himself, Wilson, eager to help 
his father and mother, and to obtain an 
education for himself, soon began busi- 
ness on his own account, and often 
worked sixteen hours a day. He knew 


enough about strong drink to let that. 


alone to the end of his life. Mrs. Parry, 
with whom he boarded, said, “He was 
a very good young man, We liked him 
very much, but he kept us awake at 
night by his continual pounding.” 


This was the way Henry Wilson at- 
tained success and won his way. “Con- 
tinual pounding” made him independent 
and prosperous; “continual pounding” 
gave him education and _ influence; 
“continual pounding” sent him to Con- 
gress, and “continual pounding” after- 
wards made him an associate with Grant, 
and Vice President of the United States. 
| The Safeguard. 


ANECDOTES 459 


— 909 — 
PRAY FOR YOUR PREACHER. 


It is said that Dr. John Watson, 
better known to many as Ian Maclar- 
en, in the early years of his ministry 
determined to preach without manu- 
script. He took into the pulpit a sin- 
gle sheet of paper containing a few 
notes. Sometimes his memory failed, 
and he would say: 

“Friends, this is not very clear. It 
was clear in my study on Saturday, but 
now I will begin again.” The people 
never showed any impatience. After 
a sermon one Sabbath morning a gaunt 
Highland editor went to him, and said: 

“When you are not remembering your 
sermon, just give out a psalm, and we 
will be singing while you are taking a 
rest, for we are all loving you and pray- 
ing for you.” 

In after years Dr. Watson said: “I am 
in the ministry to-day because of the 
tenderness and charity of those country 
folk, those perfect gentlemen and Chris- 
tians.” The generous behavior of the 
people to whom he ministered acted up- 
on his nature as spring sunshine and 
showers act upon vegetable life; it called 
out all that was best in him.—Selected. 


—910 — 
AN UNINTENDED REBUKE 


An impressive little story is told of 
how, one day when walking through 
Wales, Mr. Hone, the author, stopped 
at a cottage door and found a little girl 
reading the Bible. Being very thirsty 
from his long walk, he asked for a glass 
of water, but the little girl replied, “Oh, 
yes; mother will no doubt give you 
some milk.” He went in, and after a 
little conversation with the girl, asked 
how she liked learning her task out of 
the Bible. ‘Oh, it is not a task to read 
it. I love it.’ Seeing his surprise, she 
added, “I thought everybody loved the 
Bible.’ The arrow went home. Hone 
pondered over it, and was led to read for 
himself, and from that time was a great 
reader and ceased being an opponent of 
the Bible.—Selected. 


“~ 


460 


wom 91] 
FROM GLOOM TO GLADNESS. 


While God provides for our temporal 
needs, he evidently means to strengthen 
our weak faith. How this is done, the 
following will show. For nearly a 
month, all that had been sent for the sup- 
port of the work amounted to only $6.50. 
Our total expenses for the month were 
about $100.00. We had all along been 
praying God to send money, but it came 
in small sums, with long intervals be- 
tween. 


Finally one Monday morning, after 
wife and I had talked the matter over, 
my faith brightened somewhat, and at 
family worship I had the courage to ask 
that $100.00 might come that week. 


The next morning my faith wavered. 
A hundred dollars seemed almost too 
much to ask the Lord to send in a week. 
So I told Him if a hundred dollars was 
too large a sum, to give us what was 
best. But Tuesday, Wednesday and 
Thursday passed, and not a dollar came. 
We were sorely tempted to believe that 
all those who were interested in this 
work, had already given to its support, 
and perhaps we had been too confident of 
God’s willingness to maintain it. But 
you may judge how the tide turned, and 
our hearts rejoiced, when on Friday, $91 
came, sent by five different persons. Had 
our faith not wavered, undoubtedly the 
whole hundred dollars would have come. 
God gave $91 in one day, to show us 
how easily he could have given the 
amount asked for at first—Rev. Henry 
M. Tyndall, May, 1893. 


—912— 
AFTER MANY DAYS 


An English minister told the follow- 
ing: “I was asked to go to a public house 
in Nottingham to see the landlord’s wife, 
who was dying. I found her rejoicing 
in Christ as her Saviour. I asked her 
how she found the Lord. ‘Reading 
that,’ she replied, handing me a torn 
piece of paper. I looked at it and found 
it was a part of an American newspaper, 
containing an extract from one of Spur- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


geon’s sermons, which extract had been 
the means of her conversion. ‘Where 
did you find this newspaper?’ .I asked. 
‘It was wrapped around a parcel sent to 
me from Australia.’ A sermon preached 
in London, cabled or sent to America, 
and there printed in a newspaper, which 
was sent to Australia, part of it being 
torn off there for the parcel sent to 
England, which reached the heart of a 
woman, that probably could not easily 
have been reached in any other way, not 
many miles from where the words were 
originally spoken. What a comment on 
Isaiah 55:11.”—Selected. 


— 913— 
WHAT SHALL I RENDER? 


There can be no recompense for di- 
vine grace. This does not mean, how- 
ever, that we are to be indifferent to cer- 
tain obligations which it puts upon us. 
David asks, “What shall I render unto 
the Lord for all his benefits toward me,” 
and, immediately answers, “I will take 
the cup of salvation and call upon his 
name: I will pay my vows unto him in 
the presence of all his people.” Other 
return can no man make, and nothing 
more is required of us. This involves 
love and loyalty and faithful service; 
which involves an acceptance of Christ 
and a life of unswerving devotion to 
him. 

Not long ago a ship sailed into New 
York Bay and reported, among other 
events of the voyage, the saving of a 
life. It happened this way: There was 
a cry, “Man overboard!” The boat- 
swain was leaning over the taff-rail at 
the time, and, without a moment’s hesi- 
tation, he leaped into the water and 
swam to the rescue. On being brought 
aboard, the man was unconscious for a 
long: while; then, opening his eyes, he 
faintly asked, “Who saved me”? When 
the boatswain was pointed out, being 
unable to rise, he crawled with feeble 
strength along the deck until he reached 
him and kissed his feet. 

Go thou and do likewise -—Rev. David 


j. Burrell, D.D., LL.D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—914— 
SENATOR WILSON’S COURAGE. 


After Henry Wilson’s first election to 
the United States Senate he gave his 
friends a dinner. The table was set with 
not one wine-glass upon it. 

“Where are the glasses?” asked sev- 
eral of the guests merrily. 

“Gentlemen,” said Mr. Wilson, “you 
know my friendship for you and my obli- 
gations to you. Great as they are, they 
are not great enough to make me forget 
the rock whence I was hewn and the pit 
whence I was dug. Some of you know 
how the curse of intemperance overshad- 
owed my youth. That I might escape, 
I fled from my early surroundings. For 
what I am, I am indebted, under God, to 
my temperance vow and my adherence 
to it. Call for what you want to eat, 
and, if this hotel can provide it, it shall 
be forthcoming; but wines and liquors 
cannot come to this table with my con- 
sent, because I will not spread in the 
path of another the snare from which I 
escaped.” 

Three rousing cheers showed the brave 
Senator that men admire the man who 
has the courage of his convictions. 

He afterward filled the office of Vice 
President of the United States.— 
Selected. 


—915 — 
HUMBLE WORK DONE WELL 


Whatever you do—even the very 
smallest act of service—do it well; do 
it as under the eye of the Lord, and 
in view of the fact that your service 
will be rewarded. If you have served 
your earthly master or mistress worthy 
of God and faithfully, then you will hear 
“well done” from the Master’s own lips. 
Never mind if your lot in life be very 
mean in the eyes of men—fill it for God, 
and do your work well. 

Two young men were candidates for 
the same situation. The one who was 
rejected sought to throw contempt up- 
on his rival by saying—with a sneer 
loud enough to be heard all over the 
room. “He was once my father’s shoe- 


461 


black.” The other heard the remark, 
and smilingly said, “Yes, and didn’t I 
black them well!” There could nothing 
be said by his opponent to the contrary, 
and so it went to the young man’s cred- 
it, and the other slunk away. 

A young girl was brought to the Lord 
one evening in a Gospel tent in Glasgow. 
She served as underhousemaid in a 
worldly family, and when it became 
known that she had professed conver- 
sion, they tried to tease her. But her 
mistress gave the following testimony 
to a lady who called to inquire after Ma- 
ry’s character and abilities as a servant, 
previous to engaging her. “Mary was 
rather careless for a time, but ever 
since she professed to be a child of God, 
her work has been faithfully done. The 
rooms have been well done, and Mary 
has been a truly good and trustworthy 
girl”” You see she began to do her 
work as under her new Master’s eye, 
and with a desire to please Him. 

—Youth’s Counsellor. 


— 916 — 
WRONG CHEERFUL GIVING. 


In the “Sunday School Gem,” J. A. 
Detter of Martinsburg, Pa. tells how one 
boy made cheerful giving easy: 

Howard’s father gave him a quarter 
and a dime on Sunday morning, telling 
him to put the one on the contri- 
bution plate and he might keep the 
other for his own use. After the service 
he was asked which coin he gave. He 
replied: “I gave the dime. I did feel at 
first that I ought to give the quarter, but, 
just in time, I remembered that the 
Bible says, ‘the Lord loveth a cheerful 
giver,’ and then I found it much easier 
to give the dime.” 

This boy was simply frank enough to 
speak right out what is true of the giv- 
ing of a great many people. They want 
to make giving easy, and one of the 
handiest ways to do it is to cut down 
the amount. And some perhaps even 
try to make themselves believe that a 
small amount given cheerfully is more 
acceptable than a larger amount that 
must carry with it some of the red blood 
of the giver’s heart and life. 


462 


enn 917 
A DRUNKARD’S DEATH. 


There died a few days ago, in a house 
where I frequently visit, a man only 24 
years old, yet a confirmed drunkard. He 
had stripped his home by pawning almost 
every thing he had to satisfy his craving 
for drink. One day he came home with 
burning thirst and empty purse, and 
said, “Mary, where are the little clothes 
you made, and put away?” 

He actually robbed his unborn child 
of the clothing prepared by its mother, 
and pawned it for twenty-five cents. He 
pawned his wife’s shoes, so she had none 
to wear to his funeral, and also the last 
sheet of her bed, so that he died on one 
borrowed of a neighbor. 

His death was no less disgusting and 
horrible than his life. He continually 
clamored for the drink with which his in- 
dulgent yet suffering wife tried to supply 
him. One of his chums had sent him 
a present of some whiskey, and he would 
call for “Morris’s whiskey;” then for 
lager beer. And when unable to speak, 
he motioned to be given a pencil and 
paper, and wrote, “Mixed Ale.” 

The last words he uttered were, 
“Lager Beer!” 

It was brought and put to his lips. 
His teeth were set, and he could not 
drink. Then, with almost superhuman 
effort, he raised himself in bed, eagerly 
clutched the glass, and drained it twice. 
He then fell back, and with beer-mug 
in one hand, and a lighted candle in the 
other, his spirit took its everlasting 
flight. 

“At the last it biteth like a serpent, 
and stingeth like an adder.”—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 918 — 
KEEP YOUR DISTANCE 


Next to sinning itself, is going need- 
| lessly close to sin. Electricity is not 
‘the only force that sometimes works 

by induction, leaping across space and 
seriously interfering with currents that 
it was meant to have nothing to do with. 
Evil is as expert as electricity at that feat. 
Therefore the question that Robert E. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


Speer has put to young people has a 
very practical value: “How wide is the 
margin between us and evil?” No man 
can afford to let that margin grow nar- 
row. It is not a sign of strength but 
of weakness, to dally with temptation. 
—S. S. Times. 


—= 919 — 
ANSWERED WHILE ASKING 


In the columns of our paper, now 
‘snown as the “Little Evangelist,” in 
March, 1893, five months after starting 
the People’s Tabernacle and having re- 
solved to make no personal appeals for 
its support, appears the following state- 
ment and incident. 

We are willing to show the poor peo- 
ple among whom we labor that the Lord 
does provide for the temporal need of 
those who “seek first the kingdom of 
God, and his righteousness.” Daily have 
we prayed God to send money to main- 
tain, and to enlarge the work, and almost 
daily he has answered us. At times he 
has tried our faith, but only for the pur- 
pose of increasing it. 

One Monday, I remarked to my wife 
that I would pray that $25 might be 
given that week for the work. Not that 
we then had urgent need of that amount, 
but that we might thus more clearly 
recognize the answer when it came. 

Day by day, I prayed and was watch- 
ing for the answer. Friday night came, 
and only $1.75 ahd been received. The 
thought then came, “God can yet easily 
answer by disposing some one to 
give $25.” However, the week closed, 
and no more money having come, 
it began to look as though my 
prayer had been disregarded. But the 
Tuesday following, I received the $25 
prayed for. The letter had been written 
the Saturday previous, and the check 
was then dated, and was from one to 
whom I was a stranger. 

While I was speaking God had an- 
swered, but was pleased to keep me in 
doubt of it for several days. My joy at 
this manifestation of His favor may be 
imagined. Far greater it was than what 
the money alone could have given. — 
Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—920— 
GUIDED TO LIFE’S WORK. 


The niche filled by myself in the work 
of the People’s Tabernacle was not of 
my own choosing. I had not the re- 
motest idea when I came to this city in 
1891 of starting any such work. Had I 
known such a work awaited me, perhaps 
I should have shrunk from it. But God 
knowing our weakness, leads us by easy 
stages along duty’s pathway never over- 
taxing our strength. 


The twelve or thirteen months spent 
at the Broome Street Tabernacle were 
but preliminary to the many years of 
service at the People’s Tabernacle. 

The choice of one’s residence may de- 
termine one’s life work. Knowledge must 
precede interest. We read that God ap- 
points to men their bounds and their 
habitations. A very little thing may 
control great results. 

When myself and family came to 
this city had our home been in Brook- 
lyn, as we had decided it should 
be, we would not have known of the 
religious destitution of the district in 
which the Tabernacle was afterwards 
located, nor would we have been inter- 
ested init. But to Brooklyn it had been 
decided to go, and a truckman had been 
engaged to take our household goods to 
‘the freight station for shipment to 
Brooklyn. 


Just as he was starting, the thought 
came from somewhere, “Why not have 
them put in the basement of the Broome 
Street Tabernacle? You can thus save 
a month’s rent before your family 
comes.” This plan was mentioned to 
the truck-driver, and to my surprise he 
preferred to do it at the same price, 
though the distance was much greater, 
as there he said he could unload at once; 
and at the railroad depot he thought 
several teams might be ahead of his and 
delay his unloading. 

So, apparently, this thought that carne 
in just the nick of time, and the dray- 
man’s approval, determined my place of 
residence and consequently the field in 
which I should do my life’s work. My 


463 


household goods being stored in the 
church basement I had leisure to look 
around, and finally fixed my home at 
105th Street and Madison Avenue, three 
blocks from where the Tabernacle was 
afterwards located.—Rev. Henry Tyn- 
dall, March, 1920. 


—921— 


WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY? 


A missionary once related the follow- 
ing: 

A king’s son was a prisoner, who 
after several years, was released upon 
the condition that he permit himself to 
be led at the hour of noon through the 
city. 

“Oh,” said the young man, “how 
will the people look?” 

“You do not know how you will be 
led,” answered the king. 

When the hour arrived, he placed in 
his hands a vessel filled to the brim 
with milk. 

“As soon as you spill a drop you 
must die,” said he. 

Close behind the young man walked 
the executioner with dagger in hand, 
to stab him as soon as a drop fell to the 
earth. 


From afar the people had ceme to- 
gether to see the king’s son upon his 
perilous journey; head by head the 
crowd stood upon the streets. All the 
windows were crowded and some even 
climbed upon the roofs. When the 
youth had passed through the terrible 
ordeal, the king stepped up to him and 
said: 

“Well, what kind of faces did the 
people make?” 

“Oh, king,” answered the youth, “I 


saw not one. I only saw my life in my 
hands and death behind me.” 


Let us be like this youth! let us not 
look around, but take care of ourselves, 
for we carry the happiness of lives 
ever with us; and it is only by walking 
very carefully and heeding the Divine 
voice that says, “This is the way, walk 
ye in it,” that we can safely reach the 
goal which is life eternal.—Selected. 


464 


—— 922 — 
HOW SHOWN THE WAY 


Our venture to begin the work of the 
People’s Tabernacle was made more 
easy by the following incident: 

We called upon John H. Haar, at 
100 Broadway, to explain to him that 
the Sunday School Committee to whom 
we had referred the matter, would not 
rent his building for a school, as we 
had previously told him we were sure 
they would. After explaining the situ- 
ation, and expressing our great regret 
that a Sunday school could ,not be 
opened where so much needed; this man 
of business and of the world, to our 
great surprise said: 

“Mr. Tyndall, I am not a rich man, 
I lack a good many hundred thousand 
dollars of being a millionaire, but if you 
want to see what you can do, I will let 
you have the use of that floor for a time 
free of rent.” 

This surprising offer, coming from 
such a man, a stranger, seemed as provi- 
dential as the offer of the heathen King 
Artaxerxes of help to Nehemiah in re- 
building the walls of Jerusalem. 

While the property was for sale, and 
we had no assurance that our occupancy 
of the building would be longer than a 
few weeks, yet we believed that the 
finger of God moved the heart of that 
man to thus open the door for our 
entrance into this field. 

We had become convinced that not 
only was a Sunday school needed, but 
also that gospel meetings should be held 
regularly, and that pastoral work in the 
homes of the people was essential. Con- 
sequently the decision was reached to 
sever our connection with the work of 
the Broome Street Tabernacle, and to 
be entirely devoted to this more needy 
section of the city. 

To be sure there was no church here 
to extend a call, nor was there any com- 
mittee to promise aid or comfort, nor 
was there financial support assured from 
any source. The resources at our com- 
mand would enable us to carry on the 
work for five or six months without 
other help. And so hand-bills were cir- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


culated announcing the opening of the 
People’s Tabernacle Sunday _ school, 
October 2, 1892, at Hayes’ Ribbon Fac- 
tory, 235 East 102d Street. 

All children were invited and also any 
who would act as teachers were re- 
quested to come, and the statement was 
made that a gospel meeting would be 
held at that place the same evening. 

Outside of our own family, we knew 
of only two or three persons who wouid 
lend a hand, yet at the time appointed 
children began to pour in off the street, 
heads of some uncombed and faces un- 
washed, but every one a diamond 
though in the rough, until there were 
125 gathered in the first session of the 
school; and there were also several 
young women who were ambitious to 
try their hand at teaching. If they were 
poor instructors, they were good at con- 
trolling these street urchins, for they 
lived among them and knew them. 

We had seats for only 100 and papers 
for only 65, and every child wanted a 
seat and was anxious for a picture 
paper; so we had a lively time at that 
first session. 

The majority knew no more about a 
Sunday school than they knew about 
Greek. Every day to them was alike, 
and every meeting was a Sunday school, 
and it was months before they ceased 
to ask the question, “Is there going to 
be Sunday school to-night?” 

The next Sunday we had seats 
enough. Twenty rough planks laid on 
boxes made benches to seat about one 
hundred and fifty; and later chairs were 
bought, and in less than three months 
our Sunday school had an average at- 
tendance of two hundred and fifty.— 
Rev. Henry M. Tyndail. 


— 923 — 


THE SHORT LIFELINE. 


Not long since the “City of New York” 
became disabled in midocean, and the 
high sea running destroyed a portion of 
the bowsprit. The engines were stopped 
and a volunteer was sent out over the 
ship’s side to make repairs. The man 
kept his balance for a while when finally 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


a great tidal wave licked him off into 
the maw of the sea and swept him to 
some distance from the ship. 

An officer, appreciating the situation, 
volunteered to save the man, and with 
a lifeline attached to his waist attempted 
to get away from the ship’s side. He 
was thrown back again and again, badly 
bruised,- but finally, expert swimmer 
that he was, was able to clear the ship 
and start on his rescue mission. The 
man who had been swept overboard 
was also a strong and powerful swim- 
mer, and the people on deck watched 
with deep interest the slow approach of 
the rescuer. They hear him encourage 
the sailor and bid him keep up courage. 
The sailor was heard to reply, “But 
you must hurry.” When within ten 
feet of the man, the lifeline attached to 
the officer paid out; he could go no 
further. The sailor could no longer 
keep up; strength was gone; throwing 
up his hands, he was lost to sight for- 
ever. The captain of the ship reported 
on his return, “A man lost at sea.” 

The point of that illustration, bor- 
rowed from a recent daily paper, ex- 
presses my conception of the urgent 
need for rescue work among the souls 
of men. Men are perishing because of 
the grip sin has upon them. The 
gospel which we preach is sufficient. 
What we need is a band of rescuers to 
carry it to the struggling sinner; and 
never need we fear that the gospel will 
fail or be inadequate. There is enough 
gospel in the world for everyone. What 
is needed now is someone to carry it to 
those who are perishing, and for those 
who are to be rescued to accept it, must 
appreciate, however, a man must do his 
part, and accept the saving power of 
the gospel; failing to do so he will be 
lost.—John Willis Baer. 


—- 924 — 


A BRAND. 


A poor man who fell into bad habits, 
on being rescued, reformed and convert- 
ed, often spoke of himself as a “brand 
plucked from the burning.” “What 
do you mean by that?” asked one of 


495 


his former associates. “Come, go with 
us, and have one more drink.” 

“Look here!” answered the man. 
“You know there is a difference be- 
tween a brand and a green stick. Ifa 
spark fall on a brand that has. been 
partly burned it will soon catch fire 
again. Not so with a green stick. I 
tell you I am that brand plucked out of 
the fire; and I dare not venture into the 
way of temptation for fear of being set 
on fire again.” 

All of us who trust that we have been 
saved by Christ are as brands. Hence 
our only safety is in keeping as far as 
possible out of the way of temptation. 
Even indulgences that seem innocent 
may kindle anew the fire of unholy pas- 
sions. A spark that falls harmless in a 
field of green grass may kindle a con- 
flagration if it falls on a field of dry 
stubble.—Selected. 


— 925 — 
DECEIVING CHILDREN 


Robert Hall once said to a mother, 
“If you do not wish your child to grow 
up a liar, never act a lie before her. 
Children are quick observers, and soon 
learn that that which assumes to be 
what it is not, is a lie, whether acted or 
spoken.” 

One author tells us of a gentleman 
who took his little son on a railway ex- 
cursion. The little fellow was looking 
out of the window, when the father 
slipped the hat off the boy’s head. The 
atter was much grieved at his supposed 
toss, when his father consoled him by 
saying, “I’ll whistle it back.” A little 
later he whistled and the hat re-appear- 
ed. Not long after the little fellow 
threw the hat out of the window, shout- 
ing, “Now papa, whistle it back again.” 
A roar of laughter in the car was suffi- 
cient to arouse the father to the power 
of his influence upon his son. 

This deception is sometimes carried 
into our religious life and festivities. 
Who doubts the logic of a little child’s 
question after a Christmas festival, 
when being told that there is no Santa 
Claus, innocently asks, “Well, is there a 
real Christ?”—-Norman E. Durkee. 


466 


— 926 — 
LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE. 


In New York, years ago, a city mis- 
sionary found a poor Jew. He strove 
to lead him to Jesus, and succeeded. In 
after years that Jew became a mission- 
ary himself, and a bishop of the Episco- 
pal Church, and translated the Bible for 
millions of people. No one knows the 
name of this missionary but a few of 
his friends, thousands knew the name 
of the distinguished convert. 

Years ago, in Russia, a priest so 
preached that a young mechanic be- 
‘came a missionary and translated the 
Bible twice over for two different na- 
tions, learned nineteen languages, and 
was a most useful man. Few ever 
heard of the priest, but many thousands 
knew of his convert. 

Probably no preacher ever had as 
great success as Mr. Spurgeon. He had 
many thousands added to his church, 
and established thirty-six missions in 
London. Yet, as he tells the story, he 
was converted by the preaching of an 
obscure preacher, whose very name is 
scarcely ever heard. 

Japan owes the late Joseph Neesima 
a boundless debt of gratitude for his 
wise and unceasing labors for the King- 
dom in his native land. But does it 
owe nothing to those who in this land 
led that student to Jesus? 

It may be that God shall use you for 
the conversion of a Moody or a Spur- 
geon or a Moffat. A child can light a 
match that shall set a city on fire. So 
in spiritual things, one though feeble, 
can start a succession of causes that 
shall result in blessing untold millions 
of fellow creatures.—Rev. A. F. Shauf- 
fler, D. D 


— 927 — 
THE CAUSE OF HIS INTEREST. 


While traveling down the Ohio River 
on a steamboat my attention was called 
to the pilot who was a coarse-looking 
man. The captain informed me that 
three weeks ago, as the boat was going 
through the rapids, the pilot called him 
to take the helm. He had just seen a 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


boy struggling in the water. He sprang 
into the boiling waters and saved the 
boy. I went up to the brave man and 
spoke to him. 

“Do you ever see the boy whom you 
saved?” 

“Yes,” he answered, “at every trip 
he comes down to the boat to see me.” 

“And how do you feel when you see 
him?” 

“More than I can tell you,” he re- 
plied. “More intense interest than in 
any of my own seven at home, for whom 
I have run no such risk.” 

Thus there is “joy in heaven over 
one sinner that repenteth, more than 
over ninety and nine just persons, which 
need no repentance.” Thus Jesus wiil 
regard those whom he has saved with 
more interest than the angels.—Selected. 


— 928 — 
THE GIFT HE ACCEPTED 


The German poet Uhland was a clever 
but modest man. The King of Prussia 
was so pleased with him that he offered 
to give him the badge of an order that 
many famous people were very anxious 
to possess. He did not accept the 
king’s offer. As he was explaining to 
his wife the reason for his refusal of the 
great honor there came a knock at the 
door. When it was opened a little peas- 
ant girl entered with a bunch of sweet 
violets, saying, as she did so: “This is a 
gift from my mother.” “Your mother, 
child?” said the, poet, “Your mother 
died last autumn.” “Yes,” said the girl, 
“that is true; and I begged you at the 
time to make a little verse for her grave, 
and you kindly sent me a beautiful poem. 
These are the first violets which have 
bloomed on mother’s grave. I have 
plucked them, and I like to think she 
sends them to you with her greeting.” 
The tears stood in the poet’s eyes as he 
held the flowers in his hand, and turn- 
ing to his wife said: “There, my dear, is 
not that an order more valuable than 
any king can give?” It is love like that 
that makes the world a fit place to live 
in.—Selected. 


2 
—_ 2 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


POOR JACK 

The following account is given by the 
Rev. Legh Richmond, as having been 
related by a minister in a meeting of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society: 

A drunkard was one day staggering 
in drink on the brink of the sea. His 
little son by him, five years of age, being 
very hungry, solicited him for some- 
thing to eat. The miserable father, con- 
scious of his poverty, and of the crim- 
inal cause of it, in a kind of rage, occa- 
sioned by his intemperance and despair, 
hurled the little innocent into the sea, 
and made off with himself. The poor 
little sufferer, finding a floating plank 
by his side on the water, clung to it. 
The wind soon wafted him and the plank 
into the sea. 

A British man-of-war passing by dis- 
covered the plank and the child; and a 
sailor, at the risk of his own life, plunged 
into the sea and brought him on board. 
He could inform them little more than 
that his name was Jack. They gave him 
the name of Poor Jack. He grew up 
on board that man-of-war, behaved well, 
and gained the love of all the officers 
and men. He became an officer of the 
sick and wounded department. During 
an action of the late war, an aged man 
came under his care, nearly in a dying 
state. He was all attention to the suf- 
fering stranger, but could not save his 
life. 7 
The aged stranger was dying, and 
thus addressed this kind young officer: 
“For the great attention you have shown 
me, I give you this only treasure that I 
am possessed of—(presenting him with 
a Bible, bearing the stamp of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society). It was 
given me by a lady; has been the means 
of my conversion; and has been a great 
comfort to me. Read it, and it will lead 
you in the way you should go.” He 
went on to confess the wickedness and 
profligacy of his life before the reception 
of his Bible; and, among other enormi- 
ties, how he once cast a little son, five 
years old, into the sea, because he cried 
to him for needed food. 


467 


The young officer inquired of him the 
time and place, and found here was his 
own history. Judge if you can of his 
feelings at recognizing in the dying old 
man his father, dying a penitent under 
his care! And judge of the feelings of 
the dying penitent at finding that the 
same young stranger was his son—the 
very son whom he had plunged into the 
sea; and had no idea but that he had 
immediately perished. A description of 
their mutual feelings will not be at- 
tempted. The old man soon expired in 
the arms of his son. The latter left the 
service, and became a pious preacher of 
the gospel. On closing this story, the 
minister, in the meeting of the Bible 
Society, bowed to the chairman, and 
said, “Sir, I am poor Jack.”—Selected. 


—- 930 — 
THE POWER OF PRAYER 


An old Scotchman on his way to a 
religious gathering stopped by the road 
and prayed, “Lord, ye ken weel enough 
that I’m deaf and want a seat on the 
front bench, and ye see my toes sticking 
through my shoes and I want a pair of 
new ones, and ye ken I have no silver 
and I want to stay through the meet- 
ings.” 

A young brother traveling with him 
reproved him for his undue familiarity 
with the Lord. .“Why, my son,” said 
the Scotchman, “He’s my father and 
weel acquaint with me, and I take great 
liberty with Him.” 

On his arrival at the place of meet- 
ing the old man took a back seat and 
placed his ear trumpet to his ear, but 
was immediately invited to occupy a 
front pew. At the close of the service 
a lady, noticing his old, shoes, asked 
him if they were his best ones. “Yes,” 
said the old man, “but I expect my 
Father will get me a new pair soon.” 
“Come with me, and I will provide 
them,” the lady said, while another lady 
invited him to be her guest during the 
meeting. So all his wants were sup- 
plied, and the young fellow-traveler of 
the old man learned a lesson of faith in 
the power of prayer.—Forward. 


468: ILLUSTRATIVE 


—93i— 
FINDING TABERNACLE NO. 2. 


In October, 1893, the work of the Peo- 
ple’s Tabernacle removed from 102d 
Street to a vacant store at 230 East 
104th Street. There it flourished until 
the Sunday school numbered 400, and 
was divided into three sections, meeting 
at different times on Sunday, and yet 
the place was so crowded that for the 
extension of the work I wanted to obtain 
a second store in another quarter of the 
district. But the receipts for the sup- 
port of the work continued so small and 
the rental of a suitable place would 
likely be so much that I had little heart 
to look for one. 

Finally one Wednesday morning, 
November 25, 1896, after much thought 
and prayer, I resolved to start out in 
quest of a place for another! Sunday 
school. As I walked down Madison 
Avenue I saw several stores for rent, but 
knew the price would be so high that I 
had no heart to inquire. Three or four 
blocks below I saw several buildings 
standing a block or so apart from others; 
and the thought came, “should there be 
a store there it might be rented for a 
moderate price, for it would not be de- 
sirable for business.” I hastened to the 
place, and lo! there were two beautiful, 
new stores, unoccupied. 

Inquiring of the janitress, I learned 
the owner of one lived eleven blocks 
away. But while we were speaking the 
bell rang, and in he came. He was 
pleased to show the store, and it took 
me only a moment to see that it was just 
the place I desired, and I told him so. 
But I expressed the fear I should be 
unable to give him the rent he would re- 
quire. He wished to know what I 
wanted it for, and when told, he re- 
marked, “I told the janitress this would 
be a good place for a bakery or a Sun- 
day school!” 

When he wanted to know what I 
could afford to pay for it, I replied I 
hardiy knew; that our work .was sus- 
tained entirely by voluntary offerings, 
and that I did not know from one month 
to another what the receipts would be. 


ANECDOTES 


(As a matter of fact the receipts had 
been so small that the balance left for 
the Pastor’s salary, after paying his 
house rent, had been only $120 for the 
preceding five months.) But he was as- 
sured that he would certainly get what- 
ever I promised. 

In less time than it has taken to tell 
it, he had agreed to let me have the 
store, built to rent for $75 a month, for 
the next three months for $75, and he 
offered also $25 toward that amount. 
The offer was thankfully accepted; and 
while on the way to the Pastor’s home 
to get the $50, Mr. Mellick, the land- 
lord remarked, “I was telling my son 
he ought to call and see a minister I 
saw preaching on, Fifth Avenue, and 
speak to him about renting the store 
for a Sunday school.” 

I inquired where on Fifth Avenue 
the minister was preaching, and to my 
surprise learned it was our own open- 
air meeting. And while he knew noth- 
ing of me, nor of my desire for a place 
for a Sunday school, strange to say he 
had thought of sending his son to see 
me to try to rent me the store for a 
Sunday school! 

Do you wonder that my heart was 
filled with praise to God for His guid- 
ance, and goodness, and that I was so 
confident that God would enable me to 
meet this increased expense that I was 
saved from all anxiety? 

The Pastor was responsible for the 
support and extension of the work, and 
when this new venture was made some 
of his friends became alarmed. They 
feared financial disaster would overtake 
him. A balance of only $13.80 for his sup- 
port just the month previous, and the 
small receipts for the preceding five 
months occasioned the alarm. But God 
wonderfully provided for this increased 
expense. 

In addition to the $25 per month for 
rent, the expenses were further in- 
creased in a few weeks by his engaging 
two more missionary helpers making 
four, (two having been engaged three 
months before). But the minister, in, 
stead of being made poorer because of 
this increased expense, was made richer. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


The receipts so increased that there was 
at the end of that year $100 more for 
his salary than he had ever before re- 
ceived in the work. 

The work prospered at this new point 
greatly, and we retained that store three 
years at a rental of $25 a month, until 
it was rented for business for three 
times that sum. But two years later, in 
the wonderful providence of God, we 
moved into our own new building, where 
there is room in abundance.—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall, March, 1920. 


— 932 — 
CLAIM YOUR FREEDOM 


During the Civil War, Mr. Lincoln 
made a proclamation to emancipate all 
slaves, and wherever our armies went 
the soldiers posted up bills that the 
slaves were freed. Most of those slaves 
couldn’t read, and they would get other 
people to read the proclamation to them; 
and sometimes the masters would say 
to the slaves: “Those Yanks are fooling 
you. You are not free.” One time an 
old black dinah said to a soldier: “Now, 
Masser, I want you to tell me honest 
now, be I free or been’t I? These sol- 
diers tells me I’se free, and ole Masser 
tells me I ain’t; and now tell me, be I 
free or been’t I?” Do you not see, she 
did not believe that she was free, and 
until she believed it she wasn’t free. She 
was going right along serving the old 
master, because she did not believe that 
she was free. It is just so with the 
slaves of Satan. Until you take God 
Almighty’s promises to your heart, and 
just walk out in faith on His Word, and 
declare you are free in Jesus Christ, you 
will walk right along in the oid bondage, 
the slave of the devil. But when you 
dare to walk out on the promise in 
‘fohn 3: 16, you find, that the chains fall, 
and Jesus is your master, and whom 
Jesus makes free is free indeed; and you 
know the joy of salvation.—Rev. A. M. 
Hills, 

— 933 — 


THE LOCKED UP PARDON 
Tn the Isle of Man, as I was one day 


469 


walking on the seashore, I remember 
contemplating with thrilling interest an 
old, gray, ruined tower, covered with 
ivy. There was a remarkable history 
connected with the spot. In that tower 
was formerly hanged one of the best 
governors the Island ever possessed. 
He had been accused of treachery to the 
king during the time of the civil wars, 
and received sentence of death. Inter- 
cession was made on his behalf and a 
pardon was sent, but it fell into the 
hands of his bitterest enemy, who kept it 
locked up, and the governor was hanged. 
His name is still honored in the Island, 
and you may often hear a pathetic bal- 
lad sung to his memory, to the music of 
“The Spinning Wheel.” 

We must feel horror-struck at the 

fearful turpitude of that man, who, hav- 
ing the pardon for his fellow creature 
in his possession, could keep it back, 
and let him die the death of a traitor. 
But let us refrain our indignation till 
we ask ourselves whether God might 
not point His finger at most of us, and 
say: 
“Thou art the man! Thou hast a 
pardon in thine hands to save thy fellow 
creature, not from temporal, but from 
eternal death. Thou hast a pardon 
suited to all, sent to all, designated for 
all. Thou hast enjoyed it thyself, but 
hast not thou kept it back from thy 
brother, instead of sending it to the ends 
of the earth?”’—Selected. 


— 934 — 
ONLY A SLIGHT ERROR 


Sometime ago the United States Ship 
“Galena” was lost off Block Island 
Light. Commander Bicknell gave his 
testimony at the official investigation. 
He stated that the usual precautions 
had not been taken of ascertaining be- 
fore sailing the exact deviation of the 
“Galena’s” compass. The compass of 
the tug “Nina,” which accompanied the 
“Galena,” was taken as the standard, 
and it proved to deviate one point west- 
erly. That single point of deviation was 
fatal. It wrecked the warship, and sac- 
rificed nearly a hundred lives.—Selected. 


470 


— 935 — 
WHY NOT BE ZEALOUS? 


I read in the life of John Wesley a 
story of Methodists meeting in a barn, 
and how certain of the villagers, who 
were afraid to break through the door, 
resolved to place one inside who would 
open the door to them during the ser- 
vice, that they might disturb the con- 
eregation. This person went in before 
service began, and concealed himself in 
a sack in a corner of the barn. When 
the Methodists began to sing, he liked 
the tune so well that he would riot leave 
the sack until he had heard it through. 
Then followed a prayer, and during the 
prayer God so worked on the man in 
the sack that he began to cry for 
mercy. The good people looked around 
and were astonished to find a sinner in a 
sack seeking his Saviour. The door 
was not opened to the mob after all, for 
he who had intended to do so was 
converted. 

It does matter why the people come 
to hear the Gospel: God can bless them 
in any case. If Christ is preached, men 
will be saved, even if they come to 
disturb. 

“Sir,” said one to me, “I had been to 
bargain about a pair of ducks on Sunday 
morning, and I passed by the door, and 
I thought I would just look in. There 
and then the Lord met with me, and 
those ducks were forgotten, for I found 
a Saviour.” He is not far from any; 
and in answer to believing prayer He 
can deal with men and turn their hearts 
to Himself.—Spurgeon. 


— 936 — 
A PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD 


I have a friend in England who once 
said to me: 

“I have been trying for years to take 
God into partnership with me in my 
business. When I was eighteen years 
old, I was converted. I was then just 
starting business as a kind of caterer, 
in a very humble way, in a little shop. 
My godly mother said to me, ‘Are you 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


going to take God into partnership?’ I 
had never thought of such a thing be- 
fore. It grew upon me, and I wrote out 
a covenant with God, that I would take 
Him into partnership, and every night 
I would count up the profits, and make 
an even division. So I did it.” 

He laid aside one-half for the Lord 
and took the other half for himself. 
That man has now about 800 men in 
his employ, and at 8:30 every morning, 
everything stops for the reading of the 
Scripture, song, and prayer. He has 
never had a man in his employ three 
years, who has not become a Christian. 
The whole work is carried on as in the 
presence of God. You cannot go there 
without feeling that God is there. He 
keeps up the habit of reckoning up his 
profits, and dividing at the close of the 
day. 

One day, years ago, it rained so hard, 
that, being on the first floor, he could 
not open his doors on account of the 
rain, and not a customer had been in all 
day. At quarter to six, he went to the 
Lord and said, “I have nothing to divide 
with you to-day. I have not taken in a 
penny. Now, Lord, you can send one 
customer from the ends of the earth, this 
last fifteen minutes, to make up for the 
whole day.” 

And before the store was closed an 
Armenian came in and bought all the 
silverware he had. What he wanted it 
for, he never knew. The Lord had sent 
a man from the ends of the earth, and 
that one sale was equal to a week’s 
ordinary profits—Arthur T. Pierson, 
D. D. 


— 937 — 
ROSES AND THORNS 


The sentence which has most influ- 
enced my life is, “Some persons grumble 
because God placed thorns among roses; 
why not thank God because He placed 
roses among thorns?” 

I first read it when but a mere lad. 
Since that it has occupied a front room 
in my life, and has given it an optimis- 
tic trend.—Rev. Benjamin Franklin. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


— 938 — 


THANKING GOD FOR OUR 
THORN 


Dr. George Mathewson, of Scotland, 
totally blind, was said to have been 
one of the most learned and gifted men 
in Great Britain. He was a member of 
the Pan-Presbyterian Alliance of Bel- 
fast in 1884, and no man in that body 
of great men was listened to with more 
attention. These words from his pen 
are most touching and suggestive. 


“My God, I have never thanked Thee 
for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a 
thousand times for my roses, but not 
once for my thorn. I have been looking 
forward to a world where I shall get 
compensation for my cross, but I have 
never thought of my cross as itself a 
present glory. Thou divine love, whose 
human path has been perfected through 
sufferings, teach me the glory of my 
cross; teach me the value of my thorn. 
Show me that I have climbed to Thee 
by the path of pain. Show me that my 
tears have made my rainbow. Reveal 
to me that my strength was the product 
of the hour when I wrestled until the 
break of day. Then shall I know that 
my thorn was blessed by Thee, then 
shall I know that my cross was a gift 
from Thee, and I shall raise a monument 
‘to the hour of my sorrow, and the words 
which I shall write upon it will be 
these: ‘It is good for me that I have 
been afflicted.’ ” : 


—939— 
A WILL LOST AND FOUND 


There is a quaint story told of a rich 
man who lost his only son, and after his 
own death his will could not be found. 
After searching vainly, the State attor- 
ney took up the case and ordered his 
property sold and his estate settled. 


On the day of the auction a poor old 
woman who had once nursed his only 
child begged the auctioneer to let her 
buy the picture of the boy. She had 
only a shilling, but nobody seemed to 
care for it, so it was knocked down to 


471 


her. And she went home happy in hav- 
ing the portrait of the child she loved 
so dearly. 

One day when repairing the back of 
the picture she found a legal document 
hidden in the wooden back. She hur- 
ried to the lawyer and delivered it up 
with much concern. After he had 
glanced at it he called her to him and 
said: 

“You have certainly made a great 
find. This is the old man’s will, and 
in it he has left all his property to any- 
body who loved his boy well enough to 
buy his picture at the auction sale when 
the estate is settled.” 

God, too, has left a will by which all 
His fortune becomes the inheritance of 
those who love the Lord Jesus Christ 
well enough to take Him for their own. 
—Rev. A. B. Simpson. 


— 940 —- 
THE WONDERFUL BOOK FOUND 


A Bohemian colporteur who has been 
laboring among Bohemians, Slovaks, 
Croatians, Ruthenians, and other Slavic 
immigrants in Wisconsin, tells the stery 
of a conversation with a Croatian who 
had been longing to obtain a copy of the 
Bible for himself. He writes: 

“The other day I was in a Croatian 
saloon with my Bibles. A man came to 
me asking what I had to sell. I told 
him ‘the inspired book of God.’ When 
he looked at the Bible, he surprised me 
by clasping it to his breast with the 
words, ‘Oh, that’s the book!’ Then he 
told me that years ago he was an agent 
for the International Harvester Com- 
pany in Budapest, Hungary. There he 
knew a group of people who read a 
strange book at their meetings. The 
lives of these people were very different 
from that of others. He left Budapest 
not knowing the name of the wonderful 
book which had done so much for them. 
‘I am so glad I have found it,’ he said. 
He took me to the home of his relatives 
and I read them the last chapters of the 
Gospel of John. They listened with 
tears in their eyes. They bought the 
Bible and the New Testament.” 


472 


US patos 
COMPENSATION FOR WHAT? 


The liquor interests often demand, 
with a show of righteous indignation, 
that they shall, as a matter of equity, be 
compensated for loss that may come to 
saloon property by the refusal of a li- 
cense. They should remember the an- 
cient rule that those who seek equity 
must do equity and enter a court of 
equity with clean hands. Do they com- 
pensate the mother when they drag her 
boy down to ruin? Do they compen- 
sate the wife when they destroy the 
earning capacity of her husband? Do 
they compensate the children whose 
lives are blighted by a father’s dissipa- 
tion? Do they compensate society 
when they convert wealth producers in- 
to paupers? Do they compensate the 
state when they blunt the sensibilities 
of citizens and make a drink more 
potent than an argument in securing 
votes? 

The man who profits by cultivating 
in others the appetite for strong drink 
ought to be the last one to insist upon 
recovering compensation for any loss 
that he may suffer because of the en- 
forcement of laws enacted for the pro- 
tection of soceity.—William Jennings 
Bryan. 


— 942 — 


LINCOLN’S FAITH IN PRAYER 


General Sickles lost a leg at Gettys- 
burg. He was in the hospital at Wash- 
ington. Mr. Lincoln called upon him. 
General Rushing was present at the in- 
terview. I have this statement of the 
interview from the lips of General 
Sickles and also General Rushig. 

General Sickles asked: “President 
Lincoln, were you not alarmed during 
the Gettysburg days?” Mr. Lincoln 
answered: “No, General, I was not; 
some of our people were, but I was not. 
Stanton thought we better put the 
archives on a gunboat, but I thought we 
would come out all right.” General 
Sickles asked, “President Lincoln, why 
were you not alarmed?” Mr. Lincoln 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


hesitated a little, and said: “Now, Gen- 
eral, you have asked me, I will tell you. 
I went into my room, locked the door, 
got down on my knees and said, ‘O, 
Lord, Lord, I have done absolutely 
everything I can, and now you must 
help,’ and God told me he would give 
me Gettysburg, and I believed him.”— 
Bishop Fowler. 


— 943 — 
NO SECRECY FOR SIN 


Charles H. Spurgeon once told of a 
man who broke into a small church in 
Scotland with the intention of stealing 
the communion plate. Hearing steps, 
he hurried to the end of the church, 
where, seeing a long rope hanging to 
the ground, he laid hold of it for the 
purpose of climbing out of sight. But 
it proved to be the bell rope, and his 
weight rang the bell, which attracted his 
pursuers immediately to the spot. The 
man, of course, was caught, and, sub- 
mitting with as good a grace as pos- 
sible, he thus wittily addressed the bell: 

“Tf it had not been for thy long 
tongue and thy empty head, I should 
not have been in my present predica- 
ment.” 

This story has its lesson for us. Those 
who sin are pretty sure, sooner or later, 
to turn king’s evidence against them- 
selves. There is a voice in wrongdoing; 
and its long tongue will not keep quiet. 
All unaware, the offender puts out his 
hand and pulls the bell which tells 
against himself and summons vengeance 
to overtake him. 


Pay V Wa 
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY 


Daniel Webster was present one day 
at a dinner-party given at Astor House 
by some New York friends, and in order 
to draw him out one of the company 
put to him the following question: 
“Would you please tell us, Mr. Web- 
ster, what was the most important 
thought that ever occupied your mind?” 
Mr. Webster merely raised his head, 
and, passing his hand slowly over his 
forehead, said, “Is there any one here 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


who doesn’t know me?” “No, sir!” was 
the reply; “we all know you, and are 
your friends.” “Then,” said he, looking 
over the table, “the most important 
thought that ever occupied my mind was 
that of my individual responsibility to 
God.” Upon which subject he then 
spoke for twenty minutes.—Selected. 


sind Fi 
LITTLE, POOR AND PROUD 


The teacher of the Primary class of 
our Sunday-school, one day observed a 
little girl on one of the benches, who 
seemed to be trying to hitch away as 
far as possible from the little girl next 
to her. 

They were both poor children, neatly 
but plainly dressed. The teacher said, 
“What is the matter, why do you not 
sit still?” “Oh,” she replied, “I have a 
silk handkerchief, (which she was dis- 
playing in her hand,) and she has a cot- 
ton one, and I don’t want her to sit by 
Te 

The teacher improved the opportunity 
to rebuke that display of vanity. But 
was there not very much of human na- 
ture in the spirit of the child?—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


O46 ae 
“CROSSING THE BAR.” 


It is not every poet that has the gift 
of hymn writing. 

As Tennyson’s nurse was sitting one 
day at his bedside, she said to him: 
“You have written a great many poems, 
sir, but I have never heard anybody say 
that there is a hymn among them ail. 
I wish, sir, you would write a hymn 
while you are lying on your sick bed. 
It might help and comfort many a poor 
sufferer.” The next morning the poet 
handed her a scrap of paper, saying. 

“Here is the hymn you wished me 
to write.” 

The hymn given proved to be “Cross- 
ing the Bar,” the poem that was sung in 
Westminster Abbey at Tennyson’s 
funeral, and which, although some 
would not call it a hymn, has touched 
many hearts.—Selected. 


473 


047 oe 
PRAYER MEETING FORSAKEN. 


In a western city a few years ago I 
heard the pastor of a large church of 
from twelve to fifteen hundred members 
make an appeal for people to come to 
prayer meeting. Ithought he would 
have perhaps three or four hun- 
dred, but he had a comparatively small 
crowd of about seventy-five. At the 
close of the meeting he said to his wife, 
“Take the keys, I am going to the the- 
atre.” She didn’t understand what he 
meant, but he went there to find out how 
many of his people were at the theatre 


and he counted seven hundred and fifty. 


They had no time for the prayer-meet- 
ing but loved the house of pleasure. The 
next Sunday morning he told them 
plainly, “I thought I had a people who 
loved God but I find out you are lovers 
of pleasure and you need to be converted 
again.”—Rev. S. A. Jamieson. 


— 948 — 


HINDRANCES THAT HELP 


I asked an acquaintance, a French 
professor, a friend of mine, a man of a 
good deal of spiritual insight: “Pro- 
fessor, what is your thought about it? 
Why do you suppose Christ annointed 
the eyes of that man with clay?” 

“O,” said my friend, “I don’t know, 
sir, unless it made him a little more 
willing to go to wash.” 

Well, now, may not that be a chief 
reason? There is much in it. You 
know our Lord often puts us into a 
position by his providence wherein, be- 
cause of our new straits, or discomfort, 
or embarrassment, we become willing to 
take some other needful step; and if it 
were not for that trial, or sorrow, or 
humiliation, we never would advance a 
step. 

Of these providences often so dark, 
trying, and troublous, how often we 
say, “O, if God had not sent that upon 
me!” But that very event is the one 
condition indispensable, on which the 
Lord leads us to take some further step. 
—-Rev. H. C. Mabie, D.D. 


474 


— 949 — 
SAVE OTHERS AND THYSELF 


“There is an old story of two Rus- 
sians who, traveling in winter, saw a 
poor man perishing from cold by the 
roadside. One wished to get out and 
help him. The other refused, saying 
they were nearly freezing themselves. 
But the merciful man got down, rubbed 
the exhausted and half-frozen wayfarer 
and restored him to life, only to find on 
returning to the sledge that his com- 
panion was stiff in death.” 

The above story, read in my boyhood, 
reminds me of the following incident 
told me by Mr. E. P. Stowe, of Brook- 
lyn, leader of the orchestra which has 
furnished music for many of the outings 
of our congregation: 

Some years ago, in a winter storm, a 
ship went ashore off the coast of Long 
Island. The hull became submerged 
and the crew took refuge aloft in the 
ship’s rigging. Owing to the distance 
out and the roughness of the water the 
coast guards were unable to rescue the 
imperiled men. As through their glasses 
they watched the men tied in the rig- 
ging, as darkness fell, they observed one 
who was whipping his arms around his 
companion to keep him from freezing. 
With the dawn of morning, the sea sub- 
sided, and the life-savers put out to the 
wreck, only to find all the crew frozen 
to death excepting two. The one who 
had thus tried to save his fellow had 
succeeded, and in so doing had saved 
himself also.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


—950 — 
WHY NO PERSONAL APPEALS 


FOR MONEY 

When the opening of a Sunday 
school by myself was under consider- 
ation the foremost question was: “Froim 
whence will the money come to pay 
rent?” Finally I thought it ought to be 
possible to find a few Christians in the 
district each of whom would agree to 
give twenty-five cents or so a week to 
support a Sunday school. 

My acquaintances in this part of New 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


York were very few, but I had talked 
with a store keeper on Third Avenue 
who seemed to be a Christian. I called at 
his place of business and spoke of the 
great need of a Sunday school. With 
this he was fully agreed, but when I 
spoke of its maintenance and suggested 
that he might be willing to give twenty- 
five cents a week to support it, at once 
he was full of excuses. While he was 
yet giving them, his wife came in and 
so the plan was unfolded to her. But 
she quite agreed with her husband. 
They wished the enterprise success, but 
they had to respond to so many calls 
for aid that they could not help it finan- 
cially. 

That by the mouth of three witnesses 
every word might be established, and 
my mind convinced, God so ordered 
it that while the wife was yet 
speaking, a grown-up son came in 
and was a listener to the conversation. 
And he too was told what it was about. 
But neither of those three persons were 
wiling to promise twenty-five cents a 
week to support a Sunday school. 

If that effort at personal solicitation 
brought no money, it did bring to my 
mind the firm conviction that that was 
not God’s method for the maintenance of 
His work by me. And from that day to 
this I have never from any individual 
sou money.—Rev. Henry M. Tyn- 

all. 


—951— 
BE READY 


Signor Caruso, the Italian tenor sing- 
er of celebrity, went to a New York 
bank to cash a check, but was asked to 
prove his identity. After reasoning with 
the cashier, who had heard the real Ca- 
ruso if Opera music, but did not rec- 
ognize Caruso in him, it occurred to him 
that he might prove his identity in 
song, and began in a romance entitled 
“Tosca,” and while he was singing the 
cashier began preparing the money. At 
the close of this remarkable scene the 
bank clerks gave rousing cheers. “Be 
ready always to give an answer to every 
man that asketh a reason of the hope 
that is in you.”—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 952 — 
DR. CONYER’S CONVERSION 


Abont one hundred and twenty years 
ago, Dr. Conyers was vicar of Helmsley, 
and the ambition of his life was to be- 
come a pattern village pastor. The par- 
ish was a very extensive one: but with 
surprising energy the doctor set to work, 
and soon proved to an admiring world 
what one pair of hands can achieve 
when they belong to a person who can 
labor with self-denial. The poor and 
the sick were visited to have their sor- 
rows lightened, and wants relieved. 
Schools for boys and girls, young men 
and maidens, were provided as they had 
never been before in that part of the 
country. The church became well at- 
tended, week evening meetings for 
prayer and general improvement were 
instituted, and the outside world was 
loud in its praises of the indefatigable 
pastor. Still Dr. Conyers was not hap- 
py; and unable to divine the reason, he 
fasted more rigidly than had been his 
wont, and on the communion table of 
the church signed covenants by which 
he bound himself to be more holy and 
more diligent in serving Christ. 

A man in such a condition may be 
deluded by fatal error, but he may at 
the same time be treading the very bor- 
der line of the land of liberty. 

_$o it happened with Dr. Conyers. He 
was a diligent reader of the Bible, and 
one day while searching the Scriptures, 
truth which he had never understood 
before entered his soul, and he felt like 
anew man. Amazed and overwhelmed 
with delight at the goodness of God, the 
vicar could not restrain his emotion. 
“I went upstairs and down again,” he 
tells us, “backwards and forwards in 
my room, clapping my hands for joy, 
and crying, ‘I have found Him! I have 
found Him! ” 

He did more than vent his gratitude 
in private, however; he announced to 
the congregation the particulars of his 
recent experience, giving out for his 
text the words, “By grace are ye saved.” 
Conversions became very numerous, for 
God was with his servant. After labor- 


475 


ing zealously for twenty-seven years, 
the good Doctor was taken to rest, four 
hours after preaching his last sermon.— 
Selected. 


— 953 — 
HOW A BIBLE SAVED HIS BOY 


The London Christian gives an inter- 
esting account of a colporter’s work. 

A roughly dressed man came to the 
pastor receiving contributions for Gid- 
eon Bibles, and said he wanted to help. 
He was a Roman Catholic and his chil- 
dren had been raised in that church and 
had not been Bible readers. 

One of his boys worked his way up in 
a mercantile house to a fine position, 
but one day he defaulted with money, 
and left the city. Later in a hotel, he 
picked up a Gideon Bible and began 
reading it. 

As he read chapter after chapter, he 
was convicted of sin. He immediately 
returned to his employer, turned over to 
him all the money he had, and offered 
himself for punishment. His position 
was retained for him, so that he was 
soon able to make good the balance due. 

The father said he had not much 
money, but if a Gideon Bible saved his 
boy it would another, and he wanted to 
pay for one Bible at least to that end. 


— 954 — 
ON THE RUBBISH HEAP 


A young man in Argentina who pos- 
sessed a Bible that his father had given 
him, became engaged to a Roman Cath- 
olic girl. Her confessor informed her 
that before she could marry, the bride- 
groom’s Bible must be burnt. She told 
her fiance this ultimatum, so the young 
man very reluctantly took his Bible, and, 
as he had not the courage to burn it, 
left it on a rubbish heap. A woman 
passing the rubbish heap saw a book 
which looked new, took it home with 
her, examined it, and, as she said, “from 
that memorable day all of us have read 
it, and the reading has resulted in the 
conversion of several of our family.” 
“My word shall not return unto me 
void.”—Bible in the World. 


476 


aoe O55 a 
A SERMON TO NOBODY 


The workings of the Holy Spirit are 
mysterious as the viewless winds. The 
natural man knows nothing of these 
things. The spiritual man is taught and 
led and guided and prompted and helped 
by wisdom and power divine, and thus 
accomplishes what the worldiing could 
never accomplish and would never at- 
tempt. In the journal of Stephen Grel- 
let, an approved minister of the Society 
of Friends, were many instances of 
divine guidance; and doubtless many 
instances occurred which were never 
given to the world. 

The following incident in the life of 
this good man is well worthy repeating. 
On one occasion, after much waiting on 
the Lord, he was directed by the Spirit 
to take a long journey into the back- 
woods of America and preach the gospel 
to some wood-cutters who were felling 
the forest timber. The Spirit-guided 
man went his journey in great peace and 
joy of soul, and went direct to the place 
told him of in his prayers. He found a 
number of shanties, but to his surprise 
there was silence. The timber-cutters 
had gone away deeper into the forest. 
But he, who had his message from God, 
could not be deceived. Finding a large 
shanty that appeared to have been used 
for the meals of the men, he entered, 
stood up, and preached the everlasting 
gospel, finished, and returned supremely 
happy in having done the will of his 
Father in Heaven. Years passed away, 
and Stephen Grellet heard nothing of 
his visit in any way, but he was happy 
in knowing that he had followed the 
Holy Spirit’s guidance. 

Years afterward he came to Europe in 
the service of the gospel, and visited 
England. One day, walking across Lon- 
don Bridge, a man somewhat rudely 
took hold of him: 

“J have found you at last; I have got 
you at last, have I?” 

“Briend,” said Stephen Grellet, “I 
think you are mistaken.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“But I am not,” said the man. After 
many more exclamations on the one 
hand and replies from the servant of the 
Lord on the other, the stranger said, 

“Did you not preach on a certain day 
and at a certain place in the backwoods 
of America?” 

“Yes,” said the good man, “but I saw 
no one there to listen.” 


“I was there,” was the reply. “I was 
the gauger of the woodmen. We had 
moved further into the forest, and were 
putting up more shanties to live in, 
when I discovered that I had left my 
lever at the old settlement. So after 
setting my men to work, I had gone 
back alone for my instrument. As I 
approached the old place I heard a voice. 
Trembling and agitated I drew near, 
saw you through the chinks of the tim- 
ber walis of our dining shanty, listened 
to you, and was deeply convinced of sin, 
but I left and went back to my men. 
The arrow stuck fast: I was miserable, 
miserable for many weeks. I had no 
Bible, no book of any kind, no one to 
speak to about divine things, 


“J felt more and more wretched. At 
last I possessed myself of the sacred 
treasure. I read, and read, till I read 
words whereby I obtained eternal life. 
I told my men the same blessed news, 
and they were all converted to God. 
Three of them became missionaries, and 
were mightily used of the Holy Spirit 
to bring sinners to the Saviour, and,” 
added the strange man, “I became pos- 
sessed of a very strong desire to see you, 
to tell you that I knew that your sermon 
in the old quarters had been the means 
of the conversion of at least one thou- 
sand souls.”—-The Christian. 


— 956 — 
HANG OUT THE ROPES 


Several miles above Milton, Pa., when 
the ice was breaking up, a farmer got 
into one of his boats, purposing to pull 
it out of the river. 

A floating mass of ice struck it, 
breaking it loose from the moorings and 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


carrying it with him out into the cur- 
rent. A neighbor, seeing the danger, 
mounted a horse and with all possible 
speed rode down to Milton. The people 
of the town gathered all the ropes they 
could secure; they went out on the 
bridge and suspended a line of dangling 
ropes across the river. They could not 
tell at just what point the boat, with 
the farmer would pass under, so they 
put a rope down every two or three feet 
all the way across. 

Soon the farmer was seen standing in 
the boat, which was half full of water, 
drifting down the rapid current. When 
he saw the ropes dangling within reach, 
he laid hold of the nearest one and was 
drawn up and saved. 

One rope might not have answered 
the purpose—could not have have an- 
swered the purpose unless it had hung 
in reach of the man. This row of ropes 
across the river made almost certain the 
rescue of this life. 

The pastor hangs the rope of salva- 
tion from the pulpit and here and there 
as he may have the opportunity, and 
sometimes a soul drifting in the currents 
of sin is rescued by the pastor’s rope. 

But how many more chances would 
the drifting sinner have if business men 
would hang out ropes;. and Sunday 
school superintendents and _ teachers 
would hang out ropes; and young men 
and women would hang out ropes; and 
mothers and wives would hang out 
ropes? 

This is the secret of soul-saving. 

—Selected. 


— 957 — 
SURPRISING CONFIDENCE 


When pastor at Iron Mountain, Michi- 
gan, Dr. John D. Cameron an elder in 
my church told me the following in- 
cident ; 


One day his associate, Dr. Crowell, . 


asked his assistance at an operation he 
was to perform. The patient was a 
miner who resided at the “Location,” in 
one of the many houses built on the 
same plan, and of the same color, red 


ANECDOTES 477 


trimmed with white. 

By mistake the doctors entered the 
wrong house and went up stairs. In a 
bed, in a room similar to that in which 
Dr. Crowell had seen his patient, lay a 
man. The doctors proceeded to make 
their arrangements for the operation. 
They opened their bags, took out their 
instruments, got a basin of water, a 
towel, etc. 

The man who evidently knew them, 
watched their proceedings with interest. 

When all was in readiness, Dr. 
Crowell approached the bed, and turned 
down its covers to show Dr. Cameron 
the spot demanding an operation. To 
his surprise he couldn’t find it, and then 
they became quickly aware that they 
were in the wrong house. 

When the man, a Swede, was asked 
why he had said nothing, he replied: “I 
supposed you knew what you were 
about, and that it was all right.” 

We cannot commend the judgement 
of a man who would allow doctors to go 
so far as they did in this case. But 
when God’s providence in His dealings 
with us seems strange, wur confidence 
in Him should be so great as to keep 
us quiet, and enable us to await develop- 
ments. For we know He is too wise to 
err and too good to be unkind.—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 958 — 
“I THOUGHT OF YOU, MOTHER.” 


“A boy who afterward became gov- 
ernor of the state of Massachusetts, once 
came near being drowned. The boat 
in which he was sailing capsized, and he 
had to swim more than a mile; but 
finally he reached the shore in safety. 
When he reached home and told his 
mother what a long distance he had to 
swim, she asked him how he managed 
to hold out so long. ‘I thought of you 
mother,’ replied the boy, ‘and kept on 
swimming. The thought of mother 
helped him in the moment of his great- 
est need, and thus saved his life, not only 
to himself and to his mother, but also 
to the state and to the nation.” 


478 


— 959 — 
TALMAGE’S CONVERSION 


A mother was one evening pleading 
with her son to remain at home and not 
go out to spend the night in dissipation. 
He answered, “I’m of age and too old 
to be tied to your apron strings.” She 
said, “My dear boy, I can’t force you 
to stay, but please remember that your 
mother will be ail night on her knees 
praying God to save your soul.” 

The young man went out and spent the 
night carelessly, forgetting all about his 
mother. About four o’clock ,in the 
morning he returned home, partially 
intoxicated. Seeing a light in his 
mother’s room, made him think of her 
Jast words. He crept up to the window 
and looked in. There on her knees be- 
side the bed was his mother, with up- 
turned face, crying, “O God, save my 
poor lost boy!” Quickly he turned 
away and went up stairs to bed, but 
not to sleep. He tossed and turned 
until he was forced to get up and throw 
himself upon his knees before God and 
call for mercy. He rose from his knees 
a saved man. The news of his conver- 
sion went like wild-fire around the 
country and upward of five hundred 
young people were converted shortly 
afterward in that little village of Sum- 
merville, N. J. This young man mar- 
ried and had children born to him. They 
all grew to manhood and became min- 
isters of the gospel. One of them 
attained world-wide recognition as 
America’s best preacher and religious 
writer of his day. His name was De 
Witt Talmage.—S. S. Lesson Illustra- 
tor. 


— 960 ~~ 


THE THANKFUL HEART 


Thankfulness comes from the heart, 
not from the circumstances. “In every- 
thing give thanks.” 1 Thess. v. 18. 
Matthew Henry, the commentator, 
robbed of his purse, remarked: “Let 
me be thankful, first, because I never 
was robbed before. Second, because, 
although they took my purse, they did 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


not take my life. Third, because, al- 
though they took my all, it was not 
much. Fourth, because it was I who 
was robbed, and not I who robbed.” 

A poor cobbler was always praising 
God, even in misfortune, believing it to 
be by God’s permission. His wife 
scolded him daily for thanking God 
for nothing. One day the poor but 
happy cobbler fell downstairs and broke 
his right leg. The wife came rushing to 
the scene of the accident to hear her 
espoused fervently saying: “Thank 
God.” “Are you fool enough to thank 
God for a broken leg,” she shouted in 
vexation. 

“Thank God I did not break both 
legs,” was the unexpected reply of the 
smiling cobbler.—Selected. 


— 961 — 
HE COULDN’T LET THE BABIES 


FREEZE 


In the railroad yards of a central Wis- 
consin town a little chap, who after- 
wards said he was twelve years old, but 
looked to be only nine or ten, was trudg- 
ing down the track with a bag slung 
over his shoulder, which it took no 
shrewdness to guess was a bag of coal. 
A friendly approach soon enticed the 
sturdy youngster to confidential con- 
versation. “Yes,” said he, “its been cold 
this winter and I’ve been picking up coal 
along the tracks every day. Made no — 
difference if I wuz cold, but them babies 
at home, you bet I wuzn’t going to let 
them freeze. And I kept ’em good and 
warm all winter too.” And as the little 
fellow turned off down a side street 
leading to some rickety homes he 
shouted back with his good-bye, “I’m 
going to keep on picking up coal until 
the weather gets warm.” 

The world boasts of its heroes, but in 
its dark corners it cradles nobler heroes 
than its trump of fame ever heralds. 
Where the guardian angels of little 
children keep their wiser records of true 
greatness, there shall surely be an en- 
during memorial for that little chap who 
can be cold himself but cannot let the 
babies freeze.—The Continent. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 962 — 
CLIMBERS OR FLYERS? 


A story is told of a traveler who sat 
down to rest by the wayside. Soon he 
noticed a large beetle trying to climb 
over arock. The rock shelved outward 
at the top, and every time the beetle 
got up to the under side of that ledge 
he fell back to the ground again. At 
last the beetle seemed to get dis- 
couraged. Instead of resuming his 
climb as before, after another fall, he 
stood and looked at the rock. Then he 
opened his wings and flew over it with 
ease. 

Why didn’t he do that at first? Who 
knows? He was not in the habit of 
using his wings, and perhaps, was a lit; 
tle afraid to trust himself to them. 

Every climbing Christian might be a 
flying Christian, and then instead of 
continually falling down again he would 
be able, like the beetle, to fly over his 
obstruction. Why can’t all Climbers 
become Flyers? It may be only be- 
cause they are afraid to trust their 
wings; or, it may be that some natures 
are so constructed that a certain amount 
of gymnastics of the climbing kind is 
necessary before they are able to use the 
wings of faith successfully. — Selected 


— 963 — 
MEN ABOVE PRICE 


When the liquor men began casting 
about for a man to contest Constitution- 
al Prohibition in the courts, they decid- 
ed to look for some one of social promi- 
nence. 

They laid down on a table in front of 
Charles Evans Hughes a check for $150,- 
000. The great jurist replied, “I would 
not champion this cause before the 
courts for any sum of money you could 
name.” 

Failing to buy Mr. Hughes, they next 
went to William Howard Taft, and 
placed before him a signed check, telling 
him to fill it in for any amount he want- 
ed. The reply of this statesman will 
be memorable: “Gentlemen, you could 
n’t pile enough gold on this continent 
to induce me to take your case before 


479 


the courts and before the public, for I 
will have you know my _ consciencs 
is not for sale.”-——-Christian Century 


— 964 — 
VALUE OF TRACT GIVING 


A woman in Lebanon, Ky., heard 
Moody preach, and resolved to do some- 
thing. She gave a tract to a young 
man. He gave himself to God. He 
was Dr, Lorimer, the noted Baptist min- 
ister. He led to Christ Russell Conwell, 
now pastor of a large church in Phila- 
delphia. 

A commercial traveler went into a 
store and asked a young man named 
Sayford if he wanted to put his name on 
a prayer list. To please the traveler 
he assented and forgot it. Soon after 
he was converted, and became an evan- 
gelist to young men in colleges of 
America. Obert gave himself to Christ 
through hearing him, became an evan- 
gelist and went to Cornell University. 
John R. Mott heard him and was saved, 
becoming a well-known evangelist in 
colleges, as well as in other world-wide 
work.—J. E. Tiffany. 


oe 065. 
JONAH AND THE WHALE 


Last winter in the Japan Sea was 
captured what is thought to be the 
greatest whale, It took three Japanese 
ships to convey the skeleton of this 
monster to Monji. The whale was two 
hundred feet long. Its jawbones were 
twenty-five feet in length and the skel- 
eton weighed fifty-five tons. Captain 
Carl Meier with the steamship Oregonia, 
brought the skeleton of this great whale 
from Monji, Japan, to the dock at 
Brooklyn. It was purchased in the Far 
East by a representative of the Museum 
of Natural History in New York City. 
Those who find physical difficulties in 
accepting the Bible story of Jonah on 
account of the smallness of the throat 
of the fish, might easily believe that 
such a whale as the one whose remains 
have been brought to New York would 
have no difficulty in swallowing one or 
even a dozen men,—Christian Herald. 


480 


— 966 — 
WHY HE MISSED THE TRAIN. 


It was probably in the early nineties 
that Mr. Hudson Taylor conducted some 
very blessed meetings in the city of St. 
Louis, and in the church of which the 
late Dr. James H. Brookes was the 
beloved pastor. 

He had been in our city a good many 
days, and great interest in the work of 
the China Inland Mission had been 
manifested, both through large gifts, and 
through the establishment of centers of 
intercession for the work in China. 
While here he was the guest of Dr. 
Brookes. 

After his meetings in our city, he was 
booked for a small town in Illinois where 
he was to give an address at eight 
o’clock in the evening. In order to reach 
the town, he was to leave St. Louis by 
an early train on Monday morning. 

Dr. Brookes was most punctilious 
about meeting all engagements 
promptly. He therefore ordered his 
coachman to have the carriage at the 
door at quite an early hour. 

The hour arrived but the coachman 
did not. As there seemed still abund- 
ance of time, they awaited his arrival 
with little concern. But at last Dr. 
Brookes became much concerned, and 
they started to try to catch a street car. 
It was in the days before telephones 
were much in use. On the way to the 
car they met the coachman with the 
carriage, entered it, and bade the coach- 
man drive as quickly as possible. 

Dr. Brookes watched the time and was 
much concerned about missing the train. 
But Mr. Taylor was quite at ease, and 
said quietly, “My Father runs the trains 
and I am on His business.” 

Upon reaching the station, they found 
that the train had gone, and were told 
that no train would be leaving for the 
town mentioned before evening. Dr. 
Brookes expressed great regret and con- 
cern; but again Mr. Taylor reminded 
him that “my Father runs the trains.” 

Just as they turned from the ticket 
office, a man rushed up to Mr. Taylor, 
saying, “Oh, I was afraid that I had 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


missed you. I want to tell you how God 
has used you to bring blessing to me.” 
As he turned away he slipped an envel- 
ope into Mr. Taylor’s hands, which was 
found to contain $75, marked “For your 
personal use.” 

Mr. Taylor said to Dr. Brookes, “You 
see that my Father has just sent me my 
railway fare.” Dr. Brookes was amazed 
and asked, “Did you not have your rail- 
way fare, and if not, why did you not 
let me know?” He replied, “I told my 
Father,” and he added “I never use 
money except such as is marked for per- 
sonal use.” 

Then Mr, Taylor walked leisurely to a 
man standing among outgoing trains, 
and asked if he knew of any way by 
which he might reach the town in Illinois 
that evening. The man replied that a 
train would be leaving soon, which 
passed through Springfield, Ill, and that 
a train from Chicago passed through 
Springfield en route to the town men- 
tioned. But he said that the Chicago 
train would pass through Springfield an 
hour before the train from St. Louis 
was due in that place. Mr. Taylor said 
with great assurance that the St. Louis 
Hae would reach Springfield first that 

ay. 

So he bought his ticket and boarded 
that train, bid Dr. Brookes to be com- 
forted as his Father certainly did run 
the trains. For the first time in one and 
a half years the Chicago train was an 
hour late; Mr. Taylor stepped from one 
train to the other, reached his destina- 
tion in good time and wired to Dr. 
Brookes, “My Father runs the trains.” 

On the next day the papers reported 
a wreck of the train on which Mr. Tay- 
lor had proposed to journey. “Accord- 
ing to your faith, be it unto you.— 
China’s Millions. 

— 967 — 
HIS SUBSTITUTE 


I was reading a day or two ago, about 
a farmer who was found kneeling at a 
soldier’s grave near Nashville. Some 
one came to him and said: “Why do you 
pay so much attention to this grave? 
Was your son buried here?” “No,” he 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


said. “During the war, my family were 
all sick. I knew not how to leave them. 
I was drafted. One of my neighbors 
came over and said: ‘I will go for you, 
I have no family.” We went off. He was 
wounded at Chickamauga. He was car- 
ried to the hospital and died. And, sir, 
I have come a great many miles that I 
might write over his grave these words: 
‘He died for me.’ Christ was our Sub- 
stitute. He went forth to fight our 
battles. He died. Oh! that we might 
write over His grave to-night, each one 
of us: “He died for me!”—Talmage. 


— 968 — 
WASHING THE WOOL 


A clergyman walking near a brook, 
observed a woman washing wool in a 
stream. This was done by putting it in 
a sieve, and then dipping the sieve in the 
water repeatedly, until the wool became 
white and clean. 

He asked the woman if she knew him. 

“Oh, yes, sir,” she said; “I shall have 
reason to bless God to eternity for hav- 
ing heard you preach some years ago. 
Your sermon was the means of doing me 
much good.” 

“I rejoice to hear it. 
the subject?” 

“Ah, sir, I can’t recollect that, my 
memory is so bad.” 

“How then can the sermon have done 
you so much. good, if you don’t remem- 
ber even what it was about?” 

“Sir, my mind is like this sieve: the 
sieve does not hold the water, but as the 
water runs through, it cleanses the wool; 
so my memory does not retain the 
words I hear, but as they pass through 
my heart, by God’s grace they cleanse 
it. Now I no longer love sin, and every 
day I entreat my Saviour to wash me in 
his own blood, and to cleanse me from 
all pollution.”—Selected. 


— 969 — 
DRIVING WITH OIL 


I wanted to drive an iron bar through 
a piece of timber. I bored a hole of the 
right size, but the bar was rusty, and the 
hole was rough. I made slow progress, 
and was beginning to split the wood. 


Pray, what was 


481 


Then I thought of the oil can. I oiled 
the bar; I poured oil into the hole; a 
few blows of the hammer sent the iron 
into its place. The oil had not dimin- 
ished the size of the bar, or enlarged 
that of the hole. It had only relieved 
the friction. It had smoothed both sur- 
faces. A few drops of oil were more ef- 
fective than many blows of the hammer. 
How slow some good people are to 
learn this simple lesson. They take hold 
of an important enterprise with great 
zeal. They are intensely earnest, and 
even morbidly conscientious. Every- 
body ought to see it just as they do, and 
whoever does not is hammered at with- 
out mercy. Such uncharitable zeal 
provokes opposition. It excites all the 
friction of the natural heart. Men will 
not appreciate the truth presented when 
they are repelled by the spirit in which 
it is presented. Let the reformer be 
careful to have plenty of oil. Let him 
speak the truth in love.—Dr. Babb. 


— 970 — 


JUDGE PAYS A PRISONER’S FINE 


Mr. Frank Weaver, at one of the tent 
meetings, told the following story: “Two 
men who had been friends and compan- 
ions in their youth, met in the police 
court, the one on the magistrate’s bench, 
the other in the prisoner’s dock. The 
case was tried and the prisoner found 
guilty. Would the judge, in considera- 
tion of their friendship years before, for- 
bear to pass judgment? No, he must 
fulfil his duty, justice must be done, the 
law of the land obeyed. He gave out 
the sentence—fourteen days’ hard labor 
or a fine of £10. The condemned man 
had nothing to pay so the prison cell was 
before him. But as soon as he had pro- 
nounced the sentence, the judge rose 
from the bench, threw aside his mag- 
istrate’s robes, and, stepping down to the 
dock, stood beside the prisoner, paid 
his fine for him, and then said, “Now, 
John, you are coming home with me to 
supper.” It is just so with the sinner, 
God cannot overlook sin. Justice must 
be done, and sentence pronounced, but 
Christ Himself pays the debt and the 
sinner is free.—Selected. 


482 


— 971 — 
THE RESULT OF A PROMISE 


One day a Scotch lad, not yet six- 
teen, started from home to take charge 
of a gentleman’s garden in Cheshire, 
England. He bade farewell to father, 
brothers and sisters, but his mother 
accompanied him to the boat on which 
he was to cross the Firth of Forth. 

“Now, my Robert,” she said, as they 
came in sight of the ferry, “let us stand 
here for a few minutes. I wish to ask 
one favor of you before you depart.” 

“What is it, mother?” asked the son, 

“Promise that you will do what I 
am going to ask you.” 

“I cannot, mother,’ replied the 
cautious boy, “till you tell me what 
your wish is.” 

“Oh, Robert!” she exclaimed, and the 
tears rolled down her cheeks, “would I 
ask you to do anything that is not 
right?” 

“Ask what you will, mother, and I 
will do it,” said the son, overcome by 
his mother’s agitation. 

“I want you to promise me that you 
will read a chapter in the Bible every 
morning and evening.” 

“Mother, you know I read my Bible.” 

“I know you do, but you do not read 
it regularly. I shall return home now 
with a happy heart, seeing you have 
promised me to read the Scripture 
daily.” 

The lad went his way. He kept his 
promise, and every day read the Bible. 
He read, however, because he loved his 
mother; not from any pleasure he found 
in the sacred book. At length, inatten- 
tive though he was, the truths he daily 
came in contact with aroused his con- 
science. He became useasy, and then 
unhappy. He would have ceased read- 
ing but for his promise. Living alone 
in a lodge in a large garden, his leisure 
was his own. He had but few books, 
and those were works on gardening and 
botany, which his profession obliged 
him to consult. He was shut up to one 
book, the Bible. 

He did not pray until his unhappi- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


ness sent him to his knees. One é€ven- 
ing, while poring over the Epistle to 
the Romans, light broke into his soul. 
The apostle’s words appeared different, 
though familiar to him. 


“Can it be possible,” he said to him- 
self, “that I have never understood 
what I have read again and again?” 


Peace came to his mind, and he found 
himself earnestly desiring to know and 
to do the will of God. 


That will was made known to him in 
a simple way. One night, as he en- 
tered a neighboring town, he read a 
placard announcing that a missionary 
meeting was to be held. The time ap- 
pointed for the meeting had long passed, 
but the lad stood and read the placard 
over and over. Stories of missionaries, 
told him by his mother, came up vividly 
as if they had just been related. Then 
and there was begotten the purpose 
which made Robert Moffat a missionary 
to the Hottentots of South Africa. — 
Religious Herald. 


— 972 — 
THE SPIRIT OF TOLERANCE 


To what extent should we excercise 
a spirit of tolerance toward those who 
differ from us in religious belief? This 
is a question that should not be an- 
swered unwisely or rashly, 


Early in the eighteenth century, when 
Sir Robert Walpole stood at the helm 
of the British Empire, it was noted that 
he transacted business of state with a 
remarkable degree of courtesy toward 
the men who had bitterly abused him in 
Parliament. When asked how he could 
do so, he replied, 


“The king’s business requires union. 
Why should my master’s affairs suffer 


loss by the private quarrels of his ser- 
vants?” 


Mr, Fletcher, in commenting upon 
this incident, says: “May the time 
come when the ministers of the King 
of Peace shall have as much regard for 
his interests as that minister showed 
for the interests of his royal master.”— 
Wesleyan Methodist, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 973 — 
BELIEVED HIMSELF BLIND 


The curious case of an ex-service man, 
blinded in both eyes as he believed, is 
given in the “Rochester Times Union,” 
May 13, 1920. He was so blind that 
neither eye could perceive an uplifted 
hand at any distance. Blind eyes may 
as well be shut as open. So he kept his 
closed. 

Examining physicians pronounced 
him eligible for retraining; and he was 
about to be admitted to the Maryland 
Workshop for the Blind, under the Fed- 
eral Board for Vocational Training, 
when another doctor, who believed the 
man’s eyes to be good, persuaded him 
that he could see. This treatment by 
suggestion was persevered in until the 
supposedly blind man opened his eyes 
and tried, and lo! he saw, and was pres- 
ently discharged completely cured. 

Sin blinds the eyes of those who be- 
lieve not. They see no beauty in Christ 
that he is to be desired. But to those 
in nature’s darkness and spiritual death, 
the Word of God sounds out, “Awake, 
thou that sleepest, and arise from the 
dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” 
Eph. 5:14. 

Man’s weakness because of sin is a 
fact and notafancy. But if in obedience 
to God’s command we arouse and open 
our eyes, He will make us see and give 
us light and power.—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 

— 974 — 
EVIL COMPANY 


Sophronius, a wise teacher of the 
people, did not allow his daughters, even 
when they were grown up, to associate 
with persons whose lives were not moral 
and pure. 

“Father,” said the gentle Eulalia one 
day, when he had refused to permit her 
to go, in company with her brother, to 
visit the frivolous Lucinda, “father, you 
must think that we are very weak and 
childish, since you are afraid it would be 
dangerous to us in visiting Lucinda.” 

Without saying a word, the father 
took a coal from the hearth and handed 
it to his daughter. 


483 


“It will not burn you, my child,” said 
he; “only take it.” 

Eulalia took the coal, and beheld her 
tender white hand black; and, without 
thinking, she touched her white dress, 
and it was also blackened. 

“See,” said Eulalia, somewhat dis- 
pleased as she looked at her hands and 
dress, “one cannot be too careful enough 
when handling coals.” 

“Yes, truly,” said her father; “you 
see, my child, that the coal, even though 
it did not burn you, has nevertheless 
blackened you! So is the company of 
immoral persons.”—Selected. 


— 975 — 
THE BOY CHURCH BUILDERS 


A. prominent minister, now quite 
aged, tells a story of two boys who be- 
gan right in the matter of giving to 
God’s cause. The people of his church 
were anxious for a new church build- 
ing, and one Sunday morning subscrip- 
tion papers were passed through the 
congregation for that purpose. As one 
of the deacons came near two bright- 
faced lads, one of them fifteen, the 
other younger, he said to them smiling- 
ly, “Well, boys, are you going to help 
build the church?” 

When the older of the two boys an- 
swered quietly, “Put my brother and 
me down for fifty dollars,” the good 
man could hardly believe his ears. 
“Why, Henry! What do you mean?” 


he said in astonishment. 


But Henry was not to be discour- 
aged. “We have saved twenty-five dol- 
lars already,” he said, “and I think we 
can get the rest by the time the church 
is done.” And the pledge thus made 
was kept and every cent of the money 
paid on time. 

The sequel of this story is just what 
might be expected. One of those boys 
is still living, a well-known and suc- 
cessful minister of the Gospel. The 
other died a few years since, wealthy, 
and beloved throughout his native 
State. They had honored God with 
their substance, and he had rewarded 
them with blessings and prosperity.— 
Richard Miller. 


484 


— 976 — 
THE INFIDEL CONVERTED 


A youth of sixteen entered Providence 
college, now Brown University and 
graduated with the highest honors of 
his class. His most intimate friend was 
E——, who was very bright and witty, 
and remarkably winning in his person 
and manners, but a confirmed infidel. 
The ambitious youth came fully under 
the influence of his gay and brilliant 
companion, and when he left college, he, 
too, could ridicule the Bible, arid crack 
his jokes at the expense of weak minded 
people who believed it to be the, word of 
God, 

For a time he was quite undecided 
what literary field to selectfor the dis- 
play of his talents. During this period 
of hesitation he concluded to travel on 
horseback through some of the New 
England States and New York. 

One evening he stopped at a country 
inn, and the landlord apologized for the 
necessity of putting him into a room ad- 
joining an apartment occupied by a 
young man who was extremely ill, and 
in a dying condition. The youthful infidel 
smilled at the apology, for what was 
death to him? However, in the stillness 
of the night he heard through the thin 
partition the groans of the sick man, 
groans of suffering, groans, it seemed to 
him, of despair. He was ashamed to 
find that these hollow and hopeless 
groans not only disturbed, but appalled 
him, and he covered his head with the 
bed-clothes in profound mortification, 
when he reflected that the intellectual 
and sarcastic E would laugh him to 
scorn if his weakness were ever dis- 
covered, 


At last all was still, and he fell into an 
uneasy sleep. When he awoke, descend- 
ing to the office, with assumed indiffer- 
ence he inquired after his fellow-lodger. 

“Dead,” was the blunt reply of the 
landlord. 

The jnfidel was, startled, but again 
asked in careless tones, “Do you know 
who he was?” 

“Oh, yes, he was a graduate of Provi- 
dence College, and a fine fellow! His 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 





name was E , and it’s a pity he died 
so young, for he would have made his 
mark,” 

And so the groans that forced the 
young stranger to think of E——, as a 
refuge from his unmanly fears, were the 
groans of E——— himself, the wicked and 
mocking deist, in his dying hour. 

This young skeptic afterwards became 
the devoted and distinguished Dr. Adon- 
iram Judson, the “great missionary” of 
Burmah.—Selected. 


— 977 — 


CLAFLIN AND THE YOUNG MAN 


The following story is told about 
Horace B. Claflin, a prominent merchant 
who was as quaint and humorous as he 
was keen witted and rich; 


On a certain evening, about five 
o’clock Claflin was sitting alone in his 
office when a young man, pale and care- 
worn, timidly knocked and entered. 

“Mr. Claflin,” he said, “I am in need 
of help. I have been unable to meet 
certain payment, because certain par- 
ties have not done as they agreed by 
me, and I would like to ‘have $10,000. I 
come to you because you were a friend 
to my father and might be a friend to 
me.” 

“Come in,” said Claflin; “come in and 
have a glass of wine.” 

“No,” said the young man; “I don’t 
drink.” 

“Have a cigar, then.” 

“No; I never smoke.” 

“Well,” said the joker, “I would like 
to accommodate you, but I don’t think I 
can.” 

“Very well,” said the young man, as 
he was about to leave the room; “I 
thought perhaps you ‘might. Good day, 
sir. 

“Hold on,” said Mr. Claflin. 
don’t drink?” 

“No.7” 

“Nor smoke?” 

“No.” 

“Nor gamble, nor anything of the 
kind ?” 


“You 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


“No sir; I am superintendent of the — 


== Sunday-school.” 

“Well,” said Claflin, with tears in his 
eyes and choking voice, “you shall have 
it and three times the amount if you 
wish. Your father let me have $5,000 
once, and asked me the same questions. 
He trusted me, and I will trust you.” 


=— 978 —= 


CHECK YOUR PASSIONS 


An old man was once walking with a 
little boy. They came across four 
shrubs. The old man said to his youth- 
ful companion. 

“Pull up the least one.” 

He obeyed with ease. 

“Now the next.” 

He obeyed, but it did not come so 
easily. 

“And the third.” 

It took all his strength to move the 
roots, but he succeeded. 

“Now the fourth.” 

In vain the boy put forth all his 
strength. He only made the leaves 
tremble. He could not move the earth 
and no effort could dislodge it. 

Then the wise old man said to the 
ardent youth. “This, my son, is just 
what happens with your passions. When 
they are young and weak one may by 
a little watchfulness over self and the 
help of a little self-denial easily tear 
them up, but if we let them cast their 
roots deep into our soul there is no 
human power that can uproot them. 
For this reason, watch well over the 
first movement of your soul and study 
by acts and virtue to keep your passions 
well in check.—Selected. 


— 979 — 


CONTROL VOICE AND TEMPER 


A London merchant once had a dis- 
pute with a Quaker about a bill. The 
merchant said he would go to law about 
it; the Quaker tried all means to keep 
him from doing so. One morning the 
Quaker resolved to make a last attempt, 
and he called at the merchant’s house, 
and asked the servant if his master was 
at home. The merchant heard him, and, 


485 


knowing) his voice, called out from the 
stairs, “Tell the rascal I am not at 
home.” The Quaker looking up at him, 
calmly said; “Well, friend, God grant 
thee a better mind.” The merchant was 
struck with meekness of the reply, and 
he looked into the disputed bill, and 
found that the Quaker was right and he 
was wrong. He called to see him, and, 
after confessing his error, he said: “I 
have one question to ask you: How 
were you able so often to bear my abuse 
with patience?” “Friend,” said the 
Quaker, “I will tell thee. I had once 
as bad a temper as thou hast; I knew 
that to yield to this temper was sinful, 
and I found that it was unwise. .I 
noticed that merr in a passion always 
spoke loud, and I thought that if I could 
control my voice, I should keep my pas- 
sion. I have therefore, made it a rule 
never to let my voice rise above a cer- 
tain key, and by carefully observing this 
rule I have, by God’s help, mastered my 
temper.”—Selected. 


— 980 — 


KIND AS WELL AS GREAT 


In addressing a Sunday-school in De- 
troit, some time ago, Rev. Dr. Broadus 
related the following story: 

An old man used to sweep the street- 
crossings for gratuitous pennies, near 
the House of Parliament, for many 
years. One day he was absent. Upon 
inquiring he was found by a,missionary 
ill in a little attic, barely furnished with 
cot and stool. 

“You are lonely here,” the missionary 
said. “Has any one called upon you?” . 

“Oh, yes,” he replied, “several per- 
sons have called—Mr. Gladstone for 
one. He called and read to me.” 

“Mr. Gladstone called? And what 
did he read?” 

“He sat on the stool there and read 
the Bible to me.” 

What a beautiful position! The 
greatest statesman in the world sitting 
on a stool in an attic reading the Word 
of God to a street-sweeper! Great men 
lose none of their greatness by kind- 
ness to the poor. 


786 


mm 98.1 — 


SANDY OR SAFE FOUNDATION? 
A careless living woman spoken to 
by one of the missionaries of the People’s 
Tabernacle respecting her salvation re- 
plied, “Oh that is a matter I attended 
to long ago!” Probably years before she 
had been the subject of some religious 
ceremony, baptism or confirmation. 
Having had the benefit of all this, she 
supposed her salvation certain. 

A man to whom one of the members 
of the Tabernacle spoke about going to 
church replied, “I have not been to 
church in more than thirty years. ‘ When 
I was confirmed I made up my mind that 
would end my church-going, and it did!” 
He evidently thought he was graduating 
from the service of Christ instead of en- 
listing in it. Such ignorance of the 
gospel is pitiable and ail too common. 
Humanity is so prone to trust in some 
service, ceremony or something, instead 
of in Christ alone. 

Said a very sick woman, whom the 
Pastor visited in the hospital not long 
ago, “If only a prayer could be said for 
me in ehurch, I would be willing to go!” 

She had not lived as she wanted to 
die, but she had suffered long, and there 
was no prospect of improvement, so she 
would be resigned to die if only a prayer 
could be said for her in church! 

She was pointed to Christ as the only 
one who can do helpless sinners good. 
She was told that He invited all to come 
to Him, and would turn none away who 
truly came. That better than dying, 
would be the privilege of going to her 
home again and there by living a new 
life prove the reality of her faith in 
Christ. But God ordered otherwise, and 
in a few days she passed out of this 
world. 

Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, 
and the life; no man cometh unto the 
Father, but by me.”—John 14, 6.—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 982 — 
NOT TO BE BRIBED 


The borough of Hull, in the reign of 
Charles II., chose Andrew Marvell, a 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


young gentleman of little or no fortune, 
and maintained him in London for the 
service of the public. His understand- 
ing, integrity, and spirit, were dreadful 
to the then infamous administration. 
Persuaded he would be theirs if properly 
asked, they sent his old school-fellow, 
the lord treasurer Danby, to renew ac- 
quaintance with him in his garret. At 
parting the lord treasurer slipped into 
his hand £1,000, and then went to his 
chariot. Marvel, looking at the paper, 
called after the treasurer, “My lord, 1 
request another moment.”. They went 
up again to the garret, and the servant- 
boy was called.. “I ask, child, what had 
I for dinner yesterday?” “Don’t you re- 
member, sir, you had the little shoulder 
of mutton that you ordered me to bring 
from a woman in the market?” “Very 
right, child; what have I for dinner 
today?” “Don’t you know, sir, that you 
bid me lay by the blade bone to broil” 
“It is so; very right, child, goaway. My 
lord, do you hear that? Andrew Mar- 
vell’s dinner is provided: there is your 
piece of paper, I want it not; I know the 
sort of kindness you intended; I live 
here to serve my constituents, the min- 
istry may seek men for their purpose; I 
am not one.”—Selected. 


— 983 — 
ANSWERED WHILE SPEAKING 


A company of Covenanters had been 
pursued by their persecutors until their 
strength was exhausted. Reaching a hill 
which separated them from their pur- 
suers, their leader said, “Let us pray 
here, for if the Lord hear not our prayer 
and save us, we are all dead men.” He 
then prayed: “Twine about the hill, O 
Lord, and cast the lap of Thy cloak 
over puir old Saunders and these puir 
things!” Before he had done speaking 
a mist rose up about the hill, and 
wrapped the devoted little band about 
like the very cloak of the Lord he had 
prayed for. In vain their enemies sought 
to find them, and, while they were 
wearying themselves in the efforts, an 
order came which sent them on an er- 
rand in/a different direction.—Arthur T. 
Pierson, D. D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


= 984 — 
“I THANK YOU, SIR!” 


“When I crossed the ocean in my boy- 
hood to seek my fortune in America, all 
the English I knew was ‘I thank, you, 
sir,” said a gentleman, now a highly 
prosperous and respected American citi- 
zen. 

“That one sentence served me in good 
stead. The captain and crew of the 
vessel were Englishmen, and it was 
marvelous how my ‘I thank you, sir,’ 
won smiles and kindness from them. It 
was the same when I reached New York. 
When other words failed me, it was my 
passport, and it opened many a door and 
many a heart to me.” We wonder how 
many of our young people have learned 
that sentence so that it comes easily 
to the lips. To remember to say, “I 
thank you, sir,” in response to the cour- 
tesies we receive in the course of a day, 
and ‘to keep the sentence in readiness 
when other words fail, is to possess a 
vocabulary far from meager in its scope, 
especially in the way it acts upon 
hearts.—Selected. 


CHURCH GOING 


Take church-going and store-going. 
Every morning the man is at his busi- 
ness; nothing keeps him from it but 
the grip of some disease which will not 
let him out of the house. He may feel 
inert, but he goes. He may have a 
headache, but off he starts; and when 
he is there how interested he is—how 
absorbed, how alert, how devoted. That 
is store-going. 

And now take the same man and look 
at his church-going. What a contrast! 
“T have a headache; I do not think I 
shall go to church.” “It rains hard and 
it is so cold; I shall not venture out.” 
“T feel tired; I shall stay at home and 
rest.” And often, when he goes, how he 
lolls about and looks around and lets his 
mind wander. 

Yes, you say; but one is business to 
which we must attend; we shall lose our 
place or our money; and the other is— 


ANECDOTES 487 


well, what is it? Is it not an important 
thing? Is it not God’s business? Is it 
not a very holy, a very solemn, a very 
urgent affair? Does not the welfare of 
the soul depend upon it? Can it be 
neglected with impunity? 

Think of those words of your Master 
in Malachi, “A son honoreth his father, 
and a servant his master; if then, I be 
a father where is my fear?”—Clinton 
Locke, D. D. 


— 986 — 


MULLER’S MIGHTY FAITH 


“When the son of God cometh shali 
he find faith on earth?” The notable 
nonagenarian among living Christians 
is George Muller, of Bristol, England, 
who has recently passed his ninetieth 
birthday. Both his age and his piety 
are patriarchal. Since 1835 Mr. Muller 
has been engaged in orphanage work, 
and has been used of God in the uprear- 
ing of numerous colossal buildings for 
the accommodation of his orphans, who 
are providentially brought under his 
care, from year to year. Through the 
faith and prayers of this great and good 
man, the Lord has enabled him to 
gather, feed, clothe, educate, and rear to 
manhood and womanhood 120,763 or- 
phans during the sixty years’ manage- 
ment of the Lord’s orphanages. He has 
never asked assistance from men; not 
as much as the value of a single penny. 
He has asked the Lord only for the 
dollars he has needed, and for all his 
orphanage supplies. In answer to his 
prayers God has given into his hands 
all the dollars he has needed, and all 
the supplies that his orphans needed. 
In the sixty years of his orphanage 
work there has been expended the im- 
mense sum of $6,866,743; and the Lord 
has given into his hands precisely the 
sum of $6,866,743. The faith of this 
wonderful man is sublimely simple. 
“Ask, and receive’—that’s all’ But he 
seems superhuman among ordinary hu- 
mans on account of the superhuman 
work he is doing, and the superhuman 
faith that he brings to its accomplish- 
ment.—Selected, 1896. 


488 


-— 987 — 
PERSEVERANCE REWARDED 


Missionary Labor at Tahiti was ap- 
parently in vain for from fourteen to six- 
teen years, and, notwithstanding untir- 
ing, earnest and faithful effort, but one 
solitary instance of conversion had taken 
place. The wars of desolation con- 
tinued, and abominable idolatries and 
iniquities reigned. “The heavens seemed 
as brass and the earth as iron’; and 
when God’s time to favor the work in 
Polynesia came, the beginning was such 
as to turn all attention to himself. For 
at the time the war had driven tlie mis- 
sionaries from the island and cut off all 
communication. Two native servants, 
formerly employed in the missionaries’ 
families, had unknown to them received 
favorable impressions, and had united 
together for prayer. They had been 
joined by others, and at the return of the 
missionaries to Tahiti at the termination 
of the war they found a number of 
praying people, and had little to do but 
to aid in a work which God had thus 
singularly begun. 

These years of fruitless and ap- 
parently hopeless toil had almost deter- 
mined the directors of the London 
Missionary Society to abandon alto- 
gether the work at Tahiti. Dr. Haweis, 
chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon, 
one of the founders of the Society, and 
the father and liberal supporter of the 
South Sea Mission, earnestly opposed 
such abandonment by a further donation 
of a thousand dollars. The Rev. Mat- 
thew Wilks, the pastor of Mr. Williams, 
declared with great emphasis that he 
would sell the clothes from his back 
rather than give up the mission, and 
proposed instead of abandonment that a 
season of special prayer should be ob- 
served for the divine blessing. Such a 
season was observed; letters of encour- 
agement were written to the mission- 
aries, and—mark it!—while the vessel 
_ ‘was on her way to carry these letters to 
Tahiti, another ship passed her in mid- 
ocean which conveyed to Great Britain, 
October 1813, the news that idolatry 
was entirely overthrown in the Island, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


and bore back to London the rejected 
idols of the people; and so was fulfilled 
literally the Divine promise, “Before 
they call I will answer, and while they 
are yet speaking I will hear.”—Rev. 
A. T. Pierson, D.D. 


— 988 — 
GOD’S CARE SHOWN 


As truly as God is God, and has given 
us our faculties, just so truly will He as- 
sist us in the right use ofthese faculties. 
And if at time He, in wisdom, sees fit 
to thwart our plans, it is in order that a 
greater good may come to us, as in the 
case of Job. 

On one occasion I was many miles 
from home. I supposed I had money 
enough for my necessary expenses, but 
in offering a ten-dollar bill it was de- 
clared to be a counterfeit. Several busi- 
ness men said they would not have hesi- 
tated to take it. But I, fearing God, 
could not pass it. I took a pen and 
wrote across the face of the bill “Coun- 
terfeit.” But how should I get along? 
I needed just that $10 to take me home. 
I stopped in Janesville, Wis., and was 
invited to preach in the Y. M. C. A. Hall. 
Some one unknown to me took up a col- 
lection, and besides the usual small 
change found in the hat at such times, 
there was a genuine ten-dollar bill. 

I do not preach for money, and never 
asked for a contribution for myself. If 
one cannot see the hand of God in thus 
rewarding right doing, and trust in Him, 
he must be void of discernment. 

Another time I was away from home 
attending meeting. My horses were in 
a barn quite a distance from where I 
stayed at night. In the night a gentle- 
man came and called me up and wished 
me to look after my horses, for a Godly 
woman in his house insisted upon his 
coming to inform me that my horses 
were in trouble. I went, and found one 
of my horses thrown down in a way that 
must soon have resulted in death. This 
woman knew nothing of the facts, but 
was impressed that something was 
wrong, although her home was a long 
way from the stable. 

“He that spared not His own Son, 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


but delivered Him up for us alli, how 
shall He not with Him also freely give 
us all things?”’—Rev. C. W. Smith, 
Aurora, Il. 


— 989 — 
THE SEVEN LETTERS 


several years ago “The Presbyterian” 
related the following incident on the 
authority of a private letter from Paris: 

“At a Bible reunion, held at the house 
of an English Congregational minister, 
where several colporteurs, teachers, and 
others meet for devotional reading and 
conversation, a brief anecdote was re- 
lated by a clergyman living in La Force, 
who established there an institution for 
epileptics, where he has now three hun- 
dred, supported entirely on the principle 
of faith, Like Muller’s orphanage. 

“At one time he found himself in debt 
to the amount of five hundred pounds. 
After a sleepless, anxious night, he found 
on his table seven letters. Opening five, 
he found them to be all applications, 
some of them most painful in their 
details, for the admission of new in- 
mates. His excited mind could not bear 
it. Without opening the other two 
letters he threw them to his wife. ‘Put 
them into the fire,’ he said, and turned to 
seek relief in the open air. ‘John,’ said a 
sweet voice, ‘this won’t do. Come back.’ 
So he did, taking up the sixth letter, 
which proved to be from a stranger, en- 
closing a check for three hundred 
pounds. The other envelope gave him 
just what was needed, just that and no 
more. He thanked God, and took cour- 
age. Will he ever again hear the sweet, 
sad voice, ‘Wherefore didst thou 
doubt?’ ” 


— 990 — 
THE SHOEMAKER’S PLAN 


A shoe-maker being asked how he con- 
trived to give so much, replied that it 
was easily done by obeying St. Paul’s 
precept in 1 Cor. 16:2: “Upon the first 
day of the week let every one of you 
lay by him in store, as God hath pros- 
pered him.” “I earn,” said he, “one day 
with another, about a dollar a day, and 


ANECDOTES 489 


I can without inconvenience to myself 
or family lay by five cents of this sum 
for charitable purposes; the amount is 
thirty cents a week. My wife takes in 
sewing and washing, and earns some- 
thing like two dollars a week, and she 
lays by ten cents of that. My children 
each of them earn a shilling or two, 
and are glad to contribute their penny; 
so that altogether we lay by us in store 
forty cents a week. And if we have been 
unusually prosperous, we contribute 
something more. The weekly amount is 
deposited every Sunday morning in a 
box kept for that purpose, and reserved 
for future use. Thus, by these small 
earnings, we have learned that it is more 
blessed to give than to receive. The 
yearly amount saved in this way is about 
twenty-five dollars; and I distribute this 
among the various benevolent societies, 
according to the best of my judgment.” 


— 991 — 
“OBEY YOUR PARENTS” 


The celebrated Doctor Samuel John- 
son in a letter written in 1767, relates 
how his sick father had once.asked him 
to stand in the market stall and sell 
books for him on a certain day, and he 
refused, committing thereby a breach of 
filial piety which for half a century 
troubled his conscience, until fifty years 
from the day when pride kept him from 
proper obedience, he went into the very 
market where his now dead father’s book 
stall used to be, and there in penitent 
contrition stood half an hour with his 
head uncovered and bare, with crowds 
gazing at him in wonder. Carlyle calls 
the act “one of the saddest and proudest 
we can paint.” 

The sting of the remembrance of un- 
kindness in a conscientious heart is not 
easily quieted. It is better not to speak 
sharp hard words to a parent. The 
words at the head of this article are a 
heavenly admonition. See that thou 
refusest not Him who speaks to thee 
from heaven. Unkindness to parents 
brings bitter sobs, and remorse, when 
the dear old faces disappear from sight 
beneath the coffin lid—D. T. Taylor. 


490" 


—= 992 — 
THE LUXURY OF DOING GOOD 


A young man of eighteen or twenty, 
a student in a university, went one day 
to take a walk with a professor, who was 
commonly called “the students’ friend,” 
such was his kindness to the young men 
whom it was his office to instruct. 
While they were now walking together, 
and the professor was seeking to lead the 
conversation to grave subjects, they saw 
a pair of old shoes lying in their path, 
which they supposed must belong to a 
poor man who was at work in a field 
close by, and who had nearly finished his 
day’s work. 

The young student turned to the pro- 
fessor, saying— 

“Let us play the man a trick. We 
will hide his shoes, and conceal ourselves 
behind those bushes, and watch to see 
his perplexity when he cannot find 
them.” 

“My dear friend,” answered the pro- 
fessor, “we must never amuse ourselves 
at the expense of others, especially of the 
poor ; but you are rich, and you may give 
yourself a much greater pleasure by 
means of this poor man. Put a dollar 
in each shoe, and then we will hide our- 
selves behind the bushes.” 

The student did so, and then placed 
himself, with the professor, behind the 
bushes close by, through which they 
could easily watch the laborer, and see 
what words of joy he might express. 

The poor man had soon finished his 
work, and come across the field to the 
path where he had left his coat and 
shoes. While he put on his coat, he 
Slipped one foot into one of his shoes, 
but, feeling something hard, he stooped 
down and found the dollar. 

_ Astonishment and wonder were seen 
upon his contenance. He gazed upon 
the dollar, turned it round, and looked 
again and again; then he looked around 
him on all sides to see who might have 
put it there, but could see no one. Then 
‘he put the money in his pocket, and pro- 
ceeded to put on his other shoe; but how 
great was his amazement when he found 
the other dollar His feelings overcame 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


him. He fell upon his knees, looked up 
to heaven, and uttered aloud a fervent 
thanksgiving to God, in which he spoke 
of his sick and helpless wife, and his 
children without bread, whom this 
timely bounty from some unknown hand 
would save from perishing. 

The young man stood deeply affected, 
and tears filled his eyes. 

“Now,” said the professor, “are you 
not much better pleased than if you had 


‘played your intended trick?” 


“Q, dearest sir,” answered the youth, 
“you have taught me a lesson that I hope 
never to forget. I feel now the truth of 
the words which I never before under- 
stood. ‘It is more blessed to give than 
to receive.’ ”—Selected. 


— 993 — 
HIS HEART IN IT. 


A manufacturer in Philadelphia once 
told a friend the story of one of his 
superintendents. 

Many years ago a boy applied to him 
for work. He was employed at low 
wages. Two days later the awards of 
premiums were made to manufactories 
at the Centennial Exhibition. Says the 
manufacturer: 

“Passing down Chestnut Street early 
in the morning I saw Bob spring over 
the bulletin board in front of a news- 
paper office. Suddenly he pulled off his 
cap with a shout. 

“What is the matter?” asked one. 

“We have taken a medal for sheet- 
ings!’ he exclaimed. | 

“T said nothing, but kept my eye on 
Bob. The boy who could identify him- 
self in two days with my interests 
would be of use to me hereafter. 

“His work was to deliver packages. 
I found that he took a real pride in it. 
His wagon must be cleaner, his horse 
better fed, his orders filled more prompt- 
ly, than those of the men belonging to 
any other firm. He was as zealous for 
the house as though he had been a 
partner in it. I have advanced him 
step by step. His fortune is made, and 
the firm has added to its capital so 
much energy and force.”—-The Central 
Christian Advocate, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES/ 


mo 994 —e 
GUIDED ARIGHT 


Writing for our paper of the annual 
excursion of the People’s Tabernacle, a 
week after the event, July 10th, 1897, 
we said: “Our excursion last Saturday 
was one of the most successful we ever 
had.” 

Three weeks later we wrote: 

Do you remember what a fearfully 
wild storm prevailed in this city and its 
vicinity July 23rd? It was said to have 
been one of the worst for a long time, 
and it was especially dangerous and 
disagreeable for excursionists. 

For some time we had been waiting 
to see what the weather of July 23rd 
would be. The reason of this was that 
was the date we at first fixed upon for 
our excursion. The contract had been 
signed and we had returned home, but 
we had some misgivings as to the date 
selected. The pleasure and success of 
such an outing depends largely upon the 


weather, and as God alone knew what it . 


would be, we were praying for His 
guidance. 

It is sufficient to say that we were so 
influenced by certain considerations that 
we sent down the same day and had the 
excursion changed to another date which 
was still open. Some may ascribe this 
fortunate change to merely a notion or 
to good luck, but we thank God for it, 
and shall continue to believe that He 
answered the prayer of those who were 
seeking His direction —Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall, 


—— 995 — 
A POWERFUL DREAM 


A correspondent of the “Illustrated 
Christian Weekly” gives the following 
testimony to the fact that God answers 
prayer: 

“My father, a minister of the Gospel, 
was prostrated by sickness. A large 
family of little ones was dependent upon 
him for support. Funds ran low. One 
evening my mother remarked that she 
had broken her last dollar. My father 
lay awake most of the night, praying to 
his God for help in this emergency. 


491 


That same night a man in a parish not 
many miles distant was much impressed 
by adream. He dreamed that a minister 
who preached in his church not long 
ago was sick and in want. He knew 
neither his name nor his place of resi- 
dence. He arose at the first dawn of 
day, and going to his own pastor in- 
quired the name and address of the 
stranger who had recently preached for 
them. These obtained, he mounted his 
horse, and knocked at our door just as 
my mother drew up the window shades. 
She answered the knock, when, without 
a word, a stranger placed an envelope 
in her hand and immediately rode away. 
The envelope contained a ten-dollar bill, 
which we all believed was the Lord’s 
answer to our father’s prayer. After- 
wards these facts were disclosed by the 
pastor to him whom the Lord chose to 
dispense his bounty.” 


— 996 — 
START THINGS RIGHT 


Thelwall once said to Coleridge: “I 
think it is unfair to influence the minds of 
children by inculcating opinions before 
they shall come to the years of discretion 
so they may choose for themselves.” 
Coleridge made no reply, but asked his 
friend to visit his garden. When inside 
he said: 

“This is my botanical garden.” 

“How can that be,” asked Thelwall, 
“for it is all overgrown with weeds?” 
“Qh,” said Coleridge, “that is only 
because my garden has not come to the 
age of discretion. The weeds, you see, 
have taken the liberty to grow, and 1 
thought it unfair to prejudice the soil in 
favor of roses, berries and delicious 
fruits.” 

You get nothing good out of a garden 
till you put something good in. There 
must be seed or there are sure to be 
weeds. Do not make a mistake. The 
word of God must be planted in the heart 
if good results are to be attained. A 
precious harvest only comes from sow- 
ing precious seed, and caring for it after 
it is sown.—The Christian. 


492 


— 997 — 
THE TWO SENTINALS 


Two soldiers, Andrew Harmer and his 
comrade, were on duty in the citadel of 
Gibralter. The rock is honey-combed 
with galleries, through which sounds are 
conveyed a great distance, and sentinels 
are posted at the ends of these galleries. 
It happened to be their turn to stand 
both of them sentinels the same night. 
Harmer was in great distress of mind, 
and was groaning under the burden of 
unforgiven sin; he felt his sin to be 
almost intolerable, while his comrade 
had obtained peace through the love of 
God in Christ, and was rejoicing in a 
sense of sins forgiven. By and by the 
officer of the guard came around to ask 
for the pass-word, and asked it of the 
soldier who was rejoicing with joy un- 
speakable and full of glory. Forgetting 
military dicipline, and not thinking of 
counter signs, he shouted, in tones that 
startled the officer,— 

“The Precious Blood of Christ.” 

Right through the gallery went the 
words of the converted soldier to the 
heart of Andrew Harmer at the other 
end. It seemed to him a mysterious 
voice from heaven. In a moment he 
saw it all: he was liberated from the 
chains of sin; he was reconciled to God, 
and enabled to rejoice in the liberty 
wherewith Christ had made him free. 
Ere long he procured his discharge, 
entered the service of God as a mission- 
ary, and in missionary labor he at last 
finished his course. 

What is “the precious blood of 
Christ?” Why should these words con- 
vey peace to the troubled conscience? 
What does Peter mean when he writes, 
“Ye were not redeemed by corruptible 
things, as silver and gold; ... but with 
the precious blood of Christ,.as of a 
lamb without blemish and without 
spot?” It does not mean literal blood of 
a mere man? that could not save. It 
means the life-blood of Christ, the Son 
of God. The life is in the blood. “It 
is the blood that maketh atonement for 
the soul.” Turn to the 12th chapter of 
Exodus, and see the figure of the slain 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


lamb. God has signed the death-war- 
rant of all the first-born in Egypt; there 
was to be death in every house. “But 
against any of the children of Israel 
shall not a dog move his tongue.” He 
provided a deliverance for His own peo- 
ple Israel. He commanded the head of 
every family to kill a lamb of the first- 
lings of the flock, a male without blem- 
ish and without spot. The father of the 
family was to kill it, and to take hyssop 
and dip it in the blood, and sprinkle the 
lintel and door-posts with the blood; 
so when the destroying angel came to 
kill the first-born in Egypt, he would 
“pass-over” every house whereon the 
blood was sprinkled. “When I see the 
blood, I will pass over you.” And so 
it came to pass that, while there was 
death in every Egyptian house, there 
was peace in every Israelitish family. 
The blood was their security. 

Has not this a lesson for us? Does it 
not point to the Lamb of God slain for 
our sins? Does it not show God’s esti- 
mate of the value of the blood of Jesus 
Christ, His Son, which cleanseth from 
all sin?” We live in a doomed world; 
the day is coming when “the Lord Jesus 
shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels, in flaming fire taking 
vengeance on them that know not God, 
and that obey not the gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ; who shall be ‘punished 
with everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord.” Deliverance has 
been provided. “Behold the Lamb of 
God, who beareth away the sins of the 
world.” His life has been given and 
accepted in our place. Whosoever is 
marked by that blood—whosoever be- 
lieveth in him—is passed over, pardoned, 
saved, accepted —Henry Drummond. 


— 998 — 
“TOO LATE” 


There are no more melancholy words 
in the language than these: “Too late!” 
I have heard them uttered by a brother, 
as he hurried home to see a dying father; 
he arrived only to be told that he had 
breathed his last. And not soon shall I 
forget the agony they then expressed. 
Too late! I have known them uttered 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


by a skilful surgeon, when he was sum- 
moned to the bedside of a dying man, 
and have marked the sadness to which 
they gave birth. 

Too late! I have known them uttered 
by an anxious crowd, as they stood gaz- 
ing on a burning building, and sadly 
saw the failure of those who sought to 
save the inmates from destruction. Too 
late! I have known them uttered by a 
noble crew of the life-boat, when, as 
they put out to the sinking ship, they 
beheld her go down before their eyes, 
and “the frightened souls within her.” 

But, O! none of these circumstances 
are half so heart-rending as those in 
which the sinner who has despised his 
day must find himself when the terrible 
discovery is made that he is too late 
to enter heaven —-W. M. Taylor. 


— 999 — 
WILL YOUR ANCHOR HOLD? 


“A sailor in Glouster, Mass., had been 
wounded in a wreck, and was brought 


ashore. The fever was great, and he was © 


dying. His comrades gathered around 
him in a little fishing house, and the 
physician said: ‘He won't live long.’ 
The sailor was out of his mind until 
near the close. But, within a few min- 
utes of his death he looked around, and 
calling one comrade after another, bade 
them goodby, and then sank off into 
sleep. Finally, as it was time for his 
medicine again, one of the railors rous- 
ing him, said, ‘Mate, how are you now?’ 
He looked up into the eyes of his friend 
and said: ‘My anchor holds! These 
were his last words. And when they 
called upon a friend of mine to take 
charge of the funeral service, how pow- 
erful was the impression made upon his 
hearers when he quoted the dying 
words; “My anchor holds’! 


— 1000 — 
SOUL WINNING 


I knew one who used to have a man 
call upon him in the way of business 
and bringing certain articles which he 
bought across the counter. This trades- 
man said one day to himself. “I have 


493 


dealt with that man nine or ten years 
and we have scarcely passed the time of 
day. He has brought in his work and 
I have paid him across the counter, but 
I have never tried to do him any good 
Surely this cannot be right. Providence 
has placed him in my way, and I ought 
at least to have asked him whether he 
is saved in Christ.” Well, the next time 
the man came, our good brother’s spirit 
failed him, and he did not like to begin a 
religious conversation. 

The man mever came again, but a 
boy brought in the next lot of goods. 
“How is this?” said the shop keeper. 
“Father is dead,’ said the boy. My 
friend, the shop keeper, said to me: “I 
could never forgive myself. I could not 
stay in the shop that day. I felt that ] 
was guilty of that man’s blood; but I 
had not thought of it before. How can 
I ever clear myself from the guilty fact 
that, when I did think of it, my ungra- 
cious timidity prevented me from open- 
ing my mouth?” My own dear friends 
and comrades, do not bring upon your- 
selves such cutting regrets! Avoid them 
by daily watching to save men from the 
second death.—Selected. 


—100 17> 
BRILLIANT BUT USELESS 


Sir Astley Cooper, on visiting Paris, 
was asked by the surgeon “en chef” of 
the empire how many times he had per- 
formed a certain wonderful feat of sur- 
gery. He replied that he had per- 
formed the operation thirteen times. 

“Ah, but, Monsieur, I have done him 
one hundred and sixty times.” 

“How many times did you save life?” 
continued the curious Frenchman, after 
he had looked into the bland amaze- 
ment of Sir Astley’s face. 

“I,” said the Englishman, “saved 
eleven out of the thirteen. How many 
did you save out of the one hundred 
and sixty?” 

“Ah, Monsieur, I lose dem all; but de 
operation was very brilliant.” 

Of how many popular ministries 
might the same verdict be given? 
Souls are not saved, but the preaching 
is very brilliant.—Spurgeon. 


494 


—1002— 
THE LORD HELPS 


A. poor weaver once lived in the httle 
German town of Wupperthal. He 
trusted in God at all times. “The Lord 
helps,” he was accustomed to say under 
all circumstances of trouble. One day, 
an account of depression, he was dis- 
charged. “The Lord helps,” he said. 
When his wife heard the sad news she 
bewailed it terribly. As the days went 
on poverty pinched them sorely. At last 
came the day when not a penny was left 
—no bread, no fuelin the house. Starva- 
tion stared them in the face. The 
window was open, and possibly the 
words which the weaver kept repeating, 
“The Lord helps,” were heard outside, 
for a street-boy looked saucily in and 
threw a dead raven at the feet of the 
weaver. “There, saint; there is some- 
thing for you to eat,” he said tauntingly. 

The weaver picked up the dead raven 
and said, “Poor creature. It must have 
died of hunger.” He felt of its crop to 
see if it were empty and noticed some- 
thing hard. Wishing to know what had 
caused the bird’s death he opened the 
gullet, when to his surprise a gold neck- 
lace fell into his hand. “The Lord 
helps,” cried the weaver. In haste he 
took the necklace to the nearest gold- 
smith and told him how he had found it. 
The goldsmith recognized it as one he 
had seen before. 


“Shall I tell you the owner?” he 
asked. 

“Yes. I would gladly return it.” 

The goldsmith said it belonged to the 
owner of the factory from which the 
weaver had been discharged. 


He took the necklace to his former 
employer. It was received with joy, for 
suspicion had fallen upon a servant. The 
merchant was ashamed and touched. He 
had not forgotten the words uttered by 
the poor man when he was discharged. 

“Yes,” he said. “The Lord helps. 
You shall not only go home richly re- 
warded, but you can return to work. 
You shall henceforth be no more m 
need.”—-H. L. Hastings. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


sang 4,57 a 
WHY HE COULD NOT SLEEP 


A young man in the State of Indiana, 
not long ago left home for a business 
epening in Ohio. There, a gentleman 
from his own native place found him, 
and was shocked to discover that he 
had become a profane swearer. Return- 
ing home he felt constrained to tell his 
pious parents of his awful degeneracy. . 
They said little, and, in doubt whether 
they had understood him, he called the 
next day and repeated the statement. 
The father calmly replied, “We under- 
stood you; my wife and I spent a sleep- 
less night on our knees pleading in be- 
half of our son; and about daybreak we 
received assurance from God that 
James will never swear again.” Two 
weeks after the son came home a 
changed man. “How long since this 
change took place?” asked his rejoic- 
ing parents. He replied that just a 
fortnight before he was struck with a 
sense of guilt so that he could not 
sleep, and spent the night in tears and 
prayers for pardon. Mark—there had 
been no time for any parental appeal, 
or even for a letter of remonstrance— 
while they were praying for him, God 
moved him to pray for himself.—Se- 
lected. 


—1004— 
“OF COURSE HE WILL” 


Mr. Moody gives the story of a little 
child whose father and mother had died, 
and she was taken into another family. 

The first night she asked if she coula 
pray, as she used to do. 

They said, “Oh, yes!” So she knelt 
down, and prayed as her mother taught 
her, and when that was ended she added 
a little prayer of her own: “Oh, God, 
make these people as kind to me as 
father and mother were.” Then she 
paused, and looked up, as if expecting 
an answer, and added, “Of course he 
wiil.” 

How sweetly simple was that little 
one’s faith; she expected God to “do,” 


and she got her request. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


eee OA ee 
THE LOWER LIGHTS 


“I don’t believe I’ll go to church to- 
day,” said Ruth one Sunday morning at 
the breakfast table. Somehow I don’t 
feel like it, and nobody will ever know 
the difference whether I’m there or not. 

“My dear,” said her aunt, “I’ve often 
heard you singing, ‘Let the lower lights 
be burning,’ I wonder if you know the 
story that suggested it?” 

“No,” answered Ruth, “I never so 
much as heard as there was one.” 

“Some year ago a steamer in a ter- 
rific gale was trying to make the har- 
bor of Cleveland, Ohio. There were two 
lights at the entrance of the harbor, 
one the upper light on the bluffs of the 
shore, the other the lower light on a 
bar at the other side of the entrance. 
The pilot peered out anxiously to catch 
‘a glimpse of the friendly lights, and 
presently caught sight of the upper one. 
But that alone was not sufficient, he 
must also see the other to know just 
where to go. But for some reason it 
was not lighted in time. 

“Beaten by wind and wave, the 
steamer staggered on as best she could, 
while the hearts of all on board trembled 
with fear. If she missed the entrance 
there was little hope of her escaping the 
rocks. Suddenly the lower light ap- 
peared, but; alas! it was too late—the 
steamer had missed the entrance, and in 
the attempt to turn about went down 
with all on board.” 

“TI suppose,” said Ruth, with a laugh, 
“you mean that even if I am the hum- 
blest member of the church, and sit in 
the very back seat, it’s my duty to be 
there in my place?” 

“If we are not each one of us faith- 
fully doing our duty, be it small or great, 
there is silence or discord when there 
might have been music. More than that, 
our lives are bound together—we must 
needs lift up those about us or drag them 
down. We are bidden to sow our seed 
at all times, for we know not ‘whether 
shall prosper this or that, or whether 
they both shall be alike good.’ The 


495 


cobbler, as I once heard a minister say, 
could not paint, but he could tell the 
artist of the figure in the picture that 
the shoe tie was not right, and so might 
help towards making it perfect.”——Zion’s 
Herald, 


— 1006 — 


NOT LEFT SHELTERLESS 


“The Christian Era” tells of a Dutch 
preacher who held a meeting one eve- 
ning in a strange city. When he was 
preaching, and enforcing upon the 
hearts of his hearers the doctrine of the 
Cross, a police officer came into the room 
and forbade him to go on. He even 
commanded him to leave the city. As 
he was a stranger in the place, and the 
night was dark, he wandered around the 
city gates. He was not, however, with- 
out consolation; for he remembered 
Him who said, “Lo, I am with you 
always. I will fear no evil, for thou art 
with me; thy rod and thy staff, they 
comfort me.” 


He had long been in the school of 
Christ, and had learned to watch for the 
slightest intimations of His will. While 
he was thus wandering around, suddenly 
he saw a light in the distance. “See,” 
he said to himself, “perhaps the Lord 
has provided mea shelter there,” and, in 
the simplicity of faith, he directed his 
steps thither. On arriving, he heard a 
voice in the house; and, as he drew 
nearer, he discovered that a man was 
praying. Joyful, he hoped that he had 
found here the home of a brother. He 
stood still for a moment, and heard these 
words, poured forth from en earnest 
heart: “Lord Jesus, one of thy perse- 
cuted servants may, perhaps, be wander- 
ing, at this moment, in a strange place 
of which he knows nothing. O, may he 
find my home, that he may receive here 
food and lodging.” 

The preacher having heard these 
words, glided into the house, as soon as 
the speaker said “Amen.” Both fell on 
their knees, and together thanked the 
Lord, who is a hearer of prayer, and who 
never leaves nor forsakes His servants 


496 


— 1007 — 
A PASSION FOR CHRIST 


Professor Tholuck was remarkably 
successful in turning wayward youth 
into right paths. He gives the following 
account of the growth of his passion for 
Christ, 


From the age of seventeen I have al- 
ways asked myself, “What is the chief 
end of man’s life?” I could never per- 
suade myself that the acquisition of 
knowledge was the end. Just then God 
brought me into contact with a vener- 
able saint who lived in fellowship with 
Christ, and from that time I have had 
but one passion, and that is Christ and 
Christ alone. Every one out of Christ 
I look upon as a fortress which I must 
storm and win. 

I was in my eighteenth year when the 
Lord gave me my first convert. He was 
an artillery officer, a Jew, a_ wild 
creature, without rest; but soon he be- 
came such a true follower of Christ that 
he put me to shame. And when I look 
back upon the thousands of youths 
whose hearts have opened up under my 
influence, I can only say the Lord hath 
done it. In working thus to save souls, 
my life has been one of joy rather than 
toil. Among the students are many 
frivolous, careless ones. I just now re- 
member one whom a mother laid on my 
heart, but who soon fell among com- 
panions who led him astray, so that he 
could be found at home only at six in 
the morning. More than once I have 
visited him at this hour, and also in 
prison, but all seemed in vain, till one 
day in the sermon I said: Ah, yes, we 
preachers should have hard work were 
it not that we have one in league with us 
in every heart, even the most careless, 
that says while we are preaching: “Well 
the preacher is right.” The next eve- 
ning I received a letter from him, in 
which he promised to give up evil and 
enter upon a new life. Alas! four or 
five days later a card came from him 
with only these words: “Tholuck is 
sighing, Tholuck is praying, but I am 
drinking like a brute.” Yet my labor 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


was not in vain, for he is now a noted 
preacher of the Gospel of Christ. And 
what a number of those who were once 
my students have risen up and can now 
say like myself: “I have one passion, 
and that is Christ and Christ alone!” 


— 1003 — 
HIS COMMUNION WITH GOD 


A missionary, some years ago, return- 
ing from South Africa, gave a discrip- 
tion of the work which had been accom- 
plished there through the preaching of 
the Gospel. Among other things, he pic- 
tured a little incident of which he had 
been an eye-witness. 

He said that one morning he saw a 
converted African chieftan sitting under 
a palm tree, with his Bible open before 
him. Every now and then he cast his 
eyes on his book and read a passage. 
Then he paused and looked up a little 
while, and his lips were seen to be in 
motion. Thus, he continued, alter- 
nately, to look down on the Scriptures 
and to turn his eyes upwards towards 
heaven. 

The missionary passed by without 
disturbing the good man, but after a 
a little while he mentioned to him what 
he had seen, and asked him why it was 
that sometimes he read and sometimes 
he looked up. 

This was the African’s reply: “I look 
down to the book, and God speaks to 
me. Then I look up in prayer, and I 
speak to the Lord., So we keep up, this 
way, a holy talk with each other.” 

As I read the account of this touching 
little scene, the words of Ps. xxvii:8, 
flashed over me. This picture is but a 
mirror to reflect the eighth verse of the 
twenty-seventh Psalm: “When Thou 
saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said 
unto Thee: Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” 
—The Watchword. 


— 1009 — 


THE NAME OF JESUS 


One of our missionaries some time 
ago knocked at one of the doors of a 
tenement house. The young woman 
who responded to the knock was asked 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


if there were any children in the family 
to come to Sunday school. Hearing this 
question the half drunken mother of 
the girl came to the door, her eyes had 
been blackened, evidently in some 
drunken quarrel, and her appearance 
was most wretched. In a threatening 
manner, and in a voice loud enough to 
be heard throughout the house she 
yelled, “Get out of here, you black 
Protestant, with your religion! You old 
Salvation Army, you!” Nothing fright- 
ened, the missionary stocd her ground 
calmly looking at the excited woman 
until the torrent of abuse had subsided 
somewhat, when she said, “I do not be- 
long to the Salvation Army, I belong to 
Jesus. Your Jesus is my Jesus.” 

At the mention of this name a change 
came over the woman instantly, and she 
said, “I believe in Jesus, and in the 
Blessed Virgin, too.” The visitor re- 
plied that she also believed that the 
mother of Jesus was a good woman, but 
that she needed a Saviour as well as 
we, and that Jesus was the Saviour. 

In apparent surprise the woman said 
“You believe in Jesus, do you? Well, 
you are the first Protestant that I have 
seen who believes in Jesus!” Then 
after a few more words from her caller 
the woman said “I believe you are doing 
a good work. The Lord bless you. 
Good bye.” The missionary handed the 
daughter a paper and bade them good 
bye, feeling that Jesus through his 
name had given her the victory, and she 
was resolved to call again.—Rev. Henry 
M. Tyndall. 


— 1010 — 


A WAY WHERE THERE’S A WILL 


The Rev. Mr. M. Swadener, who is at 
the head of the Church Extension Mis- 
sionary Society, in Cincinnati, Ohio, 
speaking of the first start he made in 
evangelistic work, said: 

“I worked in a Cooper shop and it 
was while there that I was converted. 
As nearly all know, the men about a 
cooper shop are often a very hard lot, 
and this shop was no exception to the 
rule. After I became a Christian I felt 


497 


a responsibility for these men and be- 
gan asking them to attend church, only 
to be flatly refused. 

“Finding that I was making no pro- 
gress whatever, and that my influence 
seemingly was having no weight with 
them, I asked them if they would attend 
a meeting at the cooper shop Sunday. 
They said they would if I would preach 
to them. I agreed, and the next Sunday 
I found there thirteen men, some lying 
in the shavings, some sitting on barrels, 
all more or less under the influence of 
liquor. At the close of the first service 
they asked me if I would not hold an- 
other the next Sunday. I agreed to if 
they would try to bring some one else 
in. Next Sunday we had seventeen; the 
next Sunday twenty. The number kept 
increasing, every Sunday. I felt the in- 
terest was growing. 

“One Sunday about this time, one of 
the men said, ‘This is too dirty a place 
to have church in. Why don’t we clean 
it up?’ I agreed to meet them on the 
next Saturday to clean up the dirty floor 
and put it in shape. A number met 
there for that purpose, and from that 
time the place was crowded. God won- 
derfully blessed the work; souls were 
saved through the instrumentality of the 
cooper shop services.” 

Mr. Swadener has been eminently suc- 
cessful as an evangelist, and the people 
in Cincinnati are fortunate in having 
him at the head of the city evangelistic 
work of the Methodist Church.—Union 
Gospel News. 


— 1011 — 


“THOU, GOD, SEEST ME” 


A father and his son went out together 
to steal corn. When they came to the 
field, the father climbed up on the fence, 
and looked carefully around that no eye 
might see him. He then began to fill his 
bag with corn. “Father,” said the boy, 
“there is one direction in which you did 
not look.” “Ah, my son,” replied the 
father, “and where is that?” “Oh, father 
you did not look up.” The man returned 
home with an empty bag and a stricken 
conscience. 


498 


— 1012 — 
WHAT A SONG DID 


The power of sacred song is strikingly 
exhibited by an incident of the Crimean 
war, told in a volume of Scotch anec- 
dotes. 

Duncan Matheson, a Bible reader to 
the soldiers of the Crimea, was return- 
ing one night to his lodgings in an old 
stable. Sickened by the sights he had 
seen, and depressed by the thought that 
the siege of Sebastopol was likely to 
last for months, he trudged along in the 
mud, knee-deep. ; 

Happening to look up he saw the stars 
shining calmly in the clear sky. Weari- 
ness gave place to the thought that in 
Heaven there is rest, and he began to 
sing aloud the old hymn: 

“How bright these glorious spirits 

shine! 

When all this bright array?” 

The next day was wet and stormy. 
While going his rounds Matheson came 
on a soldier standing on the veranda of 
an old house. The man was in soiled 
and ragged clothing, and his shoes were 
so worn that they did not keep his feet 
from the mud. The Bible reader drew 
him into conversation, cheered him by 
encouraging words, and gave him money 
to buy shoes. 

“T am not what I was yesterday,” 
answered the man, his heart opening to 
Matheson’s sympathy. Last night I was 
tired of life and this blundering siege. 
I took my musket and went down 
yonder, determined to blow out my 
brains. As I got round that hillock I 
heard some one singing ‘How bright 
those glorious spirits shine! It recalled 
to me the Sabbath school where I used 
to sing it, and the religious truths I 
heard there. 

“I felt ashamed of being such a cow- 
ard. I said to myself, ‘Here is a comrade 
as badly off as I am, but he is not a 
coward—he’s bearing it!’ I felt that that 
man had something which I did not pos- 
sess to make him accept with cheerful- 
ness our hard lot. I went back to my 
tent, and today I am seeking that thing 
which made the singer so happy.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“Do you know who the singer was?” 
asked Matheson. 

ed yf Pig 

“Well, I was the singer seeking com- 
fort and hope in the song you heard.” 

The tears came into the soldier’s eyes 
as he thrust the money back into Mathe- 
son’s hands, saying: “After what you’ve 
done for me, I can’t take this from 
you.” —Selected. 


— 1013 — 
THE PRICE TOO SMALL 


A number of young men were sitting 
together in a country store one evening, 
telling what they did not believe, and 
what they were not afraid to do. Finally 
the leader in the group remarked that 
so far as he was concerned, he would be 
willing at any time to sign away all his 
interest in Christ for a five dollar bill. 
“What did I understand you to say?” 
asked an old farmer, who happeried to be 
in the store, and who had overheard the 
remark. “I said that for five dollars I 
would sign away all my interest in 
Christ, and so I will.” 

The old farmer, who had learned to 
know the human heart pretty well, drew 
out his leather wallet, took therefrom a 
five-dollar bill, and put it in the store- 
keeper’s hand. Then calling for ink and 
paper, he said, “My young friend, if you 
will just step to the desk now, and write 
as I direct, the money is yours.” The 
young man took the pen and began: “In 
the presence of these witnesses, I, A— 
B—, for the sum of five dollars received, 
do now, once for all, and forever sign 
away all my interest—” then he dropped 
the pen, and with a forced smile said: 
I take it back, I was only fooling.” 

That young man did not dare to sign 
that paper. Why? He had an accusing 
conscience. He knew that there was a 
God. He believed in religion. He meant 
to be a Christian sometime. And so do 
you, reader. Notwithstanding your 
trifling conduct, your boasting speech, 
you would not today for ten thousand 
dollars sign away, if such a thing were 
possible, your interest in Jesus Christ. 
You do not desire or expect to lose 
heaven.—The Congregationalist. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


— 1014 — 
THE BOYS THAT GET AHEAD 


I knew an old man in Pennsylvania 
once, the head of a great manufacturing 
concern, who went to his foreman and 
asked him to recommend one of the boys 
for a superior position which was vacant. 
The foreman said that all the boys were 
good. “But there must be one better 
than the others,” said the employer. “It 
is now five o’clock; quitting time. Tell 
all the boys to work until six o’clock.” 

The ten boys went to work willingly 
enough, but as the clock pointed near 
six, the nine boys began to cast glances 
at it. The tenth boy was too busy to look 
at the clock, and he got the promotion. 
That boy now controls an establishment 
working thirty thousand men. 

Eighteen years ago there was a fifteen- 
year-old boy employed in carrying drink- 
ing water to the men in a steel works. He 
did his work so well, however, and al- 
ways had such cool water and was so 
diligent in looking after the men’s wants 
that he attracted the attention of the 
workmen, 

A little later an office boy was needed, 
and this boy was remembered and re- 
warded with the job. There he persued 
the same policy, and in five years a 
superintendent’s assistant was needed. 
He was given the place. A little later 
he became manager, then  superin- 
tendent, and now he is the president of 
the Carnegie Steel Company, employing 
sixty thousand men. That water boy 
is now President Cory. 

I know of another fifteen-year-old boy 
who was in a manual training school es- 
tablished by me at Homestead, Pa., 
fifteen years ago. One night after all the 
other boys had left one of the officials 
found him experimenting with an elec- 
tric machine, he gave all his spare time 
to this machine, and his perseverance 
attracted the attention of his teachers, 
and he was given an opportunity to go 
into the works with which the school 
was connected. There he persued the 
same policy of concentration. He be- 
came in time assistant manager. 

A few months ago I went to the works 


499 


and calling all the heads of the works to- 
gether I unfolded a great project and 
asked who was the man to be intrusted 
with it. To a man they all pointed to 
this former boy in the training school, 
and he was intrusted with the place, and 
is now making a name for himself by 
doing what he had to do a little better 
than the others. This man is A. L. 
Dinkey, now general superintendent of 
the Homestead Steels Works.—Charles 
M. Schwab. 


— 1015 — 


CONQUERED BY KINDNESS 


When Major Goodell took charge of 
the State Prison at Auburn, N. Y., he 
was told there was one particular con- 
vict who was such a desperate villain 
that he could not be kept in subjection 
except by the lash. The first time Major 
Goodell met this convict was in the yard 
of the prison. He spoke to him kindly, 
inquired of his situation, where he came 
from, and when he entered the prison, 
and whether he was comfortable. The 
major then told the convict what he 
had heard concerning the necessity of 
checking his iron and revengeful con- 
duct by the lash—how he had been in- 
formed that there was no other method 
of keeping him in awe. 

“Now,” said the Major, “I do not be- 
lieve this. I believe you can and will 
obey the rules of the prison, without 
incurring severe whipping. I am placed 
over this prison to keep you at work, 
and prevent you from escaping—to see 
that the punishment contemplated by 
the laws for crime, is executed. But I 
also wish to be your friend—to make 
you just as comfortable as your situa- 
tion will permit. In return, I expect 
that you will be a friend to me, by obey- 
ing the rules of the prison, and by per- 
forming your duty.” All this, and much 
more, spoken in kind tone and manner, 
softened the feelings of the convict so 
that he was soon in a perfect gush of 
tears. Nor was that all: from that day 
forward it was not necessary to strike 
him a blow, for there was not a more 
faithful convict in the prison.—Selected. 


500 


-— 1016 — 
BISHOP SIMPSON’S START 


/ Trained religiously, I had reached a 
young man’s years before making a 
public profession of religion. Prior to 
my conversion, thoughts of the ministry 
sometimes flashed across my mind; but 
it was only a flash. After my conversion, 
I was earnest for the welfare of others, 
and wanted to promote the interests of 
the church and of humanity. The con- 
viction grew upon me that I must 
preach; yet I tried to put that away, 
because I feared I could never succeed. 
I saw the greatness of the work, and 
the reproachful poverty then connected 
with the itinerant ministry. There were 
two special difficulties in the way. First, 
I had no gift of speech. My voice was 
poor, and in school I always shunned 
declamation. I firmly believed I could 
never make a speaker, and so chose the 
profession of medicine, which I studied 
three years in a professional school. 

I think I should have resolutely re- 
jected the idea of the ministry, except 
that it seemed inseparably connected 
with my salvation. I fasted, I prayed 
for Divine direction; but I found no rest 
until reading in the Bible one day, I 
found a passage which seemed especially 
written for me: “Trust in the Lord with 
all thine heart; and lean not unto thine 
own understanding. In all thy ways ac- 
knowledge Him, and He shall direct thy 
paths.” I accepted it, and resolved to do 
whatever God in his providence should 
indicate by opening the way. I never 
lisped to a friend the slightest intimation 
of my mental agony, but I took a more 
earnest part in the church services. 

One Sabbath I felt a strong impres- 
sion that I ought to speak to the people 
at night in the prayer meeting, as we 
had no preaching. I said to myself: 
“How shall I? for my friends will say I 
am foolish, as they know I cannot speak 
with interest.” Especially I dreaded an 
old uncle, who had been a father to me, 
and superintended my education. While 
I was discussing this matter with my- 
self in the afternoon, my uncle came into 
the room, and, after a moment’s hesita- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


tion, said to me: “Don’t you think you 
could speak to the people tonight?” I 
was surprised and startled. I asked him 
if he thought I ought. He said: “Yes; 
I think you can do good.” 

That night, for some strange reason, 
the house was crowded, and I made my 
first religious address to a public comgre- 
gation. It was not written. It was not 
very well premeditated. It was simply 
an outgushing of an honest heart, 

My mother was a widow. I was her 
eldest son, the only child remaining at 
home. I feared it would break her heart 
to leave her, and feared it would be im- 
possible to do so. One day, after great 
embarrassment, I was induced to speak 
to my mother on the subject of my men- 
tal struggles, and tell her what I thought 
God required of me. I never shall forget 
how she turned to me with a smile, and 
said: “My son, I have been looking for 
this hour ever since you were born!” 
She then told me how she and my dying 
father, who left me an infant, conse- 
crated me to God, and prayed that, if it 
were His will, I might become a minis- 
ter; and yet that mother had never 
dropped a word of intimation in my ear 
that she ever desired me to be a 
preacher. She believed so fully in the 
Divine call, that she would not bias my 
mind with even a suggestion of it in 
prayer. 

That conversation settled my mind. 
Oh, what a blessing is a sainted mother! 
Today I can feel her hands on my head, 
and I hear the intonation of her voice in 
prayer.—Bishop Simpson. 


— 1017 — 


“IT TAKES TWO” 


A lad of seventeen, the apprentice of 
a carpenter, had been sent to a saloon 
to take the measures for a new counter. 
It was very cold weather, and he arrived 
shaking with cold, for his coat was thin. 
The saloon keeper immediately mixed a 
hot drink, and pushed it over the coun- 
ter to him. “It will cost you nothing,” 
he said. Drink it down, and you'll soon 
stop shivering, my boy.” “He meant it 
kindly, too, and didn’t think any harm,” 
said the apprentice as he told the story. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“That’s what made it harder to push 
back; and I didn’t want it.” It must 
have been a big temptation,” said his 
friend. “Well,” replied the lad, “it 
takes two to make a temptation. There 
is no saloon keeper and no cold weather 
can make me drink when I don’t want 
to. The temptation I’m afraid of is the 
one that I’m ready for before it comes, 
by hankering after it. I don’t take much 
credit to myself for refusing that drink 
and, if I had taken it, why I wouldn’t 
put all the blame on the saloon keeper, 
as some folks do. It takes two every 
time to make a successful temptation.” 
—Selected, 


— 1018 — 
WON BY THE BOOK 


A colporteur went thirty miles to sell 
his books at an Indian festival, swim- 
ming a river in flood, and narrowly 
escaped with his life. All the sale was 
one solitary Gospel! He carried home 
the rest of his stock, and a heavy heart 
with his heavy bag. But next year 
when he came again, a man accosted 
him: “Last year you sold me a Gospel. 
A living man, a sinning man, has been 
brought into contact with the Word and 
Spirit of God! That is something worth 
while. But there is more. My brother 
and I have been reading it.” Once more 
Andrew had found Peter, and both of 
them had found the Lord. The colpor- 
teur went home with the man, thirty 
miles away, where he found not only the 
two brothers, but three or four families 
ready to accept Christianity. Soon af- 
terwards, sixteen persons were baptized 
in that village. The Bible colporteur 
may well learn to “trust God with his 
failures.”—-Selected. 


— 1019 — 


GEN. HARRISON AND WINE 


A Pennsylvania lady tells that when 
General Harrison was running for the 
Presidency, he stopped at the old Wash- 
ington House in Chester, for dinner. 
After dinner was served, it. was noticed 
that the General pledged his toast in 
water, and one gentleman from New 


501 


York, in offering another, said, “Gen- 
eral, will you not favor me by drinking 
a glass of wine?” The General refused 
in a very gentlemanly manner. Again 
he was urged to join in a glass of wine. 
This was too much. He rose from, the 
table, his tall form erect, and in the most 
dignified manner replied: 

“Gentlemen, I have refused twice to 
partake of the wine-cup. That should 
have been sufficient. Though you press 
the cup to my lips, not a drop shall pass 
the portals. I made a resolve when I 
started in life that I would avoid strong 
drink, and I have never broken it. I 
am one of a class of seventeen young 
men who graduated, and the other six- 
teen fill drunkards’ graves—all through 
the pernicious habit of wine drinking. 
I owe all my health, happiness and pros- 
perity to that resolution. Will you urge 
me now?” 


— 1020— 


YOU CAN IF YOU WILL 

A young man of high position in Lon- 

don, after his conversion realized that 
he ought to do some Christian work. 
He truly wished to help his fellow-men 
to Christ; but the difficulty was to think 
of something he could do, for his train- 
ing had not included experience in or 
even knowledge of religious enterprises. 
He had no gift for personal appeal, and 
felt himself too young a learner in 
Christ’s school to attempt to teach 
others. 
But the eyes which are eagerly 
searching for chances to save souls God 
soon guides to success. You could 
never guess what he undertook. He 
took the place of a cab-driver, night 
after night on his round, so that the man 
might go to Moody’s meetings. A. young 
English gentleman could drive. That 
was a talent; and thus he put it out at 
usury. 

You will not altogether wonder— 
though it was a vast result and not to 
have been expected, great as is the usual 
result from our poor effects—that the 
cabman sought the Saviour and felt that 
he found him during those meetings. — 
Selected. 


502 


-— 1021 — 
THE KING AND THE THIEF 


Among the Hindus a remarkable tra- 
dition is preserved, which a missionary 
correspondent describes in a_ recent 
letter. A thief, upon whom sentence of 
death had been passed, suddenly 
thought, while in his cell, of a plan by 
which he might save his life. He sent 
for his jailer and told him that he had 
a secret to impart to the king, by which 
his royal master might become pos- 
sessed of enormous wealth, but.that he 
would only impart it in a personal inter- 
view with him. Word was taken to the 
king who ordered the condemned thicf 
to be brought before him. After many 
salaams and prostrations, the man in- 
formed his majesty that he knew the 
secret of making gold grow on a tree in 
the same way as fruit, and offered to 
make the experiment at once. 

The king was naturally anxious to 
profit by the man’s knowledge, and plac- 
ing himself under his directions, he, ac- 
companied by his chief minister, the 
high priest, and a few of the most fa- 
vored courtiers, went with the thief to a 
place outside the city wall. The thief 
selected a spot, and, taking a gold coin 
from among his rags, said: “If this be 
sown in the ground at this spot, then it 
will bring forth a tree upon the branches 
of which there shall hang clusters of 
gold coins as thick as the clusters of 
grapes upon a vine, but there is one es- 
sential condition: it must be planted by 
the hand of a man who has never been 
guilty of a single dishonest action. My 
hands are not clean, so I pass the coin 
to his majesty, the king.” 

The king then took the coin, and held 
it nervously in his fingers for a few sec- 
onds; then, as he passed it to his chief 
minister he said, “I remember when I 
was young I took a small sum from my 
father’s treasury, and therefore I think 
the chief minister should plant it.” The 
minister, with words of caution, said 
“Your majesty, I should not like this 
most enterprising experiment to be ex- 
posed to the possibility of failure 
through any oversight on my part; and 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


as I receive the taxes from the people, 
and am subjected to so many tempta- 
tions, it is just possible that my hands 
are not altogether clean; so, with your 
royal permission, I shall pass it to the 
commander-in-chief of the army.” But 
the general would have nothing to do 
with it, with military brusqueness he 
said, “No, no; I handle the army money, 
buy the rations, and pay the forces; give 
it to the high priest.” Even the priest 
was not prepared to take the responsi- 
bility, and said, “You forget that I col- 
lect the tithes and allot the sacrifices; I 
cannot take it.” 

Then quickly out spoke the thief, 
“Your majesty, why hang me as a thief, 
when of the four highest men in the 
kingdom, not one will answer to his own 
honesty?” The king saw the force of 
the argument, and pardoned the thief. 

This, of course, is but a story, but it 
bears a strong moral. All have sinned 
and some short of the law of God; we 
have broken God’s law, and not one can 
say to his brother, “I am better than 
you,” for all are under condemnation; 
but behold what good news is brought 
unto us. There is one righeous One, 
and the fruit of his righteousness is 
the wealth of salvation to all who be- 
lieve.—Selected, 


— 1022 — 
CAST ALL UPON CHRIST 


A man carrying a burden was over- 
taken by a rich man who was driving 
along and invited to get up behind him 
in the carriage which he thankfully did. 
After awhile the rich man looked around 
and saw the burden still strapped to the 
traveller’s back; he therefore asked him 
why he did not lay down his pack on the 
seat behind him. But he answered that 
he could not think of doing that; it was 
quite enough that he himself should be 
allowed to sit behind in the carriage 
without putting his burdon on the seat 
also. Thus often do believers fear to 
lay too much on the Lord who has bid- 
den us “cast all our care upon him,” and 
assures us that “he careth for us.” He 
who carries us will carry our burden 
also.”-—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


S102F oo 
YOUR FATHER KNOWETH. 


- A Christian business man, residing 
in the city of Syracuse, N. Y., during the 
course of a crowded day came into pos- 
session of a sum of thirty dollars under 
such circumstances that at evening pray- 
ers he felt impelled to ask God if the 
money had been placed in his hands for 
some special purpose in harmony with 
his will; in which case he desired di- 
rection in its use. Instantly came the 
answer, “Send it to D .’ The per- 
son indicated was a missionary worker 
among the Zulus in South Africa, who 
months before had been a guest in his 
home. 

Accordingly, on the following morn- 
ing, a draft was secured and the money 
was forwarded. Accompanying the draft 
was a note from a gentleman stating 
the circumstances under which the mon- 
ey was sent, and asking whether, on the 
day in question, any particular neces- 
sity had arisen on the field which would 
explain the evident direction of the 
Holy Spirit. 

In due time came a reply stating that, 
on a given day, a native woman, the 
cast-off wife of a cruel chief, had come 
to the mission house in a pitiful condi- 
tion begging to be taken in and cared 
for, and eagerly questioning concerning 
the Way of Life. The missionary was 
perplexed, as there were no means ap- 
parent whereby another mouth could 
be fed. However, he and his wife re- 
sorted to prayer, arising from their 
knees with a marked sense of divine 
blessing and the assurance that He 
would provide the thirty dollars neces- 
sary for the woman’s support for a year. 

God had made provision for supply- 
ing the need which had arisen in Africa, 
through one of his children thousands 
of miles away in America.—Missionary 
News. 





— 1024 — 
LEE’S GREATNESS 


General Lee, the leader of the Lost 
Cause in the Civil War of 1861-5, was 
one of the world’s true heroes. On the 


503 


battlefield by common consent he ranks 
as one of the foremost soldiers of the 
ages. Those who fought against him as 
well as those who fought under him, are 
one in this verdict of praise. But his 
character as a Christian man was equally 
strong and beautiful. When he offered 
his sword to Grant at Appomatox, he 
was poor indeed. Like his Lord while 
on earth, he had not where to lay his 
head. And his people who would gladly 
have shared their all with him, were also 
in the depths of poverty. Just then Satan 
sought to slay him. The Louisiana Lot- 
tery offered him ten thousand dollars a 
year for the use of his name. His answer, 
which should be known and cherished by 
all men, was, “My name is all that I have 
left, and that is not for sale.”—Rev. M. 
M. Davis. 


—— 1025 — 


THE BISHOP’S PRESCRIPTION 


A noted physician, and infidel, said to 
Bishop Kavanagh: “I am surprised that 
such an intelligent man as you should 
believe such an old fable as Christian- 
ity.’ 

The Bishop said, “Suppose years ago 
some one had given you a prescription 
for pulmonary consumption, and you 
had taken it, and had been cured of the 
terrible disease. Suppose you had used 
that prescription in your practice ever 
since, and never known it to fail; what 
would you say of the man who could 
not believe in your prescription?” 

“Tf should say he was a fool,” replied 
the infidel. 

“Twenty-five years ago,” replied the 
Bishop, “I tried the power of God’s 
grace. It made a different man of me. 
All these years I have preached salva- 
tion to others, and never known it to 
fail, I have seen it make the proud man 
humble, the drunken man temperate, the 
profane man pure in speech, the dis- 
honest man true. Rich and poor, learned 
and unlearned, old and young, have alike 
been healed of their diseases.” 

“Vou’ve caught me fairly, Bishop. I 
have been a fool,” was the admission of 
the skeptic.—Selected. 


504 


— 1026 — 


THE DEVIL DEFEATED 


During the great revival of religion 
in America, which took place under 
Mr. Whitefield, and others distinguish- 
ed for their piety and zeal at that 
period, Mr. Tennant was laboriously 
active, and much engaged to help for- 
ward the work; in the performance of 
which he met with strong and powerful 
temptations. The following is from his 
own lips: 

On the evening preceding » public 
worship, he selected a subject for the 
discourse intended to be delivered, and 
made some progress in his preparations. 
In the morning he resumed the same 
subject, with an intention to extend his 
thoughts further on it; but was pres- 
ently assaulted with a temptation that 
the Bible was not of Divine authority, 
but the invention of man. He instantly 
endeavored to repel the temptation by 
prayer, but his endeavors proved un- 
availing. The temptation continued, 
and fastened upon him with greater 
strength as the time advanced for pub- 
lic service. He lost all the thoughts 
which he had prepared on the preceding 
evening. He tried other subjects, but 
could get nothing for the people. The 
whole book of God, under that distress- 
ing state of mind, was a sealed book to 
him; and, to add to his afflictions, he 
was “shut up in prayer”; a cloud, dark 
as that of Egypt, oppressed his mind. 


Thus agonized in spirit, he proceeded 
to the church, where he found a large 
congregation assembled, and waiting to 
hear the word; and then he was more 
deeply distressed than ever; and especi- 
ally for the dishonor which he feared 
would fall upon religion through him 
that day. He resolved, however, to 
attempt the service. He introduced it 
by singing a psalm, during which time 
his agitation increased to the highest 
degree. When the moment for prayer 
commenced, he arose, as one in the most 
perilous situation, and with arms ex- 
tended to heaven, began with this ex- 
clamation: “Lord, have mercy upon 


TLLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


me!” On the utterance of this petition 
he was heard; the thick cloud instantly 
broke away; and the light shone upon 
his soul. The result was a deep sol- 
emnity throughout the congregation; 
and the house, at the end of the prayer, 
was a place of weeping. He delivered 
the subject of his evening meditations, 
which was brought to his full remem- 
brance, with an overflowing abundance 
of other weighty and solemn matter. 
The Lord blessed this discourse, so that 
it proved the happy means of the con- 
version of about thirty persons. This 
day he ever afterwards spoke of as his 
“harvest-day.”—Selected. 


— 1027 — 


A CHILD’S PREVAILING PRAYER 


At the close of a prayer meeting, the 
pastor observed a little girl about twelve 
years of age, remaining upon her knees, 
when most of the congregation had re- 
tired. Thinking the child had fallen 
asleep, he touched her, and told her it 
was time to return home. To his sur- 
prise he found that she was engaged in 
prayer, and he said: “All things what- 
soever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, 
ye shall receive.” She looked at her 
pastor, earnestly and inquired: “Is it so? 
Does God say that?” He took up a 
Bible, and read the passage aloud. She 
immediately commenced praying: “Lord, 
send my father to the church.” Thus 
she continued for about half an hour, at- 
tracting by her earnest cry the attention 
of persons who had lingered about the 
door. At last a man rushed into the 
church, ran up the aisle, and sank upon 
his knees by the side of the child ex- 
claiming: “What do you want of me?” 
She threw her arms about his neck, and 
began to pray: “O Lord, convert my 
father!” Soon the man’s heart was 
melted, and he began to pray for himself. 
The child’s father was three miles from 
the church when she began praying for 
him. He was packing goods in a wagon 
and felt impressed with an irresistable 
impulse to return home. Driving rapidly 
to his house, he left the goods in the 
wagon, and hastened to the church, 


~~ 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


where he found his daughter crying 
mightily to God in his behalf; and he 
was there led to the Saviour.—Selected. 


— 1023 — 


CHEAP YET NOT CHEAP 


A preacher of the gospel had gone 
down in a coal mine during the noon 
hour, to tell the miners of that grace 
and truth which came by Jesus Christ. 
After telling them the simple story of 
God’s love to lost sinners—man’s state 
and God’s remedy—a full and free sal- 
vation offered—the time came for the 
men to resume work and the preacher 
came back to the shaft to ascend to the 
world again. Meeting the foreman, he 
asked him what he thought of God’s 
way of salvation. The man replied: 

“Oh, it is too cheap. I cannot believe 
in such a gospel as that.” 

Without an immediate answer to this 
remark, the preacher asked: “How do 
you get out of this place?” 

“Simply by getting into the cage,” 
was the reply. 

“And does it take long to get to the 
top?” 

“Oh, no; only a few seconds.” 

“Well, that is very easy and simple; 
but do you not need to help raise your- 
self?” said the preacher. 

“Of course not,’ replied the miner. 
“As I have said, you have nothing to 
do but get into the cage.” 

“But how about the people who sunk 
the shaft, and perfected all this arrange- 
ment? Was there much labor or ex- 
pense about it?” 

“Indeed, yes; that was a laborious and 
expensive work, The shaft is eighteen 
hundred feet deep, and it was sunk at a 
great cost to the proprietor; but it is our 
only way out, and without it we would 
never be able to get to the surface. 

“Just so. And when God’s word tells 
you that whosoever believeth in the Son 
of God hath everlasting life, you at once 
say, “Too cheap! too cheap! forgetting 
that God’s work to bring you and others 
out of the pit of destruction and death 


505 


was accomplished at a vast cost, the 
price being the death of his own Son.”— 
Selected. 


—- 1029 — 


HOW THE 25 CENTS CAME 


The Rev. Geo. C. Cromer, of Louis- 
ville, Ky., who for fifteen years has 
conducted a non-sectarian home for 
orphaned children, supported entirely 
by voluntary offerings, tells in his little 
paper “The Helper,” for June 1920, how 
25 cents much needed came in answer 
to prayer. 

“Early one Sunday morning we called 
our good house physician to see one of 
our babes who was real sick. 

He wrote a prescription costing 35 
cents, saying that we must get it filled 
that morning. 

“All right,” we said to the doctor, 
though we knew that we had only ten 
cents in the world. (We always pay 
cash at the stores.) 

Soon as he had departed we came to 
the Lord in a special prayer for twenty- 
five cents, just as earnestly as though 
we needed many dollars, and asked Him 
to forgive our sins, to have mercy on 
the sick child and send us twenty-five 
cents at once. 

We never doubted in our hearts God’s 
willingness or ability to answer the 
prayer. The fact that mail is never de- 
livered on a Sunday morning did not 
discourage our faith. 

Soon as the prayer was over I started 
to get ready to go to the drug store. 
By the time I was ready, the door bell 
rang. A lady and little boy were there 
and asked to see the babies (this never 
happened early on a Sunday morning 
before or since). 

As they went up stairs to see the 
babies the boy dropped a quarter in our 
free-will offering box by the banisters, 
sure as you are alive! 

All the infidels in the world could not 
weaken our faith in the efficacy in 
prayer. 

That kind of deliverance has come to 
us so many times in these 15 years. How 
could we doubt the Lord?” 


506 , 


— 1030 — 


WHERE HEAVEN IS 


A minister one Sunday preached a ser- 
mon upon Heaven. Next morning he 
was going to town and met one of his 
older wealthy members. The brother 
stopped the preacher and said: 

“Pastor, you preached a good sermon 
on Heaven; but you didn’t tell me where 
Heaven is.” 

“Ah,” said the preacher, “I am glad 
of the opportunity this morning. I have 
just returned from the hilltop up yonder. 
In that cottage there is a member of our 
church. She is sick in bed with a “fever, 
her two little children are sick in the 
other bed, and she has not a bit of coal, 
nor a stick of wood, nor flour, nor meat, 
nor any bread. If you will go down and 
buy a sovereign’s worth of things—nice 
provisions—send them’ up to her, and 
then go there and say, ‘My sister, I 
have brought these provisions in the 
name of the Lord and Saviour,’ then ask 
for a Bible and read the 23rd Psalm, and 
then go down on your knees and pray— 
and if you don’t see heaven before you 
get through, Til pay the bill.” 

The next morning the man said: 
“Pastor, I saw Heaven and spent fifteen 
minutes in Heaven as certain as you are 
listening.” —Selected. 


— 1031 — 


“THEY ARE NOT STRANGERS” 


Not long ago I stood by the deathbed 
of a little girl, From her birth she had 
been afraid of death. Every fiber of her 
body and soul recoiled from the thought 


of it. “Don’t let me die,” she said; 
“don’t let me die. Hold me fast. Oh, 
I can’t go!” 


“Jennie,” I said, “you have two little 
brothers in the other world, and there 
are thousands of tender-hearted people 
over there who will love you and take 
care of you.” 

But she cried out again despairingly, 
“Don’t let me go; they are strangers 
over there.” She was a little country 
girl, strong limbed, fleet of foot, tanned 
in the face; she was raised on the fron- 
tier, the fields were her home. In vain 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


we tried to reconcile her to the death 
that was inevitable. ‘Hold me fast,” 
she cried; “don’t let me go.” But even 
as she was pleading, her little hands 
relaxed their clinging hold from my 
waist, and lifted themselves eagerly 
aloft; lifted themselves with such strain- 
ing effort that they lifted the wasted 
little body from its reclining position 
among the pillows. Her face was turned 
upward, but it was her eyes that told 
the story. 

They were filled with light of Divine 
recognition. They saw something plainly 
that we could not see; and they grew 
brighter and brighter, and her little 
hand quivered in eagerness to go, where 
strange portals had opened upon her as- 
tonished vision. But even in that su- 
preme moment she did not forget to 
leave a word of comfort for those who 
would gladly have died in her place: 

“Mama,” she was saying, “mama, they 
are not strangers. I’m not afraid.” 

And every instant the light burned 
more gloriously in her blue eyes, till at 
last it seemed as if her soul leaped 
forth upon its radiant waves; and in 
that moment her trembling form re- 
lapsed among its pillows, and she was 
gone.—Selected. 


— 1032 — 


SOWING AND REAPING 


Two Scotchmen emigrated in the early 
days to California. Each thought to take 
with him some memorial of his beloved 
country. The one of them, an enthusias- 
tic lover of Scotland, took with him a 
thistle, the national emblem. The other 
took a small swarm of honey bees. Years 
have passed away. The Pacific Coast is, 
on the one hand, cursed with the Scotch 
thistle, which the farmers find impos- 
sible to exterminate; on the other hand 
the forests and fields are fragrant and 
laden with the sweetness of honey which 
is one of the blessings of the western 
slope of the Rocky Mountains. Even so 
does every Christian carry with him 
some sort of thistle plucked from the old 
man, or honey from the new man, with 
which to bless or curse men, according 
as he makes choice for God.—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 1033 — 
A MODERN GIDEON’S FLEECE 


God often honors a faith-filled prayer 
for a sign of his will. Gideon asked for 
two, and we have the same God as he 
had. A Christian mother in a New 
York town was sick unto death. She 
knew that to die was gain, but she 
wished, if it were God’s will, to live for 
the sake of her children. After long and 
earnest prayer that God would spare her 
life for this purpose, she turned to the 
Word of God, and asked God if he would 
not give her a sign that he had answered, 
Her eye fell upon the words, “Ye are 
of more value than many sparrows” 
(Luke 12:7), and after thanking God 
for that word of comfort, which she 
interpreted to mean that her life was 
precious for a longer time on earth, she 
asked for a confirmation of that con- 
viction, Then turning her head upon 
the pillow of her sick bed, she saw just 
outside her window a sparrow. “Beauti- 
ful; wonderful!” she cried and a moment 
or two later a flock of sparrows fluttered 
about her window, as if the Lord were 
saying, “These are the many sparrows 
that you were just reading about!”. And 
as the Spirit of God clothed himself 
with Gideon and wrought a miracle, so 
did he with this sign-asking and sign- 
believing Christian mother, who recov- 
ered from her illness, led one of her older 


children to Christ, and had her whole 


life filled anew with fruitful service. 
—The Sunday School Times. 


—— 1034 = 


JENNY LIND’S REPLY 

The Swedish Nightingale, Tenny Lind, 
won great success as an operatic singer, 
and money poured into her purse. Yet 
she left the stage when singing her best 
and never went back to it. She ignored 
the applause of thousands, but she was 
content to live in privacy. 

Once an English friend found her 
sitting on the steps of a bathing machine 
on the sea sands, with a Lutheran Bible 
on her knee, looking out into the glory 
of a sunset. They talked and the con- 
versation drew near to the inevitable 
question, “O, Madame Goidschmidt, 


507 


how is it that you ever came to abandon 
the Fg te at the very height of your suc- 
cess!” 

“When, every day,” was the quiet an- 
swer, “it made me think less of this (lay- 
ing a finger on the Bible) and nothing 
at all of that (pointing to the sunset), 
what else could I do?” 


— 1035 — 
A MOONSHINER’S CONVERSION 


A little girl who lived on the slope 
of a great smoky mountain was trudg- 
ing home with a Bible which her Sun- 
day School teacher had given her. She 
was afraid to take it home for fear her 
grandfather would not let her keep it, 
for he was a rough, wicked man. ‘She 
kneeled down by the side of the road 
and prayed: “Dear God, please make 
grandpa to love the Bible and be a good 
man, and let me keep it. And bless the 
little girl up North, for Jesus’ sake, 
Amen,” The Bible had been given by 
a little girl in the North. 

She showed it to her mother who said: 
“My child, I am glad you have some- 
thing to make you happy.” When she 
showed it to her grandfather he said, 
“You may keep it, but you need not read 
it out loud.” | 

A picture card dropped from the Bible 
as the little girl was putting it away. 
Her grandfather picked it up and read, 
“The Lord is my Shepherd.” He had 
heard that text years before the war and 
it made a deep impression on his mind. 

He was what is called a “moonshiner,” 
because he made and sold liquor con- 
trary to the law. That night he quietly 
took the Bible and opened it and read 
these words. “Woe to him that giveth 
his neighbor drink.” He hastily closed 
the book and went to his troubled sleep. 
He kept continually thinking, “Woe to 
him that giveth his neighbor drink.” 

It had such an effect upon his mind 
that the old man went and searched more 
in the Scriptures. One Sunday a few 
weeks later he was seen kneeling in 
prayer penitent and happy. The Word 
of God had such power over his mind 
that it brought him to repentance and 
to Christ-—Sent of God. 


508 


— 1036 — 
“A DEEP SPIRITUAL CONCERN 
FOR YOUR SOUL.” 


In a small country town there was an 
infidel blacksmith, He was a hard- 
headed, well-read man, strong in argu- 
ment. An old deacon in the town be- 
came deeply interested in this infidel 
blacksmith and determined to lead him 
to Christ. He studied up as best he 
could all the infidel arguments and the 
answers to them. When he thought 
he had all the infidel arguments and an- 
swers at his fingers’ ends, he called on 
the blacksmith and engaged hii in con- 
versation, but the blacksmith was far 
more than a match for him in argu- 
ment and in a few moments had fought 
the old deacon to a standstill. The old 
deacon knew that he was right, but he 
could not prove it to the blacksmith. 
He burst into tears and said, “Well, I 
cannot argue with you, but I simply 
want to say, I have a deep spiritual con- 
cern for your soul,” and then left the 
shop. 


The deacon made his way home and 
went in to his wife and said, “I am 
only a botch on God’s work. God 
knows I am sincere and that I really do 
desire the salvation of the blacksmith, 
but I could not meet him in argument. 
He laid me out cold in five minutes.” 
Then the deacon went into his own 
room by himself and knelt down. “Oh, 
God,” he cried, “I am only a botch on 
Thy work. Thou knowest that I sin- 
cerely desired to lead the blacksmith to 
Thee, but I could not talk with him. 
Oh, God, I am only a botch on Thy 
work.” 


But soon after the deacon had left the 
blacksmith shop, the blacksmith went 
into the house and said to his wife, 
“Deacon — brought up an argument 
to-day that I never heard before. He 
said he had a deep spiritual concern for 
my soul, What did he mean?” His 
wife was a canny woman and said, “You 
had better go and ask him.” The black- 
smith hung up his apron and went cross 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


lots to the deacon’s homé. Just as he 
stepped on the front porch, through the 
open window he heard the deacon’s 
prayer, “Oh, God, I am only a botch on 
Thy work. Thou knowest that I sin- 
cerely desired to lead the blacksmith 
to Thee, but I could not talk with him. 
Oh, God, I am only a botch on Thy 
work.” He pushed the door open and 
went into the room where the deacon 
was kneeling and said, “Deacon, you are 
no botch on God’s work. I thought I 
knew all the arguments for Christianity 
and could answer them, but you brought 
up an argument I never heard before. 
You said you had a deep spiritual con- 
cern for my soul. Won’t you pray for 
me?” and the blacksmith broke down 
and accepted Christ. Real earnestness 
and love succeed where all argument 
fails.—Selected. 


—~ 1037 — 
HOW BILLY SUNDAY WAS WON 


Billy Sunday’s revival campaigns 
have resulted in thousands of conver- 
sions in nearly every place where he 
has worked. They have also cleaned 
up the town. It is therefore interesting 
to know what influences were respon- 
sible for his career: 


He was to speak to a conference of 
ministers in Ohio, and at the hotel he 
was introduced to Dr. Homer Stuntz, 
former missonary to the Philippines. 

Billy Sunday jumped up like a rub- 
ber ball and exclaimed: “What, are you 
Homer Stuntz, of Nevada, Iowa?” 

“Yes,” was the reply, “I am the same 
man.” 

“I am mighty glad to see you, for 
you are the one who started me in the 
right direction.” 

Billy Sunday was placed in the or- 
phanage when he was a boy. He was 
taken out of the institution by a rich 
stock raiser by the name of Bill Scott. 
Dr. Stuntz was then a law student liv- 
ing in Nevada. One evening he came 
across the boy when he was standing 
under a street-lamp, swearing like a 
young pirate. Dr, Stuntz approached 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


and began jollying him, which made the 
boy swear all the more. He then in- 
vited the boy to join his Sunday school 
class, and, after repeated invitations, 
succeeded in getting him to come. 

Dr. Stuntz says, however, that young 
Billy was bullheaded, irreverent, and 
belligerent, the worst boy in the class. 
He was constantly asking questions 
that nobody could answer, but in it all 
he revealed unusual intelligence. Dur- 
ing this time Dr. Stuntz talked about 
going to college. The result was that 
Sunday spent four years at Northwest- 
ern University, and says that Dr. Stuntz 
was the man who started him in that 
direction. 

Afterwards young Sunday joined a 
professional baseball team at Marshall- 
town, and as he was about to leave, Dr. 
Stuntz gave him a Testament. That 
was the last he saw of Billy Sunday for 
twenty years. 

In the address to the conference later 
in the day on “Why Some Ministers 
Fail,” Billy Sunday told the story of 
meeting Dr. Stuntz and used it as an il- 
lustration, adding the remark, “That 
man had the goods, he didn’t fail.”— 
Evangel. 


— 1038 — 
A STORY OF SHEAVES 


The Bishop of London told a beau- 
tiful story in one of his mission ser- 
mons: 

“All the children were coming up 
with their sheaves to be let into the 
great Harvest Home. An angel was 
standing at the door, and one of the 
children had no sheaves at all. The 
angel said no one could come in with- 
out sheaves. 

“Then the other children, one by 
one, began to plead for this child. ‘Let 
him in,’ said one; ‘do let him in, dear 
angel. He had several sheaves earlier 
in the day, but I was tired and he gave 
me one of his sheaves; one of these be- 
longs to him.’ Another said: ‘Do let 
him in, dear angel. I was thirsty as 
I passed along, and he went and filled 


509 


me a cup of cold water to refresh me.’ 
One said this, and another said that. 

“Finally the angel stretched his arm 
round the door and took out a bundle 
of sheaves. ‘There are his sheaves,’ 
he said. ‘Yes, I know all about it; he 
thought of others more than of him- 
self” And turning to the child, he 
said: ‘Lead the way in’”’=-The Chris- 
tian Intelligencer. 

25,1039 
JOSEPHUS ON CHRIST 


Josephus (Flavius), historian of the 
Jews, was born at Jerusalem, in 37 or 38 
A.D. In his book, “Ancient Relics of 
the Jews,” he says: “Now there was 
about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if 
it be lawful to call Him a man, for He 
was a doer of wonderful works, a 
Teacher of such men as received the 
truth with pleasure. He drew over to 
Him, both many of the Jews and many 
of the Gentiles. He was (the) Christ. 
And when Pilate, at the suggestion of 
the principal men among us, had con- 
demned him to the cross, those that 
loved Him, at the first, did not forsake 
Him; for He appeared unto them a- 
live again the third day; as the divine 
prophets had foretold these and ten 
thousand other wonderful things con- 
cerning Him. And the tribe of Chris- 
tians so named from Him, are not ex- 
tinct at this day.” 


— 1040 — 
AN UNPROFITABLE ENGINE. 


A man who was visiting a railroad 
yard, saw a big engine sidetracked. 

“That engine looks as if it could go.” 
he said; “why have you switched it off 
here to rest?” 

“Oh, it can run itself all right, I 
guess,” said the workman, “but there’s 
something wrong about it, and it can’t 
pull anything. Engines are not run for 
the fun of running them. They’ve got to 


‘draw a train of cars.” 


The Christian who just keeps himself 
going isn’t much of a Christian. It’s 
the business of a Christian to draw 
others after him.—Selected. 


516 


= 1041 — 
TRANSFIGURED MUSIC 


Two travelers, one summer evening, 
were descending a steep mountain path 
in the Alps. Suddenly music came float- 
ing around them from an unseen source; 
pure, impersonal music, so distilled that 
no sediment of mere sound remained to 
blur the divine harmony. It was clearer 
than any piano note, finer than any 
strain of violin, more resonant than any 
peal of bells, richer than any organ swell, 
sweeter than any human voice. 

The travelers stood listening to deter- 
mine whence it came. The rugged 
mountain of rock rose above them half 
a mile high, and at the top was splin- 
tered into crags. The music came from 
the mighty wall of stone. The whole 
mountain seemed full of it, pulsing and 
throbbing with its burden of song. Again 
and again it pealed forth like a mighty 
cathedral bell, so grandly sweet, so all- 
encompassing that all the atmosphere 
around seemed pregnant with glory. It 
seemed as though angels had come back 
to earth and sung as they sang at Beth- 
lehem. What did it mean? 

A mile down the path the travelers 
came upon a mountaineer with his Alp- 
ine horn, a big wooden instrument, ten 
feet long, the flaring end of which fitted 
into a box like a hopper. He blew them a 
mighty blast, but it was only a loud, 
rasping noise, that was unpleasant and 
almost painful to the ear. Yet it was 
that rude horn blown by that rough 
mountaineer far down in the valley that 
was making the celestial music up 
among the summits of the Alps. The 
majestic mountain, with its heart full of 
music, gathered up those rough sounds 
and transformed them into harmony 
divine. 

So may the life on earth be trans- 
figured into the life in heaven. The in- 
struments on which we play may be 
rude and clumsy, the sounds we make 
may often seem harsh and discordant, 
we may be far down in the vailey, all 
the conditions of life may seem narrow 
and its service hard, but when these ex- 
periences are caught up into the celestial 
world they may be transformed into 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


such music as will make our heaven 
forever. “And I heard the voice of harp- 
ers harping with their harps.”—Presby- 
terian. 

os} 042 Be 


GUIDANCE OF THE SPIRIT 


Rev. A. J. Gordon tells of a friend of 
his who felt impelled to go to a distant 
city. He tried to shake off the impres- 
sion, but being unable to do so, started 
on the journey. Arriving at his destina- 
tion he felt ashamed for yielding to what 
seemed a mere impulse. As he walked 
along he met an acquaintance who was 
greatly excited. He learned that his 
friend was hunting for a man whom he 
intended to shoot for having done him 
an injury. He reasoned with the man 
but without avail. For two hours he 
followed the almost frenzied man from 
place to place. At last he knelt in the 
street and prayed God to save his friend 
from committing murder. Then the man 
yielded and fired his pistol in the air. 
The two went home together, and the 
Christian spent the night pleading with 
the man to forgive his enemy and to 
give his heart to God. Before he left 
him the man was converted.—Selected. 


— 1043 — 
A LIVING SACRIFICE 


When Garibaldi was raising his army, 
he said: “I have no money, no food, no 
clothing, no stores, no resources; let 
every man that is willing to suffer pov- 
erty, shame, hunger, disease, and death 
and who loves Italy follow me.” It is 
the measure of our suffering that will 
enable us to be like the Master. It has 
been said that when He died He left His 
purse to Judas, His clothes to the sol- 
diers, His mother to John, His pardon 
to the dying thief, and His peace to His 
disciples. Some one has said: “I look 
for the world, and I find it in the Church; 
and I look for the Church, and I find it 
in the world.” You may try all you 
please for the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost; and unless you are willing to 
present your bodies a living sacrifice 
to God, you cannot be filled with the 
Spirit—D. C. Whittle, D.D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ee LOM rs 
THE GREATER BLESSING 


“It’s hard at times to believe that 
there is some one watching over the af- 
fairs of this world,” said Jack Graham 
to his minister, “For example, here is 
an account in to-day’s paper,” he con- 
tinued, “where twenty miners were en- 
tombed by an explosion. A crowd col- 
lected at the mouth of the mine.. The 
manager declared that another explosion 
might occur at any moment. Any at- 
tempt at relief would be very dangerous 
business. Yet three men came forward, 
recognizing the danger, but ready to 
risk their lives in the attempt to save 
their fellows. The car started down with 
the three men in it. Before it reached 
the bottom, another explosion took place 
and all three were immediately killed. 
Can it be posible that there is a God of 
love ruling the universe when such no- 
ble heroism is no better protected than 
that?” 

Doctor Brown sat thinking before he 
spoke. 

“Suppose, Jack,” he said at length, 
“that God always miraculously guarded 
the lives of all heroes, so that no hero 
were allowed to lose his life in noble 
adventure? Would that seem to you a 
better-conducted universe than the one 
we now have?” 

“Of course it would!” answered Jack, 
with conviction.. “Is there any question 
about it?” 

“Well, let us see. Then the next time 
an explosion occurred in a mine and 
men were imprisoned, any man in the 
crowd could step forward and offer to 
go to the relief carelessly, in the abso- 
lute certainty that he would return alive. 
He would not run the slightest risk. 
But by the same token, heroism and 
all possibility of heroism would be taken 
from the life of the world.. Nothing 
would be left to be heroic about. There 
never would be the slightest risk. What 
a tawdry thing human life would be if 
there were never anything daring and 
heroic in it!” 

Jack sat thinking over the clergyman’s 


ANECDOTES S11 


words. “Doctor,” he said earnestly, “I 
can see that it’s better for us to have a 
world where the most awful tragedies 
do occur than it would be to have a 
world where no moral heroism could 
ever inspire the race.”—Youth’s Com- 
panion. 


— 1045 — 
A MISSIONARY HEROINE 


Quite recently a physician in a hea- 
than land where there was no other 
doctor was stricken with what he was 
convinced was appendicitis. Dr. Logan 
had gone out as a missionary to China, 
and with his loyal wife was stationed at 
a point eight hundred miles distant from 
any doctor to whom he might go or send 
in his emergency. It was a week’s jour- 
ney for him to travel, or for the doctor 
to come if he depended upon a foreign 
missionary physician. Dr. Logan took 
his wife into his confidence, and told her 
she was the one chance for life or recov- 
ery, and if she could not remove the dis- 
eased appendix she would be left a 
widow in a strange land very soon. He 
explained the operation to her, showed 
her just where to cut, and what to do 
later, and her experience is related in the 
North American Journal of Homeop- 
athy. The brave woman administered 
the ether and chloroform and performed 
the operation. The doctor came through 
it all right, and when he was able to 
travel she went with the invalid to see 
if there was more to be done, or if she 
had omitted anything. 

Doubtless the woman was the braver 
of those two persons who were all in all 
to each other in far away China. It re- 
quired more nerve on her part to cut 
into the doctor than for him to take the 
anesthetic and obliterate the pain and 
knowledge of what she was doing; but 
the noble woman must have suffered 
agony of apprehension when the doctor 
lay before her insensible, and his very 
existence depended on her cooi-headed- 
ness and surgical skill in the dangerous 
undertaking. She was, indeed, a brave 
woman and the operation gave evidence 
that the heart of her husband did safely 
trust in her.—Selected. 


512, 


— 1046 — 
JA TROPHY OF HIS GRACE 


/I remember a very degraded woman 
in a city in the heart of China. One day 
there were a dozen women around me, 
and, sitting at my feet, a woman I had 
never seen before, poor and degraded. 
I could see at a glance that she had 
lived a very sad life. Her hands were 
hard with toil, and she seemed stupid. 

We were talking about the power of 
Jesus Christ, and how he even cast out 
evil spirits and delivered people who 
were tormented with devils. .She had 
never heard of Christ before, never 
heard His name, and stopped me sev- 
eral times, asking, “Is it true?” I as- 
sured her over and over again that it 
was certainly true. 

Toward the end she said one thing 
more. “Does Jesus Christ do those 
things now, today?” 

What would you have said? There is 
nothing so powerful as a present exper- 
ience of the power of Jesus Christ, en- 


abling one to assure those who never | 


heard of Him before that these things 
are true. 

I must not tell you all about it. She 
went away and gave her heart to Jesus 
Christ that night, and He wrought in 
her a most wonderful transformation. 
She came a few days afterward, and 
said: 

“T know now that what you told me 
the other day was true.” 

“How do you know?” 

“t¥e has done it for me. Are 
you going to another city where they 
have never heard of Jesus?” 

“Ves,” 

“Are you going soon?” 

“Yes, soon.” 

“Have you a servant to go with you?” 

“No.” ; 

She said, “I am going with you, and 
I will do your washing and make shoes. 
I love you, and I love your Jesus.” 

The end of it was, she came. She was 
truly converted, but very rough. I felt, 
however, that there was a soul filled 
with love to Jesus, and I spent a great 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


deal of time in teaching and praying for 
that woman. I taught her all I could 
of the life of Christ, and the way to 
put the gospel. 

There came a day when there was a 
great fair, and hundreds of women 
crowded to see us. While I was speak- 
ing to them I lost my voice, and could 
not go on talking. The room was full, 
and this woman was sitting near me. 
She had been a Christian two or three 
months, and, turningto her, I said: 

“You see I cannot speak any more, 
will you try and just tell the women 
the rest?” 

She said, “I cannot preach, don’t ask 
me to do such a thing.” ; 

Well,” I said. “if you don’t they will 
have to go without hearing, and per- 
haps never come again. The Holy 
Spirit can help you, and make you tell 
them far better than I can. Won’t you 
ask Him?” 

She bent her head in prayer for a 
moment, and I sat praying for her with 
intense earnestness, feeling that it was a 
crisis in her life, and might prove such 
for many souls. 

Presently she raised her head, looked 
around, and I saw what had happened. 
Never shall I forget the light which 
shone upon her face as she began to try 
to tell the certainty of those things that 
she herself had known about Jesus. She 
forgot me, and the time, and everything, 
and just poured out her heart before 
those women. If ever I saw anybody 
filled with the Spirit of God, it was that 
woman that day. She went on for an 
hour or two without a pause, and no- 
body moved. Many of them had never 
heard of Jesus. They had never had a 
missionary until two weeks before. A 
woman sitting in the room gave her 
heart to God, and still lives a consistent 
Christian life. Best of all, the preacher 
was saved from herself, and filled with 
the Spirit, and became from that time, 
such a teacher of the Gospel that I never 
thought of speaking when she was there. 

Men have often said, when she has 
preached half the day, “We don’t want 
to go home, we never heard of anything 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


like this before. You go to bed, and 
let this woman stay and talk; she can 
talk all night. 

I have wakened in the middle of the 
night, and heard that woman, in the 
dark, still telling of Jesus to those who 
were eager to hear. Sometimes they 
would ask her questions, and even go 
to sleep and wake up and ask more ques- 
tions, and early in the morning would 
be listening still. The power of the 
Spirit in the life of that woman was 
simply wonderful. It left nothing to be 
desired—nothing. One could not wish 
for anything more reasonable, logical, 
clear, persuasive, tender, full of love 
and the power of the Spirit, than that 
dear woman’s message to others.—Mrs. 
Howard Taylor. 


— 1047 — 


WASHINGTON’S BREAKFAST 


When the British under Lord Howe 
made their descent on Philadelphia, in 
1777, disembarking at the head of Elk 
River, from Chesapeake Bay, Washing- 
ton advanced from Philadelphia to meet 
them. Early one morning, accompanied 
by the Marquis de Lafayette, he made a 
reconnoissance from, his camp to Chest- 
nut Hill, Delaware, in the direction of 
Elk landing. 

Here, at a point whence they could 
view the waters of Chesapeake Bay, the 
two generals stopped at a farmhouse and 
asked if they could obtain their break- 
fast. 

The hostess, Mrs. Alexander, appeared 
to be very glad to see them, and they 
were surprised to find the table already 
set with an elegantly prepared breakfast. 
Lafayette was as much enchanted as he 
was astonished to find such a repast, in 
the course of a somewhat bold reconnois- 
sance, 

They had begun to partake of the 
meal, and Lafayette was eating leisurely, 
as a polite young Frenchman should do, 
when the mistress of the house stepped 
out fora moment. Washington touched 
Lafayette with his foot under the table, 
and whispered to him: “Better eat 
quickly; this breakfast was not meant 


for us!” . 

Lafayette understood, and ate rapidly, 
but heartily. In a very short time the 
meal was finished. The two generals 
rose, hastily but warmly thanked Mrs. 
Alexander, and took their leave. 

They had scarcely ridden away to a 
place of security when, turning about, 
they saw Lord Howe and his staff ride 
up to Alexander house. They had or- 
dered their breakfast there, and Wash- 
ington and Lafayette had eaten it! 

Their chagrin, and the astonishment of 
their hostess, who supposed that she had 
already served Lord Howe a very hearty 
meal, will have to be imagined by the 
world, for no record is left of their re- 
marks.—-Selected. 


— 1048 — 


A PLEDGE REMEMBERED 


A few months ago I was holding gos- 
pel meetings at S——, in the State of 
New York. I was introduced to Mr. 
S , a business man of about sixty 
years of age. He was very sceptical con- 
cerning Christian character and bitter 
towards ministers. No arguments in- 
duced him to attend the meetings and no 
appeals seemed to soften his heart. 
Prayer was our only resource. 

On the Sunday after the meetings 
closed he asked his wife, as she was get- 
ting ready for church: “How do I know 
that Christ is immortal?” 

After the family had gone, he heard a 
voice saying: “You wretch! You deny 
your God! Do you remember thirty-six 
years ago to-day you promised God that 
if he spared your life, you would serve 
him ?” 

When he consulted his records he 
found that, thirty-six years ago on that 
day, as he was going into a fierce battle 
in the Civil War, he promised God that 
he would become a Christian if spared 
through the fight. The incident affected 
him profoundly, and lead him to give 
himself to God. His scepticism and bit- 
terness at once disappeared, and in a few 
days he made a public profession of faith 
in Christ—Dr. N. B. Randall, East 
Orange, N. J. 





514 


me 1049 m= 
CAUSES OF TROUBLE 


‘Let not your heart be troubled,” 
said Jesus. Trouble often comes from 
inactivity. Abraham Lincoln spoke 
truly when he said, “To ease another’s 
heart ache is to forget one’s own.” 
Jesus’s call was to unselfish service. 
Trouble sometimes comes from a sense 
of loneliness. 

Henry Ward Beecher ran across a 
little lad on Clinton Street, Brooklyn, 
who was crying. Picking him up, he 
asked, “Well, my little boy, what is the 
matter?” As the boy looked into the 
luminous sympathetic face of Beecher, 
he answered, “Nothing, now you have 
come.” 

Jesus is to us Burden Bearer and 
Comforter. Trouble comes from loss 
of faith. Shortly before his death, one 
referred to these words of Jesus: 
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye 
believe in God, believe also in Me,” 
and said: “What soft and sweet unfold- 
ing of all highest things.” To trust 
Jesus is to live or die with untroubled 
heart.—Selected. 


— 1050 — 
OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD 


Some one tells of a lady accompanied 
by a sturdy boy, who was seen to stand 
before a famous painting in a European 
art gallery. It represented the dying 
Richelieu, with a face as cold and hard 
as in the days of his strength, a soul of 
steel in a body of ice, lying in his barge; 
scarcely strong enough to move; while 
being towed behind in another boat 
were the two State prisoners—Cing 
Mars and De Thou—whom he was drag- 
ging to their execution. 

“It is a picture of revenge,” the lady 
said, in reply to the questions of the 
boy. “I would not be that Richelieu 
for all the satisfaction this world can 
give. No passion of the human heart 
promises so much as revenge and pays 
so little. 

A gentleman nearby overheard the 
remark, He rose suddenly to his feet, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


and walked nervously down the hall. 
Two years before he had been grievously 
wronged by a neighbor, and now re- 
venge was within his reach. At that 
time he had begun building a house, 
and when the walls were up and the 
framing of the roof in place, he was in- 
formed by the man who owned the ad- 
joining property that the new house 
was six inches on his land. 

The gentleman offered to pay hand- 
somely for the few inches which had 
been built upon by mistake. The owner 
of it refused to sell. He said that his 
plans were made for occupying the 
whole lot, and for no _ consideration 
would he part with the six inches. 

The gentleman could do nothing else 
than tear down the encroaching side of 
his house. This was done, and the wall 
moved back twelve inches instead of 
six, 


A year later the owner of the neigh- 
boring property erected his house, and 
placed his wall just against the finished 
building. Of course this wall was then 
on the land of the first builder, who in- 
tended making no remonstrance until 
the house was finished, furnished and 
occupied. 


This very day the work was ¢com- 
pleted, and he had stopped in the quiet 
of the art gallery to spend the hour be- 
fore his intended call. 


The woman’s words about the pic- 
ture, meant for the ears of her child 
alone, stirred the latent manliness of the 
man. “I would not be that Richelieu 
for all the satisfaction this world can 
give,’ he repeated over and over to 
himself, as he hurried into the outside 
air. 

Nevertheless he made his intended 
visit, and informed the obdurate man 
why he had come. The victim was 
speechless with rage, and waited for the 
doom he expected to hear. Instead, the 
gentleman handed him a deed for the 
six inches of ground, saying: 

“I have no wish to put you to any ex- 
pense; I make you a present of that six- 
inch strip.’—The Safeguard. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


= 1051 — 
DISCOVERED BY ACCIDENT 


The retirement of Prof. Thomas C. 
Mendenhall from the presidency of the 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute has 
been a matter of extreme regret to edu- 
cators, for he has long been regarded as 
one of the best mathematicians in the 
country. He was himself long ignorant 
of the possession of this talent, and only 
discovered it by the merest accident. 

Professor Mendenhall was the son of a 
poor farmer in Ohio, and was at work on 
the farm one day when a resident of a 
distant village drove up and struck a 
bargain with the elder Mendenhall for 
the purchase of a cow. 

“Now,” said the visitor, “I must get 
this cow home, but I can’t take time to 
drive her twenty miles, ahead of my 
team, and she can’t go fast enough to be 
led behind. My lad, I will give you a 
dollar to drive her over to my place.” 

Thomas jumped at the chance, and the 
next morning started on his walk, bare- 
foot, before daylight. Arrived at his 
destination, he received his dollar—the 
first money he had ever owned—and was 
invited to stay over night before return- 
ing. 

On his way to his room he passed a 
book-shelf on which lay a Euclid. He 
had never seen a geometry before, and 
something prompted him to take this one 
down and look inside. He carried the 
book to his room and pored over it as 
long as his candle held out. Then he 
dreamed of it for the rest of the night. 

In the morning he timidly asked his 
host if his dollar would buy that volume. 
His joy was so great on learning that it 
would that he could, scarcely eat his 
breakfast, and he trudged home perfectly 
happy, with his precious volume under 
his arm. 

That was his first step in science, and 
his accidental introduction to Euclid in- 
spired him to work his way through 
school and college and enter upon the 
life of research which has placed him in 
the front rank of American scholars. He 
now has the right to place a long string 
of honors and titles after his name, and 


515 


is a member of half a dozen scientific 
associations.—Saturday Evening Post. 


— 1052 — 
THE VAST UNIVERSE 


At the great natural course in Florida, 
Ordmond Beach, in January, 1906, auto- 
mobiles made the two mile course at the 
rate of 128 miles an hour. Suppose an 
Ordmond Beach to extend between the 
earth and the fixed star Centaurus and I 
should decide to take an auto trip on 
this new line. I ask the maker of the 
car what it will cost? “The cost is very 
low, sir, only one cent for each hundred 
miles.” 

“And what will the cost be at that 
rate,” I ask. 

“It will cost just $2,275,000,000,” he 
answers. 

I pay and take my seat in the car and 
we set off at tremendous rate. “How 
fast,” I ask the chauffeur, “are we go- 
ing?” 

“One hundred and twenty miles an 
hour,” says he, “and no stops.” 

“We’ll soon be there,” I resume. 

“We’ll make good time, sir,” says he. 

“And when will we arrive?” 

“In just 24,331,500 years.” 

What a universe! And what a God 
behind it! Itis his! The Infinite! The 
God whom some defy! The Being 
whom some men do not fear!—A. J. 
Archibald. 


— 1053 — 
TRY CHRISTIANITY 


Horace Greeley is said once to have 
received a letter from a woman stating 
that her church was in distressing finan- 
cial straits. 

They had tried every device they 
could think of—fairs, strawberry festi- 
vals, oyster suppers, a donkey -party, 
turkey banquets, Japanese weddings, 
poverty sociables, mock marriages, grab 
bags, box sociables, and necktie so- 
ciables, 

“Would Mr. Greeley be so kind as to 
suggest some new device to keep the 
struggling church from disbanding?” 
The editor replied: “Try Christianity.” 
—The Christian. 


516 


— 1054 — 

THE GIPSY BOY’S PRAYER 

Capt. Gipsy Pat Smith, the evange- 
list, tells how the Lord answered his 
prayer when a lad, much to the en- 
couragement of his faith, and made it 
possible for him to go to a religious 
conference which he was anxious to at- 
tend. It was to be held in the hall 
in Glasgow in which this Gipsy boy 
then sixteen year old, had been con- 
verted six months before. 

The lad’s father was an ungodly man, 
and apparently did his utmost to dis- 
courage his son who had sez out to 
follow Christ. If the boy failed to meet 
the exactions of the father when sent out 
to beg, peddle or steal he was likely 
to be tied up to a cart wheel and 
whipped. 

That day he had been given some pot 
lids to sell. When he set out that morn- 
ing he prayed that God would especially 
prosper his efforts, as the conference he 
wanted to attend met at 3 o’clock that 
afternoon, and if he could dispose of a 
suffcient number of the pot covers to 
make the usual daily receipts, and if 
they should be so sold that he had none 
left of some certain size, he could then 
safely return to camp, and would be 
excused for the remainder of the day. 
His sales were unusually good, and at 
1.30 p. m. he counted up his coins and 
found that his earnings were enough 
for the day. But on looking over his 
stock he saw he still had covers of all 
sizes. So he had no excuse for going 
home. But he must go soon or he would 
miss the conference. 

The least number he had of any size 
was two of No. 5. So as he approached 
the next tenement he stopped at the 
threshold, and he recalled the promise 
found in John 15:7, “If ye abide in me, 
and my words abide in you, ye shall ask 
what ye will snd it shall be done unto 
you.” Relying on this promise he 
prayed to the Lord to enable him to 
sell these two pot lids in that house. He 
called on the family on the first floor, 
and made no sale. On the second floor, 
and on the third floor, the result was the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


same. He mounted to the top floor. In 
response to his rap, a sweet-faced woman 
came to the door. He asked if she 
wanted any pot lids. She said she would 
look and see. Presently she returned 
and said she would take a No. 5. He 
gave her the cover, and she handed him 
the price. 

As he stood adjusting the covers, slung 
by a cord over his shoulders, he thought 
of the one No. 5 lid he still had left which 
he had ‘prayed he might sell in that 
house, and he had now visited the last 
family. Just then the woman returned 
and said: “I have but one No. 5 pot and 
so need only one lid. But something 
tells me to buy two of you instead of one. 
Yet there is a shop downstairs where I 
could get them if I wished. So you may 
give me another No. 5 lid if you have it.” 

With praises to God in his heart and 
tears starting from his eyes he handed 
her the lid; and she said, “why do you 
cry?” 

Then he told her of his finding Christ 
six months before and of his desire to 
go to the meeting that afternoon and 
how the Lord had answered his prayer 
by telling her to buy the two lids. She 
replied that she understood it, as she 
had been a Christian twenty-two years. 
Before they separated they knelt and 
thanked God that He had thus been 
pleased to use them for the glory of 
His name.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 1055— 
QUIET INFLUENCE 


There was once a poor, feeble old 
woman who said to her minister: I wish 
I could do something for Jesus, but I am 
SO poor and weak;” and the minister 
said: “You do something every Sunday, 
for I see you in church listening very 
earnestly to me, and the sight of your 
face helps me to preach better about 
Jesus.” 

Rev. Spencer Compton says: “During 
a voyage to India I sat one dark evening 
in my cabin feeling thoroughly unwell, 
as the sea was rising fast, and I was but 
a poor sailor. Suddenly the cry that 
there was a man overboard made me 
spring to my feet. I heard a tramping 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


overhead, but I resolved not to go on 
deck lest I should interfere with the crew 
in their efforts to save the poor man. 
‘What can I do?’ I asked myself, and 
unhooking my lamp, I held it near the 
top of my cabin, and close to my bull’s 
eye window, so that its light might shine 
on the sea, as near the ship as possible. 
In a half a minute I heard the joyful cry, 
‘It’s all right; he’s safe!’ upon which 
I put my lamp in its place. The next 
day, however, I was told that my little 
lamp was the sole means of saving the 
man’s life, for it was only for the timely 
light which shone upon him that the 
knotted rope could be thrown so as to 
reach him.” 

If we can do nothing else, we can help 
those who are throwing out the life-line 
of salvation by letting our light shine, 
and our quiet influence, reinforcing the 
Word that is preached, may be the 
means of saving a soul which otherwise 
would be unreached. 

“Doctor,” said a gentleman to his pas- 
tor, “how shall I train up my boy in the 
way he should go?” “By going that 
way yourself,” was the reply. 

A man given to drink was once walk- 
ing uncertainly in some deep snow. 
Looking back, he saw his six-year-old 
boy following after him, carefully plant- 
ing his feet in the marks left by his boots 
in the snow, and he heard him cry out 
cheerfully, “Mamma I’m walking in 
papa’s foot-steps.” It smote him to the 
heart, for he thought of those other foot- 
steps of his in which this boy might 
walk, and he resolved that, by the grace 
of God, he would so live that no one 
walking in his steps, would walk to ruin. 
—Selected. 


— 1056 — 
GRACE SUFFICIENT 


I told my people the other morning, 
when preaching from the text, “My 
grace is sufficient for thee,” that for the 
first time in my life I experienced what 
Abraham felt when he fell upon his face 
and laughed. I was riding home, very 
weary with a long week’s work, when 
there came to my mind this text, “My 
grace is sufficient for thee.” but it came 


517 


to me with the emphasis laid upon two 
words, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” 
My soul said, doubtless it is. Surely the 
grace of the infinite God is more than 
sufficient for such a mere insect as I am.’ 
And I laughed, and laughed again, to 
think how far the supply exceeded all 
my needs. It seemed to me as though I 
were a little fish in the sea, and in my 
thirst I said, “Alas! I shall drink up the 
ocean!” Then the father of the waters 
lifted up his head sublme, and smilingly 
replied: “Little fish, the boundless main 
is sufficient for thee.’ The thought 
made unbelief appear supremely ridicu- 
lous, as indeed it is—C. H. Spurgeon. 
—1057—= 


THE UNSEEN AUCTIONEER 


One day a friend of mine, in passing 
down a Glasgow street, saw a crowd 
at a shop door, and had the curiosity 
to look in. There he saw an auctioneer 
holding up a grand picture so that all 
could see it. When he got it in posi- 
tion, he remained behind it and said to 
the crowd, “Now look at this part of 
the picture,...and now at this other 
part,” and so on, describing each de- 
tail of it. “Now,” said my friend, “the 
whole time I was there I never saw the 
speaker, but only the picture he was 
showing.” That is the way to work for 


Christ. He must increase, but we must 
be out of sight——Andrew A. Bonar, 
— 1058 — 
HIS NAME 


A story has come down to us from 
the days of Wesley concerning his work 
among the miners of Cornwall. Whole 
villages were transformed from a gam- 
bling, swearing and Sabbath-breaking 
people to men and women of sobriety 
and godliness. In every home was to 
be found a picture of John Wesley, the 
man whom they all loved. One day a 
stranger visiting one of those humble 
homes seeing John Wesley’s picture on 
the wall said, “Whose picture is that?” 
The old miner reverently lifted his hat 
and said, “There was a man sent from 
God, whose name was John.”—Christ- 
ian Advocate. 


518 


~—— 1059 — 
THE LITTLE LOAF 


In time of the famine a rich man per- 
mitted the poorest children of the city 
to come to his house, and said to them: 
“There stands a basketful of bread. 
Each of you may take a loaf from it, 
and you may come every day until God 
sends better times.” 

The children at once surrounded the 
basket, striving and quarreling over the 
bread, because each desired to obtain the 
finest; and they finally went off without 
a word of thanks. 

Only Franziska, a clean but poorly 
clad little girl, remained standing at a 
distance, then took the smallest of the 
loaves left in the basket, kissed her hand 
gratefully to the man and went quietly 
and becomingly home. 

On the next day the children were 
equally illmannered and Franziska this 
time had a loaf which was scarcely half 
as large as the others; but when she 
reached home and her mother broke the 
bread there fell out quite a number of 
new silver pieces. The mother was 
frightened, and said: “Take the money 
back at once, for it certainly got into the 
bread by accident.” 

Franzsika did as she was bid, but the 


benevolent man said to her: “‘No, no; it. 


was not an accident. I had the silver 
baked in the smallest loaf in order to re- 
ward thee, thou good child. Ever re- 
main as peace-loving and satisfied.” 

He who would rather have a smaller 
loaf than quarrel about a greater will al- 
ways bring a blessing to the home, even 
though no gold is baked in the bread.— 
Reformed Messenger. 


— 1060 — 
WHAT SHE DID 


“TY speak of this noble man, Dr. Bar- 
nardo, to mention a poor woman who 
was one of his noble helpers. Her 
name was Margaret Fisher. She was 
very poor, her distinction socially was 
that of a washerwoman. Her income 
at most was $1.50 per week, and ‘yet, 
with her own hands and those of poor 
helpers she gathered around her, she 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


sent three hundred new garments every 
year for the children, and never less 
than $50 annually, which she collected 
in coppers from working. men.’ Not 
long since she, too, was called to her 
reward. Her last words were: ‘I shall 
see the dear children in Heaven, shan’t 
I?’ Yes, not only the dear children, but 
the Savior of the children, who in her 
took many up and put his hands upon 
them in blessing. 

After her death the poor people of 
Burton on Trent, where she resided, 
erected a monument over her grave, on 
which, after speaking of her labor of 
love, were inscribed these words: 
Reader, go thou and do likewise. A 
humble, beautiful life, a life of daily 
cross-bearing that puts all our dainty, 
weak attemipts at self-sacrifice to the 
blush. A high throne, a starry crown, a 
song the angels will never cease listen- 
ing to,is hers in Heaven. We may share 
the blessing of this humble but noble 
life.”——-St. Mark’s Messenger. 


— 1061— 
PRAYER SAVED PROHIBITION 


Some time perhaps the story told here 
in a single paragraph may be told more 
in detail. The incident occurred in 1896 
and 1897 in Kansas. Temperance sen- 
timent throughout America was at a 
low ebb. Prohibition had been on trial 
sixteen years in Kansas, but there was a 
strong sentiment against it, and the re- 
mark was repeatedly made that as 
Kansas went so ultimately would go the 
nation. A state resubmission movement 
claiming an enrolled membership of 
50,000 voters had been formed to wipe 
out the law. Every temperance activity 
seemed utterly paralyzed. But a tiny 
prayer band of about a hundred widely 
scattered but “utterly believing” mem- 
bers was formed. It was 100 and God 
against 50,000 and the devil; and within 
one short year the “50,000 and the devil” 
were utterly vanquished, and no one 
ever knew what became of that resub- 
mission organization. And as Kansas 
went, so indeed has gone the nation—in 
answer to prayer.—The S. S. Times. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 1062 — 
“JUST AS I AM” 

Almost a century ago, in the year 
1836, a young girl, Miss Charlotte El- 
liott, was preparing for a great ball, to 
be given in her native town. Full of 
gay anticipation, she started out one 
day to her dressmaker to have a fine 
dress fitted for the occasion. On her 
way, She met her pastor, an earnest, 
faithful man, and in the greetings which 
passed between them he learned her 
errand. He reasoned and expostulated, 
and finally pleaded with her to stay 
away from the ball. Greatly vexed, she 
answered, “I wish you would mind your 
own business!” and went her way. 

In due time the ball came off: and 
this young girl was the gayest of the 
gay. She was flattered and caressed; 
but after dancing all night, laying her 
weary head on her pillow only with the 
returning day, she was far from happy. 
In all this pleasure there had been a 
thorn, and now conscience made her 
wretched, Her pastor had always been 
a loving, cherished friend, and her rude- 
ness to him rankled his breast. More 
than all, the truth of his words came to 
her heart and would give no rest. After 
three days of misery, during which life 
became almost insupportable, she went 
to the minister with her trouble, saying, 
“For three days I have been the most 
wretched girl in the world, and now I 
want to be a Christian! What must I 
do?” 

We need not be told that the minister 
' freely forgave her for her rudeness to 
himself, nor that he joyfully directed her 
to the true source of peace. “Just give 
yourself, my child, to the Lamb of God, 
just as you are.” 

This was a new Gospel to her; she 
had never comprehended it before. 

“What! Just as I am?” she asked. 
“Do you know that I am one of the 
worst sinners in the world? How can 
God accept me just as I am?” 

“That is exactly what you must be- 
lieve,” was the answer. “You must come 
to Him just as you are.” The young 


£19 


girl felt overpowered as the simple truth 
took possession of her mind, She went 
to her room, knelt down, and offered 
God her heart, guilty and vile as it was, 
to be cleansed and made fit for His 
dwelling. As she knelt, peace —full, 
overflowing—filled her soul. Inspired 
by the new and rapturous experience, 
she then and there wrote the hymn be- 
ginning : 


“Just as I am, without one plea, 

But that Thy blood was shed for me, 
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come.” 


Little did Charlotte Elliott think of 
the fame or the immortality of the words 
she had written; it was simply putting 
her heart on paper; and therefore the 
hymn, born of her experience, appeals to 
other hearts needing the cleansing power 
of the blood of the Lamb.—Selected. 


— 1063 — 


“SAVED!” 


Not many years ago a vessel of the 
White Star Line went to pieces on a 
rock off the coast of Newfoundland and 
five hundred persons went down to a 
watery grave. There was a young man 
of great promise, having a large busi- 
ness in Detroit, who was on board that 
vessel, Soon after it went down there 
came a dispatch to his wife and partner 
to say that he was lost. The business 
Was suspended, and that young wife 
was thrown into deep mourning, Her 
heart was just broken, and the mother’s 
heart was bleeding that her boy had 
gone down, as they supposed. But in 
afew hours there came another message 
over the wires, “Saved,” with his name 
signed to it. They felt so grateful that 
they had the dispatch framed and put 
in his office, and there it is. If you go 
in that man’s office now to do business 
with him you may see that dispatch, 
“Saved.” Now let the news flash over 
the wires to heaven today that you want 
to be saved. God is willing and able 
to have you send the dispatch to loved 
ones, “Saved.”—J. C. Wilson. 


920 


-—— 1064 — 
A CHEMIST’S DELIVERANCE 


A band of Christian workers one even- 
ing were holding an open-air meeting 
in one of the street of Bristol, when 
they were rudely interrupted by a by- 
stander, who, in a loud voice, contra- 
dicted the truths they were uttering. 
He denied the existence of God, the 
divine authority of the Bible, and pro- 
claimed the utter impotence of prayer. 
Having thus delivered himself, he went 
away in a rage. 

He was by profession a chemist, and 
on his reaching home angrily ordered 
the shop-boy to put up the shutters and 
be off. The boy did as he was told, 
and the master retired to his room. 
After some time a ring was heard at the 
door; the chemist himself opened it in 
a very ill humor, while there stood be- 
fore him a little girl, whom he gruffly 
ordered to go away, and not to trouble 
him, when his shop was shut. The child 
expressed her sorrow for the interrup- 
tion, but pleaded pathetically for some 
medicine for her mother, who was very 
ill.. Unable to resist her importunity, he 
gave her the medicine, but warned her 
never to come on such an errand again. 

Returning to his room, still much 
agitated, he took up the newspaper and 
resumed his reading. Suddenly he be- 
thought himself that he had made two 
grievous blunders. He had put into 
the medicine a most powerful poison, 
and had neglected to copy the prescrip- 
tion into his dispensing book. He was 
greatly distressed as he ‘reflected that 
through the effect of his passion he 
would probably, in a very brief period, 
cause the death of a human being. 
There was no remedy. The child was 
an utter stranger; he did not know 
even in what direction she had gone. 
His neglect in copying the inscription 
would subject him to punishment, even 
if he should escape the charge of homi- 
cide. Thoughts of ruin, added to re- 
morse for his carelessness, almost mad- 
dened him. He was perfectly helpless, 
and in his extremity cast himself at 


spilt the medicine. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


once upon his knees, and sought in an- 
guished tones the help of God, whose 
existence he had denied only an hour 
before. 

Whilst praying another ring was 
heard at the door. He thought “the 
officers of justice are already after me!” 
Not so! At the entrance stood the same 
little girl, crying bitterly because she 
had fallen down, broken the bottle, and 
She besought the 
chemist to forgive her, and to renew the 
remedy for her mother’s sickness. There 
was no need of this, however, for she 
was warmly welcomed. After she had 
been properly served, this man, no 
longer a skeptic, fell upon his knees 
again, and chose as his portion and guide 
the God who had heard and answered 
his prayer in the hour of need. 

“Whosoever shall call upon the name 
of the Lord shall be delivered.” (Joel 
2 :32.)—Selected. 


— 1065— 


THE BLIND MAN WHO SAW 


The Rev. John Mitchell relates the 
following incident of a noted infidel who, 
traveling in a car in which a minister 
was seated, at once commenced an argu- 
ment with the clergyman in a loud tone 
that could be heard all over the car. 
Among the passengers was a blind man, 
who for a time listened attentively. 
Seeing he was giving attention, the infi- 
del turned suddenly to him in a pause 
in the discussion and said: 

“Do you, sir, believe in a God, who 
has made this beautiful earth, and the 
sun to shine upon it, and who has 
adorned the heavens with myriads of 
stars, and yet without any offense on 
your part, has deprived you forever of 
the power of beholding them?” 

“I am surprised, my dear sir,” replied 
the man, “that you should ask me 
such a question. I do believe in the 
existence of God as firmly as I do in my 
own, and I could doubt the one as easily 
as the other. There is, however, cone 
thing that strikes me as being very pe- 
culiar in what you have said. When 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


yeu reason of God you do not seem to 
be governed by the same principles as 
when reasoning about men and the com- 
mon affairs of every-day life.” The 
infidel denied the inference, and the 
blind man continued: “Suppose, on 
reaching your home, and on entering 
your room, you find a lighted lamp on 
the table—what will be your conclu- 
sion?” 

“Why,” answered the infidel, with a 
sneer, “I shall conclude that some one 
placed it there.” 

“Well, then, when you look into the 
heavens and see those innumerable 
lights of which you have spoken, why 
do you not come to the same conclusion, 
that some intelligent being placed them 
there?” 

The skeptic suddenly declined to talk 
any more on the subject, but it was 
evident to all the passengers that he 
felt thoroughly humbled and uncom- 
fortable.—Selected. 


— 1066 — 


UNTIL THE SECOND 
RESURRECTION 


A young German countess, who lived 
about a hundred years ago, was a noted 
unbeliever, and especially opposed to 
the doctrine of the resurrection. She 
died when about thirty years of age, 
and before her death gave orders that 
her grave should be covered with a solid 
slab of granite; that around it should 
be placed square blocks of stone, and 
that the corners should be fastened to 
each other and to the granite slab by 
heavy iron clamps. Upon the covering 
this inscription was placed: “This burial 
place, purchased to all eternity, must 
never be opened.” All that human power 
could do to prevent any change in that 
grave was done; but a little seed 
sprouted, and the tiny shoot found its 
way between the side stone and the 
upper slab, and grew there, slowly but 
steadily forcing its way until the iron 
clamps were torn asunder, and the gran- 
its lid was raised and is now resting 
upon the trunk of the tree, which is 


521 


large and flourishing. The people of 
Hanover regard it with almost a kind 
of superstition, and speak in lowest 
tones of the wicked countess. 


But not only has God thus shown His 
thought of such madness, He has de- 
clared: 

“The sea gave up the dead which 
were in it; and death and hell delivered 
up the dead which were in them: and 
they were judged every man according 
to their work.” (Rev. 20:13.)—Selected. 


— 1067 — 


WOOD IN A STORM 


“One snowy Saturday night, when our 
wood was very low, a poor child came to 
beg a little, as the baby was sick, and 
the father on a spree with all his wages. 
My mother hesitated a little at first, as 
we also had a baby. Very cold weather 
was upon us, and a Sunday to be got 
through before wood could be had. 

“My father said, ‘Give half our stock, 
and trust in Providence; the weather will 
moderate, or wood will come.’ 

“Mother laughed, and answered in her 
cheery way. ‘Well, their need is greater 
than ours, and if our half gives out, we 
can go to bed and tell stories.’ 

“So a generous half went to the poor 
neighbor, and a little later in the even- 
ing, while the storm, still raged, and we 
were about to cover our fire to keep it, a 
knock came, and the farmer who usually 
supplied us appeared, saying, anxiously: 

*‘T started for Boston with a load of 
wood, it drifted so, I want to go home. 
Wouldn’t you like to have me drop the 
wood here? It would accommodate me, 
and you needn’t hurry about paying for 
it.” 

“Ves,” said the father; and as the man 
went off he turned to mother with a look 
that much impressed us children with his 
gifts as a seer, “‘Didn’t I tell you wood 
would come if the weather did not mod- 
erate?’ My mother’s motto was, ‘Hope 
and keep busy,’ and one of her sayings 
was, ‘Cast you bread upon the waters, 
and after many days it will come back 
buttered.’ ””—Louisa M. Alcott. 


522 


— 1065 — 
THE GREATEST SIN 


One night I was preaching in Chicago 
for another pastor. At the close of the 
service, the minister came to me and 
said, “I have a young man in my con- 
gregation who wishes to be a minister. 
I would like to have you talk with him.” 
I replied, “Bring him to me after meet- 
ing,” and he brought the young man to 
me. He had one of the cleanest, finest, 
most open faces I ever saw in my life. 
I looked into the face of this young 
man and said, “Your pastor says you 
wish to enter the ministry.” “Yes, I 
do.” “Well,” I said, “let me ask you a 
question. Are you a Christian?” “Of 
course I am a Christian,” he answered, 
“I was brought up a Christian, and I am 
not going back on the training of my 
parents.” I said, “Have you been born 
again?’ He said, “What?” I said, 
“Have you ever been born again? God 
says, ‘Except a man be born again, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Have 
you ever been born again?” He said, 
“{ don’t know what you are talking 
about. I.have never heard of that be- 
fore in all my life.” I said, “My friend, 
see here; do you know that you have 
committed the greatest sin that a man 
can commit?” “No,” he said, “I never 
did in my life. You don’t understand 
me. I have been most carefully reared. 
My life has been a most exemplary life. 
I never committed the greatest sin that 
a man can commit—never!”’ I asked, 
“What do you think is the greatest sin 
amancan commit?” “Why,” he replied, 
“murder, of course.” “You are greatly 
mistaken, Will you please read what 
Jesus says about it?” and I opened my 
Bible to Matt. 22: 37, 38, and asked him 
to read. He read, “Jesus said unto him, 
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy mind. This is the first and 
greatest commandment.’” Which com- 
mandment is that?” I asked. He replied, 
“The first and great commandment.” 
“If this is the first and great command- 


ment what is the first and great sin?” - 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“Not to keep this commandment.” 
“Have you kept it? Have you loved 
God with all your heart, and all your 
soul, and all your mind? Have you put 
God first in everything—God first in 
business, God first in politics, God first 
in pleasure, God first in study, God first 
in everything?” “No, sir,” he said, “I 
have not.” “What have you done 
then?” “I have broken this command- 
ment.” “Which commandment is it?” 
“The first and the greatest command- 
ment.” “What have you done then? 
He replied, “I have broken the first and 
greatest of God’s commandments. I 
have committed the greatest sin a man 
can commit, but I never saw it before 
in all my life.” And so have you, though, 
perhaps, you never saw it before in all 
your life—R. A. Torrey. 


— 1069 — 
THE LAWYER’S SUCCESSOR 


Martin W. Littleton, of New York, 
is reported to have said: “Society is 
ruinous to young men. The young man 
needs all his energy, all his vital force, 
for his career. A few days ago I was in 
the office of a lawyer—a fine lawyer— 
one of the most distinguished men in 
New York, and he and I were discussing 
this very subject. He has two sons, who 
are very popular in society. They are 
clever young fellows, were great favor- 
ites at college—football and all the rest 
of it, you know—and now are simply 
overwhelmed with social attentions. In 
their father’s office'is a young man who 
is studying law. He is about the same 
age as the lawyer’s sons. Being very 
poor, he compensates for his opportunity 
to study by dusting the office furniture, 
etc. I noticed what an industrious, 
capable fellow he was, and he more than 
agreed with me in admiring the young 
man’s spirit. ‘What worries me,’ he 
said, ‘is the thought that when I am_ 
gone he will probably be at the head of 
this business, and my sons will be in 
his employ—if he cares to employ them,’ 
and he really spoke as if there might be 
a serious question whether his sons 
would be worth employing.”—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 1070 — 
BILHORN’S CONVERSION 


Some thirty or forty years ago a lady 
stopped to speak to four neighbor boys, 
who, barefoot and poorly clad, were 
playing marbles in the streets of Men- 
dota, Ill. “Are you in Sunday school?” 
she asked. 

“We have no fit clothes,” they replied. 

“Would you come if you had?” she 
asked. 

(They assured her they would.) 

“What are your names?” she asked. 

“Peter Bilhorn,” replied the first boy, 
and the others in turn gave their names. 
Peter was the son of a widow. Clothes 
were provided, and he and the others 
kept their promise. 

It was a warm Sunday, and the lady 
who had invited them, and who was to 
be their teacher, sat, all in white, telling 
her class of boys the story of the lesson. 
Almost or quite the only thing they re- 
membered of it, as appeared afterward, 
was the way the teacher looked, and one 
thing she said and did. On the back of 
a card she drew a cross with the name 
“Jesus” above it, andisaid: “Boys, Jesus 
suffered to help us in our troubles. If 
you ever have any trouble, look to Him 
for help.” 

One day a terrific storm swept over 

the prairie town. The streets were all 
flooded, and the little stream that flowed 
through the town, usually nothing but 
a mere trickling of water, was a raging 
torrent. Boxes, barrels, and the boards 
from a lumber-yard near by, were swept 
away. The boys were there to see what 
work the storm had done, and Peter fell 
in. ; 
He grasped at weeds on the bank, but 
they pulled out. He tried to get hold of 
a board, but it slipped away from him. 
He was carried under two bridges, on 
each of which futile efforts were made 
to rescue him. Toward a third bridge, 
and the last, he swept, and the roar of 
the water was in his ears. 

“Th that moment,” he says, “the vision 
of that teacher, all in white, and her 
words about looking to Jesus in time of 


523 


trouble, came to me. I put my hands 
together and prayed.” 

It was that gesture of the sinking boy 
that saved him, for two men on the 
bridge seized the uplifted hands and 
drew him out. For a time he was un- 
conscious, and when he came to, after 
much rolling and rubbing, they asked 
him how he chanced to have his hands 
up as they were, and pressed together. 

“I was ashamed to say that I was 
praying,” he says, “and I asked, boast- 
fully, ‘Didn’t you know I could swim?’ 
But I kept thinking I had told a coward- 
ly lie. I had learned in Sunday school 
about the other Peter, the one in the 
New Testament, and it seemed to me I 
had denied the Lord just as he did.” 

Bilhorn became the singing evangelist 
and song-writer, and this incident is said 
to have been the occasion of his writing 
the song: 

“He will hear you when you call, 

He will help you when you fall, 
O, the best Friend to have is Jesus!” 
—Selected. 


— 1071— 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EVIL 


A canal near Oklahoma City was de- 
stroyed some time ago in a very strange 
manner. Many thousands of dollars 
Were spent in constructing it. It fur- 
nished water power to operate the elec- 
tric light plant and a large flouring mill 
and its completion was an occasion of 
great importance to the city. But an un- 
suspecting enemy, small in size though 
prodigious in industry, soon whelmed 
the enerprise in disaster. 

The banks of the canal were of por- 
ous, sandy soil. “Gophers attacked the 
dyke. A hole no larger than a man’s 
wrist, burrowed by these animals, wid- 
ened into a crevice in half an hour, and 
the water easily swept away the sandy 
dyke. It was so expensive fighting these 
little animals that the promoters of the 
enterprise gave it up in despair and the 
canal is a thing of the past. Thus it is 
with the little faults that burrow in the 
dark and sap the currents of life. 

—Selected. 


524 - 


——- 1072 — 
FAMILY WORSHIP 


It is with the church in the house as 
with the church in the village. The 
wayfarer may get a word in passing 
which he never can forget. The stranger 
that turns aside to tarry for a night may 
hear at your family worship the word 
that will save him. 


Some years ago, an Irish wanderer, 
his wife and his sister, asked a night’s 
shelter in the cabin of a pious school- 
master. It was his hour for evening 
worship, and when the strangers were 
seated, the schoolmaster began by read- 
ing slowly and solemnly the second 
chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. 
The young man sat astonished. The 
expressions, “Dead in trespasses and 
sins,’ “Children of wrath,” “Walking 
after the course of this world,’ were 
new to him. He sought an explanation. 
He was told that this is God’s account 
of the state of man by nature. He felt 
that it was exactly his own state. “In 
this way I have walked from my child- 
hood. In the service of the God of this 
world we have come to your house.” 

He was on his way to a fair, where 
he intended to pass a quantity of coun- 
terfeit money, He then produced his 
store of coin, and begged his host to 
cast it into the fire; and asked anxiously 
if he could not obtain the Word of God 
for himself. His request was complied 
with, the next morning with the new 
treasure, the party, who had now no 
errand to the fair, returned to their own 
home. 

Some years ago an English gentleman 
visited America and spent some days 
with a pious friend. He was a man of 
talent and accomplishments, but an in- 
fidel. Four years afterward he returned 
to the same house—a Christian. They 
wondered at the change, but little sus- 
pected when and where it originated. 
He told them that when he was present 
at their family worship, on the first eve- 
ning of his former visit, and when after 
the chapter was read they all knelt down 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


to pray, the recollection of such scenes 
rushed on his memory, so that he did 
not hear a single word. But the occur- 
rence made him think, and his thought- 
fulness ended in his leaving the barren 
wilderness of infidelity, and finding rest 
in Christ. 

Shall family prayer be neglected? 
Shall Christian parents permit the pres- 
sure of business, social engagements, 
and the love of pleasure to overthrow 
family worship and banish the family 
altar? Shall the children of the Church 
be robbed of the benefits of this holy 
institution through the indifference and 
neglect of their own parents ?—Christian 
Advocate. 


— 1073 — 
FOLLOWING THE LIGHT 


The poet, J. G. Whittier, related the 
following, as an illustration of the im- 
portance of following divine direction: 

“T have an old friend who followed the 
leadings of the Spirit, and always made 
it a point to go to meeting on First-day. 
On one First-day morning, he made 
ready for meeting, and suddenly turning 
to his wife said, ‘I am not going to 
meeting this morning; I am going to 
take a walk.’ His wife inquired where 
he was going, and he replied, ‘I don’t 
know; I am impelled to go, I know not 
where.’ 

“With his walking-stick he started 
and went out of the city a mile or two, 
and came to a country house that stood 
some distance from the road. The gate 
stood open, and a narrow lane, into 
which he turned, led up to the house 
where something unusual seemed to be 
going on. There were several vehicles 
standing around the yard, and groups of 
people were gathered here and there. 

“When he reached the house he found 
there was a funeral, and he entered with 
the neighbors to attend the service. He 
listened to the funeral address and to the 
prayer. It was the body of a young 
woman which lay in the casket before 
him, and he arose and said. 

“I have been led by the Spirit to this 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


house; I know nothing of the circum- 
stances connected with the death of this 
person; but I am impelled by the Spirit 
to say that she has been accused of some- 
thing of which she is not guilty, and the 
false accusation has hastened her death.’ 

“The friend sat down, and a murmur 
of surprise went through the room. The 
minister arose and said, 

““Are you a God, or what are you?’ 

The friend replied, ‘I am only a poor, 
sinful man, but I was led by the inner 
light to come to this house, and to say 
what I have said; and I would ask the 
person in this room, who knows that the 
young woman, now beyond the power of 
speech, was not guilty of what she was 
accused, to vindicate her in this pres- 
ence.’ 

“After a fearful pause, a woman stood 
up and said, ‘I am the person,’ and while 
weeping hysterically, she confessed that 
she had! willfully slandered the dead 
girl. The friend departed on his home- 
ward way. ‘Such,’ said Mr. Whittier, 
‘was the leading of the inner light’.” 

“Recollections of J. G. Whittier.” 


— 1074— 


THE MYSTERIOUS BUNDLE 


Ua Bih Di was over fifty years old 
when she heard the gospel for the first 
time. She was friendless and starving, 
too weak to cut wood on the mountain 
and carry it to the city, which had been 
her former way of earning a living. 
Some Christians seeing her condition 
gave her food and told her in word and 
action of the Christ. She was sent to 
the hospital. The physician pronounced 
her trouble “starvation.” When she was 
able we let her come to the Woman’s 
School and work for her board. She was 
such a faithful helper that she was pro- 
moted to the position of cook, which she 
held for about ten years. One day last 
spring she asked to have a private con- 
versation with me and came holding 
something under her coat. 

“My mother never heard the Gospel,” 
she said, “and knew nothing of the peace 
of Christ in her heart. She was always 
near starvation and never owned a pair 


ANECDOTES. 


525 


of stockings in her life. Since I came 
here I have had warm clothing, shoes 
and stockings and plenty of food. 
Heaven itself cannot be much pleasanter 
than my life is now. I have saved up 
more money than I have ever seen be- 
fore, and I want to give it as a thank 
offering to God for all His blessings to 
me. You take it and use it where it is 
needed most. 

She then brought out the mysterious 
bundle. She insisted on giving it all 
with the exception of $2.50 which she 
still owed on the new church building. 
Later she brought $25.00 more, making 
$120.00 in all, and she had had the muni- 
ficent salary of $2.00 per month and 
board! When asked if she did not want 
to lay up something for old age she 
replied, “God has done so much better 
for me than I could ever have done for 
myself that I am willing to trust Him 
for the future. I hope that when the 
time comes when I cannot work He will 
call me to Himself.”—Herald of Light. 


KEPT STANDING 


A well-known officer who had just left 
the guards, expressed to Lord Radstock 
his conviction that, being worldly by na- 
ture, it would be quite impossible for 
him to confess Christ, as he would dis- 
grace Him by falling away. Lord Rad- 
stock replied by taking out his pencil 
case, and holding it upright on the table, 
he asked Captain A, why did it not fall. 
“Because you hold it,” was the answer. 
“Then no inherent power in the pencil, 
but a power outside, is that which keeps 
it. God, seeing the utter ruin of man, 
did not tell him, to stand upright, but 
brought in an external power Himself. 
And the question of falling depends not 
on the power of man, but on the Al- 
mighty, who ‘is able to keep you from 
falling, and to present you faultless be- 
fore the presence of his glory.’” The 
message went home. The following 
year, as the train drew up to the plat- 
form at Stockholm, Lord Radstock was 
greeted by the officer with the words, 
“God has never let the pencil go for one 
minute.”—-Lord Radstock’s Life. 


526 


— 1076 — 


DOG SENT AS PROTECTOR 


I shall never forget an answer to 
prayer which the Lord gave to my sister 
and me, seventeen years ago, while out 
in itinerating work in the lonely moun- 
tain village in Yamagata Kon, Japan. 
It was a heart prayer for protection and 
guidance when no human help was near, 
says Agnes Glenn, in a little tract pub- 
lished by the Free Tract Society of Los 
Angeles. 


We had a very scanty knowledge of 
the Japanese language at that time, but 
having had an unspeakable longing to 
reach the neglected villages with the 
Gospel, we took all the tracts and New 
Testaments that we could well carry 
and set off on our day’s work, to places 
where the feet of white people had never 
trodden before. 


The tract distribution became so fas- 
cinating that we became unconscious of 
either direction or distance traveled as 
we went along the zigzag road from one 
village to another, until at last at about 
4 P.M. our literature became exhausted. 
With light hearts, but tired and hungry 
in body, we began to wend our way 
homeward. After having gone some 
distance we had misgivings about the 
right road to take for Yachiso, we made 
inquiry from, different ones whom we 
met, but one told us to take one road 
and another told us to take another go- 
ing in the opposite direction. 

The night was fast coming on, so we 
became somewhat confused and began 
to be alarmed, as it was\neither wise nor 
safe for us to be out on this road at 
night. We thought to get a Jinrikisha 
(a two-wheel top cart drawn by a man) 
to take us home, and in failing that, to 
get a basha (a one-horse shay), but on 
account of a heathen festival that day 
the supply was exhausted, so we had to 
pray and to commit ourselves to the 
care of the Lord. Strange that we had 
not asked the Lord about it first! How- 
ever as we committed ourselves into 
God’s hands we felt certain that he 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


would see us through. Was not Elisha’s 
God our God? 

As the shades of night were drawing 
round us, we were about to enter a thick 
wood through which our road ran when 
we beheld the forms of two Japanese 
men in front of us. As we had seen them 
before that day, and had felt suspicious 
of them, we felt that they meant mis- 
chief. They were tramps. As their 
threatening forms were right on us, we 
lifted up our eyes to the hills, and cried, 
“Stand by us now, Jesus, oh, stand by 
us now.” 

Then quicker than thought out—out 
of somewhere—came, not an angel, but 
a great, black Newfoundland dog (all 
the Japanese dogs that I have ever seen 
in Japan are little creatures), and as if 
to protect us both, he stepped right be- 
tween my sister and me; then he barked 
fiercely at the men, and as if to tear them 
to pieces he chased them away. 

How friendly, how comforting, and 
how nobly he stayed by us, not only to 
protect, but also to guide—for he took 
us directly to our own door those re- 
maining three miles. He knew the way 
—we did not. When we reached our 
home (a little shack with thatched roof, 
paper door and paper windows), and 
opened the sliding door, the dog stepped 
inside with us and after eating his sup- 
per he lay down on the earthen floor by 
the door and kept vigil all night. 

In the morning, after thanking God 
afresh for His manifold providences, we 
fed the dog his breakfast, then opening 
the door our protector and guide went 
out and disappeared as mysteriously as 
he had appeared. You ask, where did 
he come from? We do not know; we 
know only that God sent him. 


=— 1077 — 


“Be thou aware of three things: Pride 
-—fullness of bread—plenty of idleness. 
Yea! three others. The lust of the flesh 
—the lust of the eye—the pride of life. 
Above all: “The will of man—The will 
of the Devil—and thine own mighty 
self-will.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


coe 107 8 es 
THE KING HONORED THE LAW 


The story is told of an Oriental King 
who in his campaigns was troubled with 
-desertions in his army. To put an end 
to this he made a proclamation to the 
effect that every deserter thereafter 
would be punished by having his eyes 
put out. It came to pass that some time 
later the King’s own son in time of 
battle, to save himself, deserted his post. 

He saved his life, but he must now 
lose his eyes, or the King must show 
himself partial and consent to violate 
his own law to spare his son. Should 
he do this, discipline in the army would 
be atanend. What could he do to maii- 
tain his authority, honor the law and 
yet favor his son? 

He hit upon this expedient. He pro- 
posed to give up one of his own eyes, so 
as to spare one of his son’s. This was 
done. He became partially blind to save 
his son from becoming totally blind. 
Who cannot see that by this expedient 
desertions were just as certainly pre- 
vented as though the law had been lit- 
erally executed? : 

Now, we may think of God as the 
responsible sovereign of the great uni- 
verse, consisting of many provinces, 
peopled with intelligent creatures. In 
accordance with the principles of eter- 
nal justice, God proclaimed that any or 
all of his subjects who violated his per- 
fect law should forfeit his favor, and be 
banished from his presence. 

When by disobedience Adam’s race 
incurred this penalty, how could the lov- 
ing yet just God restore rebellious man 
to his favor again without encouraging 
anarchy everywhere? Then the wisdom 
and love of God devised the atonement. 
The only begotten son of God offered to 
come to earth, be clothed with humanity 
and here to live a life of toil and suffer- 
ing, and at last to experience the ago- 
nies of the cross, to render it safe and 
possible for God, in view of his broken 
law, to offer pardon to repentant man. 
By this expedient God’s law was magni- 
fied, and made honorable (Isa. 42:21) 
and God himself could be just, and the 


527 


justifier of him which believeth in Je- 
sus.” (Rom. 3:26.)—-Rev Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


~~ 1079 — 
THE STORY OF A SONG 


When President McKinley was in- 
formed that his mother was dying he 
hired a special car and telegraphed 
ahead, “Tell mother I’ll be there.” This 
message forms the title to one of the 
most effective solos sung by evangelis- 
tic singers, a song that is said to be con- 
verting thousands. Mr. Charles M. Al- . 
exander tells of his own experience in 
these words: 

“I shall begin by telling you how I 
first came to use it: A friend of mine cut 
it out of a little magazine and sent it to 
me to put in my scrap-book, saying he 
believed it would be a song to touch the 
hearts of men. I put it in my scrap-book 
but did not use it for a year, and often 
looked at it, wondering if the space in 
my scrap-book was not wasted where it 
was pasted. But one night in Newton, 
Kan., I was called upon quickly to sing 
asolo. I had sung most of my effective 
solos and thought I might as well try 
“Tell Mother Pll Be There’ to see what 
effect it would have. It was a railroad 
town, and a large number of men came 
to Christ that night. After the meeting 
was over one of the most influential, and 
biggest engineers who ran into Newton, 
came and took me by the hand and said, 
‘I am glad you sang, “Tell Mother I'll 
Be There.” No preaching nor praying 
nor anything else touched my heart, but 
when you sang that song I thought of 
the promise I had made my dear old 
mother who is in Heaven, and it brought 
me.’ He said, ‘Keep on singing it and I 
will bring the boys out, and we will 
bring them to Christ.’ He said, ‘Sing it 
every night,’ and we did sing it every 
night. We sang song after song and 
would run on into the chorus of ‘Tell 
Mother [ll Be There’ during the after 
meeting, and it proved one of the most 
effective songs in our great meeting 
there, and later hundreds were brought 
to Christ in Australia by singing that 
song.” 


528 


— 1080 — 
HOW VAST IS THE UNIVERSE! 


A dispatch from Cambridge, Mass., 
June 20, 1920, to the New York Tribune 
says: “An announcement was made 
today that Harvard astronomers are 
watching with keen interest an event 
that occurred more thaan 200,000 years 
ago. It is a celestial conflagration that 
took place so far away from earth that 
the light rays are just reaching here. 

The attention of the Harvard scien- 
tists was attracted to the matter by a 
message from the Lick Observatory in 
California, which read: 

“Nova Aquila now has a diameter of 
3.8 minutes of the arc.” 

Two years ago “nova,” or new star, 
appeared in the sky in the constellation 
known as Aquila. According to the 
astronomers, this nova was probably 
caused by the collision of a small star 
flying through space with what is 
known as a dark nebula—a star cluster 
or group of stars which in itself gave 
no light. When the star hit this dark 
nebula the friction of its passage caused 
a great flare-up or explosion, which lit 
up the rest of the dark nebula. 

This illumination traveled through the 
nebula at the speed of light — 186,000 
miles a second, or more than 11,000,000 
miles a minute. The astronomers, know- 
ing the speed of light, were able to esti- 
mate, by recording how long it took the 
bright spot to grow to a given size as 
seen from the earth, how far away the 
light spot was. 

The spot after it had been growing for 
two years at the speed at which light 
travels, was still so small that it re- 
quired a large telescope and sensitive 
astronomical instruments to measure its 
size. The Harvard astronomers com- 
pute that their measurement of the ap- 
parent size of this spot means that the 
flare is 217,120 “light years” away; or 
in other words that 217,120 years have 
been required for the light rays to 
bridge the distance. 

A “light year,” or distance traveled by 
a ray of light in twelve months, is ap- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


approximately 5,781,600,000,000 miles. 
This number multiplied by 217,120 
would give roughly the distance from 
the earth to Nova Aquilas. 

Astronomers declare few visible stars 
are known to be further from the earth 
than this. It is one of the longest dis- 
tances ever measured.” 

These figures are astounding. The 
mind of man is unable to grasp them. 
No wonder the inspired prophet declares 
that all nations before God are as noth- 
ing, and are counted as the small dust 
of the balance. It is not surprising that 
the Psalmist exclaims: When I consider 
Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, 
the moon and the stars, which Thou hast 
made; what is man, that Thou art mind- 
ful of him? Or the son of man that 
Thou visitest him? Psalm 8: 3, 4.— 
Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 1081 — 
THE LAST DANCE 


During the occupancy of the city of 
Moscow by the French army, a party of 
officers and soldiers determined to have 
a military levee, and for this purpose 
chose the deserted palace of a nobleman. 
That night the city was set on fire. 

As the sun went down, they began to 
assemble. The women who followed 
the fortunes of the French army were 
decorated for the occasion. The gayest 
and noblest of the army were there, and 
merriment reigned over the crowd. 

During the dance, fire rapidly ap- 
proached them, They saw it coming, 
but felt no fear. ‘At length the building 
next to the one they occupied was on 
fire. Coming to the windows, they 
gazed upon the billows of fire, which 
swept the city, and then returned to 
their amusements. Again and again 
they left their pleasures to watch the 
progress of the flames. At length the 
dance ceased, and the necessity of leav- 
ing the scene of merriment was apparent 
to all. They were enveloped in a flood 
of fire. They gazed on with deep and 
awful solemnity. At last the fire com- 
municated to their own building, caused 
them to prepare for flight, when a brave 
young officer named Carot waved his 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


jewelled hand above his head and ex- 
claimed, “One dance more and defiance 
to the flames!” All caught the enthusi- 
asm of the moment and “One dance 
more and defiance to the flames!’ burst 
from the lips of all. The dance com- 
menced, Louder and louder grew the 
sound of music, and faster and faster fell 
the pattering of footsteps of dancing 
men and women, when suddenly they 
heard a cry, “The fire has reached the 
magazine! Fly! Fly for your lives.” 
One moment they stood transfixed with 
terror. They did not know the maga- 
zine was there; and ere they recovered 
from their stupor, the vault had ex- 
ploded, the building was shattered to 
pieces, and the dancers were hurried 
into a fearful eternity. 

Thus will it be in the final day. Men 
will be careless as these ill-fated revel- 
ers. Yea, there are thousands and tens 
of thousands as careless now. We speak 
to them of death, the grave, judgment, 
and eternity. They pause a moment in 
their search for pleasure, but soon dash 
into the world as forgetful as_ before. 
“Time enough!” “By and by.” “Not 
tonight,” they speed on, stifling the 
voice, till often, ere days or months have 
passed, the bolt has sped, the sword has 
descended, the Judge has come, and the 
soul is lost forever; lost, lost, LOST !— 
Selected. 


—~ 1082 — 


DO MISSIONS PAY? 


An old gentleman, living in a quiet 
Kastern village, had a visit—the first in 
many years—from his son, a prosperous 
storekeeper in western Canada. On 
Sunday father and son went to church, 
where they listened to a sermon on 
Christian missions. Throughout the 
service the old gentleman was restless. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, as they left the 
church, “that I brought you here today.” 

“Why, father?” asked the younger 
man, 

“I’m sorry,” he replied, with a shrug 
of his shoulders, “that you had to listen 
to that sermon. I don’t believe in mis- 
sions. They’re a stupid waste of men 


ANECDOTES. 529 
and money.” 

The younger man made no reply at 
the time, but when he reached home he 
asked his father and mother to let him 
tell them a little story. 

“A few years ago,” he began, “ a 
young man left his father’s farm to seek 
his fortunes in the Canadian West. He 
got into bad company, and was left one 
day by the roadside drunk and uncon- 
scious. 

“At that place, living in a little sod- 
covered shack, there was a young man 
who had been sent out by a missionary 
society. He was brave. He loved men 
and sought them in the spirit of his di- 
vine Master. He found the drunken 
fellow, who had been left by his com- 
panions to die from alcohol or exposure, 
and carried him to his shack, placed him 
in his own bed, and worked over him 
until he brought him back to conscious- 
ness. Then after he had fed him, he 
remonstrated with him for wasting his 
life, and prayed earnestly with him. 

“Father and mother, I am that man, 
and I tremble to think what I should 
have been but for that faithful mission- 
ary.”’—Unknown. 


— 1083 — 


WHY ONE PASTOR FAILED 


Two pastors’ wives, says the Western 
Christian Union, were visiting together. 
One said: “I don’t know what we will 
do—my husband is so discouraged. 
Somehow his people do not care to hear 
him preach, and our salary is far behind. 
My husband feels so blue that he does 
not like to visit the people and pray with 
them, and so he sits around at home 
nearly all the time.” The other sister 
said: “We are getting along finely. My 
husband spends much of his time visit- 
ing, and the people like to have him 
kneel and pray with them in their 
homes. Our congregations are always 
good, and our salary is paid up prompt- 
ly.” While the two sisters were talking, 
they were mending trousers. One was 
mending her husband’s trousers at the 
seat; the other was mending her hus- 
band’s trousers at the knees. 


530 


— 1084 — 
AN ENGINEER WHO PRAYED 


The following remarkable instance of 
answered prayer is related by Mrs. J. H. 
Smith in the “Wesleyan Methodist.” 
She knows the engineer concerned, 
Charles Waters, and the story is un- 
doubtedly true. 


It was night when the long, heavily 
loaded B. & O. train pulled out of the 
station at St. Louis, bound for Cincin- 
nati and the East. There had been a 
great gathering in the city of St. Louis 
and thousands of people were leaving 
for their eastern homes. Charles Waters 
was the engineer that night, and he was 
a Christian man. 

As the great engine leaped forward 
into the darkness, a burden seemed to 
weigh upon him. He could not account 
for it. He began to pray. On and on 
the long train sped across the State of 
Illinois, and again and again, as he drove 
the engine through the dark, the engi- 
neer prayed. He prayed for himself, he 
prayed for his train and the hundreds of 
people aboard, committing them all into 
the hands of Him who sees in the dark- 
ness as well as in the light. The whole 
State of Illinois was crossed and part 
of Indiana, and still he prayed. Sey- 
mour, Indiana, was reached in safety, 
and as he pulled the throttle and started 
out of this station the burden lifted from 
his spirit and he felt that somehow all 
was well, It was almost morning now, 
and in an hour or two it would be light. 

a oe 


A little distance east of Seymour, In- 
diana, there lived a farmer who had risen 
very early that morning. He hada load 
of hogs to take to market, and he wanted 
to get an early start. He lighted his lan- 
tern and went out and fed his horses, and 
then came into the house for breakfast. 
As he sat at the table, something seemed 
to say, “Go to the railroad! Go to the 
railroad! Go to the railroad!” and yet 
again the insistent call, “GO TO THE 
RAILROAD!” The farmer jumped up 
from the table and started out. His wife 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


said, “Where are you going?” 

“I am going to the railroad,” he an- 
swered. 

“What for?” she asked. 

“I don’t know,” he flung back, as he 
grabbed his lantern. 

Down across the field he went, and 
over the rail fence, and stepped up on 
the railroad. He swung his lantern over 
the track, and behold, there was a 
broken rail—not only broken, but a great 
piece of it thrown entirely out of its 
place. He had little time to think, for 
just that moment he heard the distant 
rumble of the night express coming out 
of Seymour. He ran down the track and 
waved his lantern frantically. The en- 
gineer saw it and stopped the train, 
climbed down from his engine, and met 
the farmer. 


Then he understood the reason for 
that long night of prayer, and the farmer 
now understood the strange call that had 
broken in on him at breakfast and bade 
him “Go to the railroad.” A horrible 
wreck had been averted and hundreds of 
lives had been saved. 


— 1085 — 
GIVING AND GETTING 


A poor Baptist minister was appealed 
to, as he walked by some one he knew, 
for help. He had but a shilling in the 
world, and poised it in his mind to give, 
or not to give? The greater distress of 
his acquaintance prevailed, and he gave 
his all, walking away with a sweet re- 
membrance of the promise, “He that 
hath pity on the poor lendeth to the 
Lord, and that which he hath given will 
He pay him again.” He had not gone a 
hundred yards before he met a gentle- 
man, who said, “Ah, Mr. Jones, I am 
glad to see you. I have had this sover- 
eign in my waistcoat pocket for a week, 
for some poor minister, and you may as 
well have it.’ Mr. Jones was wont to 
add, when telling the story, “If I had 
not stopped to give relief, I should have 
missed the gentleman and the sovereign 
too.”—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


=— 1086 — 
TAKING ANOTHER’S WHIPPING 


A very rough schoolmaster had a poor 
lad that had offended the laws of the 
school, and he ordered him to come up. 
“Now,” he said, “you take off your coat 
instantly and receive this whip.” The 
boy declined and more vehemently the 
teacher said, “I tell you, now, take off 
your coat. Take it off instantly!’ The 
boy again declined. It was not because 
he was afraid of the lash; he was used 
to that in his cruel home. But it was for 
shame. He had no undergarments, and 
when at last he removed his coat there 
went up a sob of emotion all through 
the school as they saw why he did not 
wish to remove his coat, and as they saw 
the shoulder blades almost cutting 
through the skin. 

As the schoolmaster lifted his whip to 
Strike, a roseate, healthy boy leaped up 
and said: “Stop, schoolmaster; whip me. 
He is only a poor chap; he can’t stand 
it. Whip me.” “Oh,” said the teacher, 
“it’s going to be a very severe scourg- 
ing! But if you want to take the posi- 
tion of a substitute you can do it.” The 
boy said: “I don’t care; whip me, I'll 
take it; he’s only a poor chap. Don’t 
you see the bones almost come through 
the flesh? Whip me.” And when the 
blows came down on the boy’s shoulders, 
this healthy, robust lad made no outcry; 
he endured it all uncomplainingly. We 
all say Bravo! for that lad. Bravo! That 
is the spirit of Christ! Splendid! How 
much scourging, how much chastise- 
ment, how much anguish will you and I 
take for others? 

Oh, that we might have something of 
that boy’s spirit! Aye, that we might 
have something of the spirit of Jesus 
Christ; for in all our occupations and 
trades and business, and all our life— 
home life, foreign life—we are to remem- 
ber that the sacrifice for others will soon 
be over.—Selected. 


— 1087 — 
WHY SAVED FROM LIONS 


A missionary in Africa while traveling 
on a tour of duty, came to a fork in the 


531 


road, one branch going round a hill, the 
other up the hill. Hesitating which to 
take, he besought the Lord to give him 
direction. He found himself decidedly 
disposed to take the road up the hill. 
Once at the summit he had a clear view 
of the other path, in which he discovered 
several large lions. 

Deeply impressed by this escape from 
certain death, he made a memorandum 
of the facts and date. Afterwards, when 
visiting England, a friend asked him 
whether in his missionary work he re- 
called any special deliverances* he nar- 
rated this incident. 

His friend thereupon stated that on 
one occasion he became distinctly im- 
pressed with the thought that this mis- 
sionary brother was in great danger, and 
accordingly at once made him the sub- 
ject of earnest intercession. So vivid and 
unusual was the impression that he felt 
moved to record the date. The two then 
compared their dates, and found an ex- 
act correspondence.—Dr. A. C, Thomp- 
son. 


— 1088 — 
PRAYER AROUSED INTEREST 


A missionary of the American Board 
among the Mahrattas in India once 
wrote thus: “The first Monday in Jan- 
uary, 1833, I shall ever remember. At 
our morning prayers in the native lan- 
guage three strangers were present, who 
said they had come to inquire about ‘the 
new way. At ten o’clock Babajee re- 
turned from his morning visit to the 
poorhouse in an ecstacy of joy, saying, 
‘The poor people all came about me in- 
quiring, “What shall we do?”’ I ap- 
pointed an inquiry meeting at three 
o’clock today, and to my surprise there 
were sixteen present. A heavenly in- 
fluence, I am persuaded, was with us. 
Our Christian friends in America must 
be praying for us.” 

The missionary afterwards learned 
that the day had been set apart by the 
General Assembly in the United States, 
and by other bodies of Christians, as a 
day of fasting and of prayer for the 
heathen world.—Dr. A. C. Thompson. 


832 


— 1089 — 
FED BY RAVENS 


Mrs. Howard Taylor, in her address 
at the annual meeting of the China In- 
land Mission, related the following ex- 
perience of one of the Chinese converts, 
Evangelist Li, who was still laboring 
successfully in 1917. 

“Soon after Mr. Li’s conversion he 
heard an impressive sermon upon the 
words, ‘Covetousness which is idolatry.’ 
He was greatly concerned to think that, 
having given up idolatry, he might be 
betrayed into the same sin through 
allowing a covetous spirit to have any 
place in his heart. To avoid this danger 
he determined to keep no money of his 
own and to possess no property. His 
little house and farm he handed over to 
his nephew, and devoted himself entirely 
to making known the Gospel, sustained 
by the simple hospitality of those to 
whom he ministered, and to whom his 
prayers brought help and healing for 
body as well as soul. His labours were 
wonderfully owned of God, and resulted 
in building up a church in the Yohyang 
district, which he has long shepherded 
with loving care. As time went on he 
opened a Refuge for the cure of opium 
smokers, and in this way also was made 
a blessing to many. This work, of 
course, could not be carried on without 
expense, and there were times when 
supplies ran short, and dear old Li was 
enabled to prove in very special ways 
the faithfulness of God. 

“After some years a breath of what we 

nay call, perhaps, ‘higher criticism’ 
reached this far-away province, and the 
old man heard in connection with the 
story of Elijah’s being fed by ravens that 
they were not real birds that brought 
the bread and meat, but some kind of 
dark-skinned people, probably Arabs, 
who shared with him their supplies, for 
it was absurd to suppose that birds 
would ever act in the way described. It 
would be miraculous. But this way of 
explaining the matter did not at all com- 
mend itself to the old man’s simple faith. 
Miracles were no difficulty to him. He 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


had seen far too often the wonder-work- 
ing power of God put forth in answer to 
prayer, And, besides, in this very con- 
nection he had an experience which no 
amount of arguing could gainsay. The 
story has been so carefully verified on 
the spot, by Mr. Lutley and others, that 
one has no hesitation in passing it on, 
strange as it may seem to our ears. 


“At one time, in his Refuge work, old 
Li had come to an end of all his re- 
sources. There were no patients com- 
ing for treatment; the Refuge was 
empty; his supplies were exhausted, and 
his faith was a good deal tried. Quite 
near by, in the large temple of the vil- 
lage, lived a cousin who was priest-in- 
charge, and who when he came to see 
his relative from time to time would 
bring a little present of bread or millet 
from his ample store. The old man on 
receiving these gifts would always say, 
*Tien-Fu-tih entien—‘My Heavenly Fa- 
ther’s grace’—meaning that it was 
through the care and kindness of God 
that these gifts were brought. But the 
priest did not approve of that way of 
looking at it, and at last remonstrated: 


“*Where does your Heavenly Father’s 
grace come in, I should like to know? 
The millet is mine. I bring it to you. 
And if I did not, you would very soon 
starve for all that He would care. He 
has nothing at all to do with it.’ 

“But it is my Heavenly Father who 
puts it into your heart to care for me,’ 
replied old Li. , 

“ “Oh, that’s all very well,’ interrupted 
the priest. ‘We shall see what will hap- 
pen if I bring the millet no more.’ And 
for a week or two he kept away; al- 
though his better nature prompted him 
to care for the old man whom he could 
not but esteem for the works of mercy 
in which he was constantly engaged. 

“As it happened, this was just the time 
in which dear old Li was specially short 
of supplies. At last there came a day 
when he had nothing left for another 
meal. The Refuge was still empty, and 
he had not the cash to buy a morsel of 
bread. Kneeling alone in his room, he 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


poured out his heart in prayer to God. 
He knew very well that the Father in 
heaven would not, could not, forget him; 
and after pleading for blessing on his 
work and upon the people all around 
him, he reminded the Lord of what the 
priest had said, asking that for the hon- 
our of his own great name, He would 
send him that day his daily bread. 

“Then and there the answer came. 
While the old man was still kneeling in 
prayer, he heard an unusual clamour and 
cawing and flapping of wings in the 
courtyard outside, and a noise as of 
something falling to the ground. He 
rose, and went to the door to see what 
was happening. A number of vultures 
or ravens, which are common in that 
part of China, were fiying about in great 
commotion above him, and as he looked 
up a large piece of fat pork fell at his 
very feet. One of the birds, chased by 
the others, had dropped it just at that 
moment on that spot. Thankfully the 
old man took up the unexpected portion, 
saying, ‘My Heavenly Father’s kind- 
ness.’ And then glancing about him to 
see what had fallen before he came out, 
he discovered a large piece of Indian 
meal bread, all cooked and ready for 
eating. Another bird had dropped that 
also; and there was his dinner bounti- 
fully provided. Evidently the ravens 
had been on a foraging expedition, and, 
overtaken by stronger birds, had let go 
their booty. But Whose hand had 
guided them to relinquish their prize 
right above his little courtyard? 


“With a wondering heart, overflowing 
with joy, the dear old man kindled a fire 
to prepare the welcome meal; and while 
the pot was still boiling, the door 
opened, and, to his great delight, his 
cousin, the priest, walked in. 


“‘Well, has your Heavenly Father 
sent you anything to eat?’ he somewhat 
scofingly inquired, saying nothing 
about the bag of millet he had brought, 
carefully concealed up his sleeve. 


‘Took and see,” responded the old 
man, smiling, as he indicated the sim- 
mering vessel on the fire, 


ANECDOTES 533 

“For some time the priest would not 
lift the lid, feeling sure there was noth- 
ing boiling there but water; but at 
length the savoury odour was unmistak- 
able, and, overcome by curiosity, he 
peeped into the earthen pot. What was 
his astonishment when the excellent 
dinner was revealed. 

““Why,’ he cried, ‘where did you get 
this?’ 

““My Heavenly Father sent it,’ re- 
sponded the old man gladly. ‘He put it 
into your heart, you know, to bring me 
a little millet from time to time, but 
when you would do so no longer it was 
quite easy for Him to find another mes- 
senger.’ And the whole incident, his 
prayer and the coming of the ravens, was 
graphically told. 

“The priest was so much impressed by 
what he saw and heard that he became 
from that time an earnest inquirer, and 
before long confessed his faith in Christ 
by baptism. He gave up his comfortable 
living in the temple for the blessed 
reality that now satisfied his soul. He 
supported himself as a teacher, became a 
much respected deacon in the Church, 
and during the Boxer troubles of 1900 
endured terrible tortures and finally laid 
down his life for Jesus’ sake.” 


— 1090 — 
CONQUERED BY KINDNESS 


A worthy old colored woman was 
walking quietly along a street in New 
York, carrying a basket of apples, when 
a mischievous sailor, seeing her, stum- 
bled against her and upset her basket, 
and then stood to hear her fret at his 
trick, and enjoy a laugh at her expense. 
She merely picked up the apples without 
resentment, and, giving him a dignified 
look of sorrow and kindness, said “God 
forgive you, son, as I do!” 

That touched a tender chord in the 
heart of the jack-tar. He felt self-con- 
demned. Thrusting his hands into his 
pockets and pulling out a lot of loose 
“change” he forced it upon the old black 
woman, exclaiming “God bless you, 
mother, T’ll never do so again.”—Se- 
lected, 


534 


— 1091 — 
PRAYER BROUGHT HEALTH 


A lady missionary of the American 
Board was stricken down by an epi- 
demic; recovery seemed doubtful. As 
she lay upon her couch, feverish and 
restless, a sudden and singular calm 
came over her. 


Just then a co-laborer at the same sta- 
tion came in to inquire how she was, yet 
fearing the worst. 

“I am better, decidedly better,” she 
replied; “I think I shall get well. I have 
had the strangest feeling come over me 
the last hour, as if I had new life. I 
don’t understand it.” Presently she 
added, “I believe I know what it is. I 
am sure some one is praying for me. I 
think I will try to prove it.” She then 
asked the nurse to bring her “Daily 
Food,” and, turning to the day of the 
month, marked it. 


Many weeks afterwards a letter came 
to her, saying, “In January I attended 
a meeting of the Woman’s Board in Pil- 
grim Hall, Boston, and wish you could 
have heard the earnest prayer offered for 
you by—,” naming the person who had 
led in the intercession of that hour; com- 
paring the date with the one in her 
“Daily Food,” she found an exact coin- 
cidence.—Dr. A. C. Thompson. 


— 1092 — 


GOD HONORS WHOM? 


In the north of England two brothers 
went into business. They had been 
raised in poverty, and had nothing with 
which to start business. But they were 
enthusiastic in religion. 

They were determined to give to the 
Lord, and they made an arrangement 
that the Lord Jesus Christ should be a 
partner in the concern, and that a fixed 
portion should be given to him out of 
all profits. They so gave, and prospered. 


The first year they had a generous 
sum of money to give. The second year 
they had more. The third year they had 
still more. At the fourth year the profits 
were so great that they went into four 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANBECDOTES 


figures, 

Then they thought the portion to be 
set aside for God was too much to give 
to charity. Always be suspicious when 
you change your terms. It was for 
charity now, not for the Lord. Seeing 
it was such a large amount, they divided 
it, took half for themselves, and gave 
the other half away. The next year, on 
the testimony of one of the brothers, 
they did not make a cent. And before 
the end of six months of the following 
year they came to a crisis. 


The two brothers met and locked 
themselves in the office to face the situa- 
tion. William said to James: “We have 
never prospered since we robbed God. 
The first charge on the business must be 
to pay back what we have robbed.” 


They knelt down and prayed, and 
made this promise. Before the end of 
the year, their business revived. 


Strangely enough, after some years 
they made a similar mistake, and had a 
similar experience. Today they are 
among the wealthiest Christian people 
in the land. They prospered as they 
honored God in their living.—Christian 
Herald. 


— 1093 — 
HAPPY IN GOD HIMSELF 


Christians might avoid much trouble 
and inconvenience if they would only 
believe what they profess—that God is 
able to make them happy without any- 
thing else. They imagine that if such a 
dear friend were to die, or such and such 
blessings were to be removed, they 
would be miserable; whereas God can 
make them a thousand times happier 
without these. To mention my own 
case, God has been depriving me of one 
blessing after another; but, as every one 
was removed, He has come in and filled 
up its place; and now, when I am a 
cripple and not able to move, I am hap- 
pier than I ever was in my life before, 
or ever expected to be; and if I had be- 
lieved this twenty years ago, I might 
have been spared much anxiety.—Pay- 
son, 


— 1094 — 
THE REDEEMED BOY 


I have just been to the home of the 
boy in Omaha whose father gave $25,000 
to redeem him. I had a talk with this 
lad of fifteen whose name has perhaps 
been in every newspaper in the land. 

As Eddie was leaving home one eve- 
ning, two men pretended to arrest him, 
saying that he had stolen money from 
his aunt and that he must go with them 
without making a noise. 

They said that his name was Eddie 
McGee. He told them they were mis- 
taken, that his name was not Eddie 
McGee, and he could prove it by some 
persons who were passing. He said the 
conductor of a passing cab knew him. 
Soon they blindfolded him and drove 
quickly out of town about five miles to 
a lonely building which hey had hired 
for the purpose and there kept him for 
twenty-four hours. 

Next morning his captors sent a let- 
ter to his father telling him that unless 
he sent them twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars they would burn Eddie’s eyes out 
with acid and that he would then have 
a blind boy in his charge. 

The mother was frantic. The father 
went to the bank and got ninety-five 
pounds of gold which was the amount 
_demanded. The Christian coachman 
who told us the story took us to the very 
buggy in which the gold was carried 
and showed us just where the bag was 
placed. 

At night Mr. Cudahy drove to the 
spot named in the letter and left the 
gold beside a lantern tied with a black 
and white ribbon as he had been di- 
rected. At one o’clock the boy was 
brought near his home and was soon 
telling of all that happened while he had 
been a prisoner. 

Some of you may say, “Why have 
you told us this story that we have 
heard before?” and I will tell you. I 
have been holding meetings for the 
young and old here in Omaha and one 
evening I took for my text the words 
of Jesus in Isaiah xliv. 22, “Return unto 


. & ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


535 


me, for I have redeemed thee.” 

I showed how we are redeemed, not 
with silver or gold, but with “his own 
precious blood.” I described what 
Jesus suffered as they laid the heavy 
lashes upon his back, and as they 
crowned him with thorns and as they 
spit upon him. 

I spoke of his soul sufferings when 
“his sweat was as it were great drops of 
blood,” and when he cried in agony, 
My God! My God! why hast thou for- 
saken me?” and of how he was treated 
as though a guilty sinner when he re- 
deemed us with his precious blood, and 
of how we might now be treated for His 
sake as though we had never sinned, and 
hear his loving words, “Return unto me 
for I have redeemed thee.” 

Every boy and girl in Omaha knows 
about Eddie Cudahy. They understand 
how his father gave twenty-five thous- 
and doliars to redeem him. 

When I spoke of the far greater sac- 
rifice that Jesus made that he might re- 
deem us from the punishment that we 
deserve on the account of our sins, they 
all seemed to feel the truth of the words 
spoken and to be ashamed of the very 
thought of not loving him who first 
loved us and gave himself for our sakes. 
—Rev. E. Rayson Hammond. 


— 1095 — 
RICH AND YET A BEGGAR. 


One of the tales of my boyhood was 
of an old Indian on a western reserva- 
tion who every week presented himself 
at headquarters with a request for some- 
thing to eat. One day the soldier in at- 
tendance, observing a leather cord about 
his neck asked its meaning. He shrugged 
his shoulders, to indicate that it was of 
no consequence at all. The soldier, ven- 
turing further, drew from beneath the 
old man’s blanket a bronze medal on 
which was inscribed: “The bearer a 
faithful guide of Washington during the 
Revolutionary War, is by act of Con- 
gress entitled to a pension during his 
natural life.” A pensioner and he never 
knew it! Rich and yet a beggar for 
years !—Rev. D. J. Burrell, D.D. 


536 


-~ 1096 — 


A CASE OF DIVINE HEALING 


That a signal mercy may not be for- 
gotten, and that God may be glorified 
this recital is given. 

In July 1902, I had left home in New 
York for a two week’s visit of relatives 
in Wayne County, N. Y. When I went 
my brother, Charles H. Tyndall, D.D., 
then, and still pastor at Mt. Vernon, ad- 
joining New York on the North, was 
ill; but his case was not alarming, and 
his wife promised to keep me informed 
as to his condition. The days passed, 
and in all the news received there was 
not one encouraging note, and becoming 
alarmed I wrote asking how he really 
was, and if I should come. 

Expecting an unfavorable reply, I was 
prepared to take the only train at Wal- 
cott by which I could get to New York 
that day; and I was at the station, and 
the 10 o’clock train was in sight, when a 
telegram was handed me. It read, “Very 
low. Come if you can. Hold on to God 
in prayer.” 

Boarding the train, I was in the race 
for my brother’s bed-side. But how 
shall I express my feelings? My brother 
and I had been so much to each other all 
our lives. Perhaps affection’s tie was 
rendered stronger because our mother 
had died when the writer was two years 
old, and his brother a babe of five 
weeks. Childhood, early manhood and 
ministry, we had kept together, and now 
must we part? I was unwilling to en- 
tertain the thought, and yet it thrust 
itself upon me. Something seemed to 
say, “All must die sometime, and now is 
_ your brother’s time. Even now he may 
be dead, and where will he be buried, and 
what about his family?” 

I strove to banish such thoughts, and 
sought to lay hold on some promise of 
the Word of God, and urge it on his be- 
half. But as my soul struggled in 
prayer for hours, I was unable to find 
the promise I wanted. “Ask and it shall 
be given you.” “What things soever ye 
desire when ye pray, believe that ye re- 
ceive them, and ye shall have them.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


These promises and others were pre- 
cious, but they did not seem especially 
appropriate. 

Finally after some hours that verse 
of the 91st Psalm came to mind: “Be- 
cause he hath set his love upon me, 
therefore I will deliver him: I will set 
him, on high because he hath known my 
name, He shall call upon me, and I will 
answer him: I will be with him in 
trouble; with long life will I satisfy him, 
and show him my salvation.” 


At once my soul seemed to say, 
“That’s the promise I want. Now, Lord 
you must verify that word in the case of 
my brother. He gave his heart to Thee 
in his youth, and it has been the joy of 
his life to preach the gospel. So now 
Thou must be with him in trouble and 
deliver him; with long life satisfy him, 
and show him Thy Salvation.” 


I presumed to reason with the Lord: 
“Were my brother to die now, no one 
could call his a long life.” His wife’s 
father had made his home with my 
brother for several winters, and had died 
not ong before in his 96th year. He had 
been a Christian many years, and his 
was indeed a long life. It is the wicked 
who shall not live out half his days. “Of 
course Satan would like to kill him and 
stop his good work, but Satan must not 
be allowed to have his way. He has 
power to afflict the children of God, as 
he did that daughter of Abraham whom 
he had so bound, for eighteen years, that 
she could not lift up herself until Jesus 
set her free. Jesus came to “destroy him 
who had the power of death, that is the 
devil,” and He promised His disciples 
“power over all the power of the enemy.” 


During the hours of that long jour- 
ney, I sought to claim these promises on 
my brother’s behalf. To please God, 
and to receive the blessing He was will- 
ing to bestow, I knew I must believe in 
both His ability and willingness to do 
what I asked. But I was conscious that 
mine was a mixture of faith and unbe- 
lief. Finally what Jesus said to that dis- 
tressed father, who sought the healing 
of his son, occurred to me: “If thou 
canst believe, all things are possible to 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


him that believeth.” And I adopted the 
cry of that anxious father: “Lord, I be- 
lieve; help Thou mine unbelief.” 

At that it pleased God to dispel the 
remnant of my unbelief. Every cloud 
was gone from my sky. There was no 
more anxiety as to the outcome of my 
brother’s illness. I knew he would re- 
cover, and my heart was filled with 
praise to God. 

When I reached his home that even- 
ing at 10 o’clock his wife meet me at the 
door and I learned he was very low with 
ulceration of the bowels; and the doctor 
had told her to be prepared for the 
worst, as he would die of perforation of 
the intestines. This news did not affect 
my confidence in the least. I told her I 
knew he would get well. He was too 
weak to hold up his hand, and he had so 
failed in flesh that the nurse would take 
him in her arms, and carry him to a 
couch to make his bed. No one was 
allowed to see him but the nurse and his 
wife. I saw him just long enough to tell 
him I knew God was going to raise him 
up, and he was cheered by my con- 
fidence. 

This was Friday, July 25th, I did not 
see him Saturday. Sunday I took a long 
walk to be by myself. The burden of 
my prayer was that the cure might be so 
_ wrought that it should be attributed to 
the special mercy of God. That even- 
ing, as I was sitting down to the supper 
table, his wife said he wished to see me. 
I went at once to his bedside, and as- 
sured him again not only of his recovery, 
but told him also the ground of my con- 
fidence. I recited the precious words of 
that Psalm, and told him Satan would 
like to destroy him, but he was a de- 
feated foe, and that God would bruise 
Satan under his feet shortly. I spoke to 
him in this strain for perhaps fifteen 
minutes, and the change I was expect- 
ing then occurred. Had he been dying 
of thirst a cup of cold water could not 
- have been more refreshing. To his wife 
he excaimed, “I have not seen such a 
time as this since I became ill!” 

From that time he improved from day 
to day, andI returned home. But Satur- 


ANECDOTES 537 


day night, about 11 o’clock August 9th, 
I got a telegram asking me to come as 
he was much worse. This was a severe 
trial to my faith, and during the hour or 
So spent getting to him Satan tried his 
utmost to rob me of my assurance of his 
recovery, but the grace of God tri- 
umphed. He had indeed been brought 
very low again, but was some better on 
my arrival. 


Then to leave nothing undone, I sug- 
gested that we comply with the direc- 
tions in James the 5th chapter, and my 
brother wishing it, I anointed him with 
oil in the name of the Lord, and asked 
God to make him every whit whole. 
This was at 12.30 a. m. He rested 
quietly and slept much the rest of the 
night, and that morning when the doctor 
came he noted the great improvement in 
his patient, and said to him, “It looks as 
if the bottom fell out of your disease last 
night!” From that time forth his re- 
Pith was rapid.—Rev. Henry M. Tyn- 

all. 


Is any sick among you? Let him call 
for the elders of the church; and let 
them pray over him, anointing him 
with oil in the name of the Lord: And 
the prayer of faith shall save the sick, 
and the Lord shall raise him up; and if 
he have committed sins, they shall be 
forgiven him.—James v. 14, 15. 


— 1097 — 


LUKEWARMNESS IN RELIGION 
CONDEMNED. 


In the seventeenth century a Spanish 
priest named Miguel de Molines gath- 
ered about him a company of like- 
minded men who devoted themselves to 
the passive contemplation of God. They 
were called “quietists”; and so disas- 
trous was their influence on the effi- 
ciency of the church that their system 
was finally condemned as heresy. That 
judgment was none too severe. “Quiet- 
ism” is the bane of the Church today.— 
D. J. Burrell, D.D. 


538 


a 1098 — 
“MAKE IT A MATTER OF 
PRAYER.” 


A good, old English farmer had be- 
come the happy inventor of an improved 
plow. Queen Victoria, on seeing the 
new invention, inquired of the farmer 
how he thought of it, whereupon he 
replied: APs 

“Well, your majesty, I had it in my 
head for a long time before it would 
come straight. I saw what was wanted 
plain enough, but I couldn’t make out 
how to get at it. So at last I made it 
a matter of prayer; and one morning the 
whole thing came into my mind like a 
flash.” 

“Why, Mr. Smith,” interrupted his 
royal listener, “do you pray about your 


plows?” 
“Why, your majesty, why shouldn’t 
I? My Father in heaven, He knew 


I was in trouble about it, and why 
shouldn’t I go and tell Him? I mind 
of one of my boys when he was a teeny 
little mite. I bought him a whip, and 
very pleased he was with it. Well, he 
came to me one day crying as if his 
little heart would break. He’d broken 
the whip, and he brought it to me. So 
I took him on my knee, and I wiped 
his tears, and I kissed him and com- 
forted him. ‘Now, don’t cry, my boy, 
says I. ‘I’ll mend the whip, I will, so 
that itll crack as loud as ever.’ Well, 
now, don’t you think our Father in 
heaven cares as much for me as I for 
my boy? My plow didn’t much matter 
to Him, but I know quite well my trou- 
ble did.”—Selected. 
— 1099 — 


THE SLIGHTED PARDON 

When Queen Victoria celebrated her 
jubilee she issued among other procla- 
mations one which offered full and free 
pardon to every man who had at any 
time deserted from the army or Navy, 
the only condition being that he should 
appear before a magistrate, or his su- 
perior officer, within a specified time, 
confess the fact and receive his pardon. 

In a certain army corps, a colonel 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


one day absented himself from his quar- 
ters, turning the command over to his 
lieutenant, and at the hour for the “or- 
derly room” presented himself before 
his lieutenant-colonel and confessed hav- 
ing, years before, been a deserter. His 
fellow-officers were astonished, and the 
affair was a “nine-days’ wonder” in the 
barracks. But the colonel had fulfilled 
her Majesty’s command, and received a 
full and free pardon. 

A few weeks later, and after the spe- 
cified time for the pardons to be issued 
had expired, a file of the guard was sud- 
denly sent to the junior officer’s quarters 
and arrested a certain corporal, a non- 
commissioned officer, but a well-liked 
man. On inquiry it was found that the 
corporal had been a deserter, too, but he 
had not accepted the Queen’s pardon. It 
was not long before he was sentenced to 
penal servitude at hard labor, and when 
he was brought up before his colonel for 
committal into the hands of the jail 
wardens, the colonel asked, “Corporal, 
what have you got to say?” 

“Nothing, sir.” 

“I should like to know why you did 
not accept the Queen’s pardon. You 
saw that your colonel accepted it. It 
was open to you as well.” 

“Colonel, I was afool. I have nothing 
to say, only that it serves me right. I 
get what I deserve.” 

The pardon for our sins is offered just 
as freely as the Queen’s pardon... What 
can we say at the end if we refuse it? 
That is, indeed, an unanswerable ques- 
tion.—Selected. 


— 1100 — 
BOMBARDING A ROCK. 


“A Spanish frigate lay all night in the 
Indian Ocean, firing numerous. broad- 
sides at a craft which was discovered 
after coming to anchor. Not a shot 
was returned. The day broke and, lo, 
yonder a mighty rock rose from the sea. 
Of what avail was those broadsides?” 
So the religion of the Scriptures, as an 
impregnable rock, resists, without reply, 
the attacks of its foes. Our vision is dim, 
but wait until the day breaks!” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 1101 = 
THE POWER OF LOVE 


One day one of the gigantic eagles, 
which were more common in Scotland 
generations ago than now, carried away 
an infant, which its mother had laid to 
sleep on a heap of hay in a field in which 
she was harvesting. The whole village 
ran after it, but the eagle soon perched 
itself upon the loftiest eyrie, and every 
one despaired of the child being recov- 
ered. A sailor tried to climb the ascent, 
but his strong limbs trembled, and he 
was at last obliged to give up the at- 
tempt. A robust Highlander, accus- 
tomed to climb the hills, tried next, and 
even he was precipitated to the bottom. 

At last a poor peasant woman came 
forward. She put her feet first on one 
shelf of the rock, then on the second, and 
then on the third; and in this manner 
she rose to the very top of the cliff; and 
at last, while the hearts of those below 
were trembling for her safety, as well 
as that of the child, she came down step 
by step, until, amid the shouts of the 
villagers, she stood at the bottom of the 
rock with the child on her bosom. 

Why did that woman succeed, when 
the strong sailor and the practiced High- 
lander had failed? Why? Because be- 
tween her and the babe there was a tie 
—that woman was the mother of the 
child. 

What a beautiful picture is this of 
the love of a mother! But there is 
greater love than this. “Can a woman 
forget her sucking child, that she should 
not have compassion on the son of her 
womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I 
not forget thee,” saith the Lord. Our 
heavenly Father has shown his deep love 
in the gift of his only Son.—Cheyne 
Brady. 


=— 1102 — 
THE CLEANSING BLOOD 


Bishop Whipple tells us the story of 
the conversion of one of the most re- 
markable Indians he ever knew. “He 
was known throughout the northwest 
as a most terrible warrior. 

“One day he happened to look into the 


539 


home of our Indian clergyman and he 
heard him reading the words, “The 
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from 
all sin.’ The Indian said, ‘Read it again.’ 
It was read again. He reached out his 
hands and said, ‘My hands are covered 
with blood; can I become a Christian?’ 
With tears running down his cheeks, the 
clergyman told him the story of Christ, 
the Savior of the world, and then to test 
him, he said, ‘Let me cut your hair.’ 
The Indian always wears a scalp lock 
for his enemy when he is on the warpath. 
‘Yes,’ said the Indian, ‘I am in earnest; 
if I can be a follower of Jesus Christ, I 
can suffer anything.’ 

“His hair was cut. His men jeered 
at him and called him a fool. It stung 
him almost to madness. He rushed 
home and threw himself upon the floor. 
His wife, who was a Christian, put her 
arms around his neck and said, ‘Yester- 
day no man in the world could call you 
a coward, Cannot you be as brave for 
Him who died for you?’ He afterward 
said, ‘My wife lifted me onto my feet.’ 
I have known many servants of Christ, 
but none I think more devoted to him 
than that man.”—Sel, 


— 1103 — 


HEIRS TO THE KINGDOM 


Some one tells of an old man who was 
riding through a country district, when 
he was accosted by a native who asked 
him for a ride. He soon began to talk 
to the man and found that he was not 
saved. The native asked him after a 
while what his business was in those 
parts. He said: “I represent a large 
estate that has just been divided by the 
will of the testator and some of the heirs 
live around here, and I am looking for 
them. Their family name begins with 
the letter “S,”’ and they are a very large 
family.” Immediately the man became 
greatly interested. “Why,” he said, “I 
know some of them, they are the Smiths, 
are they not?” “No,” said the man, as 
he looked him earnestly in the face, 
“their name is ‘Sinner,’ and I think you 
are one of them and I have come to 
bring you a fortune.”—-Ram’s Horn. 


540 


— 1104 — 


YEARS OF SERVICE LOST 


On one of the Clyde river steamers 
a Christian man on his holidays was 
giving away tracts. Among others who 
received one was a gentleman belong- 
ing to Glasgow, who remarked as he 
received it that he feared such efforts 
did little permanent good. “I am not 
opposed to such work,” he said. “In 
my younger days I did a good deal of 
it myself, but I cannot say that I ever 
saw any fruit from it.” 


The tract distributor was’ somewhat 
“damped” by that remark, coming 
from one who evidently was a Chris- 
tian of many years’ standing. But he 
instantly remembered that his own 
conversion was brought about by means 
of a tract which he received when a lad 
of twelve, as he walked along the street 
one wintry night. 

As he passed the door of a Mission 
Hall a young man, standing evidently 
for the purpose of getting passers-by 
to go in, handed him a tract and asked 
him to go inside and hear the Gospel. 
He did go in, and heard words there 
that awakened him to think of eternity 
and his state before God, and he went 
home in deep soul trouble. In his anxiety 
he turned to the tract he had received, 
read it and was saved. The tract distri- 
butor told this story to the gentleman, 
who listened with evident interest, and 
when it was finished he said, “May I 
ask where this most interesting event 
took place?” 

The man named the street, the hall, 
and the very night on which he got 
the tract and was invited inside. 

The gentleman’s eyes filled with tears; 
he grasped the distributor’s hand, and 
said with great emotion: “It was my 
work for many a night, when a young 
man newly converted, to stand at that 
door giving tracts and inviting passers- 
by, and I well remember inviting in the 
bright-eyed lad that wintry night. But 
I lost heart soon after that, and gave it 
up, thinking such work was almost use- 
less. Now after twenty years, God has 
let me know it was not in vain, and if 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


He spares me to return to the city I shall 
by His grace return to the service He 
gave me long ago, confessing my faith- 
lessness in leaving it.” But the twenty 
intervening years were lost. How many 
more golden sheaves might have ap- 
peared to that Christian worker’s ac- 
count in the day of Christ had he con- 
tinued in the service that the Lord gave 
him to do!—Selected. 


— 1105 — 


HE GAVE UP HIS PIPE. 


When I was a boy, some fifty years 
ago, we lived on a farm, and I was 
somewhat inclined toward machinery, 
and especially interested in trying to 
make some kind of machine that would 
run without turning acrank. There was 
a small spring branch near by, so I com- 
menced building a dam and digging a 
race to the place where my future mill 
was to be. By and by I succeeded in 
making a water wheel and crude ma- 
chinery that would run without turning 
a crank, says Jacob H. Schwank, in the 
“Gospel Banner.” 

One day my father came down there, 
smoking his clay pipe, and said to me: 

“Jake, I think it looks very foolish to 
spend so much time trying to make 
something that will never do anybody 
any good. It will not even crack a grain 
of corn for a little chicken.” 

And I looked up to him and said: 

“Now, daddy, please do not get of- 
fended if I tell you of something that 
looks still more foolish to me: you fill 
your pipe with tobacco about a half a 
dozen or more times a day, and light it 
and suck the smoke through the stem 
into your mouth, and then blow it out in 
the air. And when the stem gets 
clogged, you draw a broom straw 
through it to start it again. Now, daddy, 
be fair and square with me; which is the 
more foolish—for a man to do that, or 
for me to do what I am doing. 

_Daddy went away, but not smoking 
his pipe. In about a week mother told 
sister and me that daddy had quit smok- 
ing, and that one day he came in and 
put pipe, tobacco and all in the stove, 
without saying a word. Then I told 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


mother about the talk we had down at 
the branch, and she said to me: 

“My dear boy, you have done what I 
have prayed for and tried to do for the 
past fifteen years.” 


— 1106 — 


WHEN SPURGEON PREACHED 
IN HIS SLEEP 


An exceedingly fascinating and re- 
markable event is narrated in the auto- 
biography of Charles H. Spurgeon. It 
was Saturday evening, the time for the 
preparation of his Sunday forenoon ser- 
mon. He had chosen his text. It was 
Psalm 110:3: “Thy people shall be will- 
ing in the day of thy power, in the beau- 
ties of holiness from the womb of the 
morning: thou hast the dew of thy 
youth.” But for once that great and 
gifted mind was balked. He could not 
get at the heart of his text and elaborate 
the plan for his discourse that should be 
satisfactory and forcible. He sat up late 
at his work, but accomplished nothing, 
and retired to bed very much dispirited. 
During the night his wife heard him 
talking in his sleep. He was giving a 
clear and definite exposition of his text. 
Her ears and memory were keenly attent 
to receive and retain the plan of his 
sermon. She says, “Never preacher had 
a more eager and anxious hearer.” In 
the morning she told him all that he had 
spoken in his sleep. He was utterly 
astonished and could hardly credit her 
words. He exclaimed, “Why, that is 
just what I have wanted. That is the 
true explanation of the whole verse.” 
And that Sunday forenoon he preached 
one of his best sermons from the plan 
he had talked in his sleep.—Selected. 


— 1107 — 
THE BELLS OF BETHLEHEM 


When Dr. Guthrie was minister of the 
Barony Kirk in Glasgow, a godless old 
woman living near by was troubled by 
the ringing of his bell. She presented 
herself at the minister’s study and re- 
lated her experience in this way: “I am 
here not because of your preaching, Dr. 
Guthrie, but because of your bell. It 
always seems to be saying, ‘Come! 


541 


Come! Come!’ and I have resented it. 
But the other night I dreamed; in my 
dream I seemed to be walking in a gar- 
den when you entered with a watering- 
pot; and, going about, you watered the 
plants one by one until, coming to a 
poor, scrawny thing, you passed it by. 
I called to you, ‘Water that, too.’ But 
you answered, ‘No, my good woman, it 
would be useless; it has no root.’ When 
I awoke, the beli was ringing and still 
saying, ‘Come! Come! Come!’ Then I 
wondered if I were the poor, fruitless 
thing. So I have come: tell me, what 
shall I do?” 

It is a scientific fact that a sound-wave 
moves outward from its center, in con- 
centric circles, until its vibrations touch 
the uttermost borders of infinite space. 
So ring the Bells of Bethlehem; and the 
sphere of their message grows wider and 
wider with the passing years, until 
Christ shall come again and speak to 
the children of men.—Rev. D. J. Burrell, 
DL 


— 1108 — 
WILLIAM TYNDALE’S REQUEST 


Think of it now! In the sixteenth 
century a curious request, indeed, was 
made by a true disciple of Saint Paul’s 
that great Christian and great English- 
man, William Tyndale, whose transla- 
tion of the New Testament is practically 
the basis of our versions to-day, Author- 
ised and Revised. 

Seized by the persecutor, in 1535, and 
immured at Vilvorde, in Belgium, he 
wrote a Latin letter to the Marquis of 
Bergen, governor of the castle, not long 
before his fiery martyrdom, to this 
effect; “I entreat your Lordship, and 
that by the Lord Jesus that if I must 
remain here for the winter you would 
beg the Commissary to be so kind as to 
send me, from the things of mine which 
he has, a warmer cap: I feel the cold 
painfully in my head. Also a warmer 
cloak, for the cloak I have is very thin. 
He has a woolen shirt of mine, if he will 
send it. But most of all, my Hebrew 
Bible, Grammar, and Vocabulary, that 
I may spend my time in that pursuit.”— 
Selected. 


542 


msi 1109 moss 
A SOLDIER FATHER’S LETTER 
TO HIS LITTLE GIRL 


One Sunday evening in 1917, the 
pastor of the People’s Tabernacle of 
New York invited the Christians present 
to tell the congregation what it was 
that started them on the road to Christ, 
and a number did so. At the prayer 
meeting the Wednesday evening fol- 
lowing, the pastor’s sister, Mrs. Carrie 
T. Mitchell, read the letter given be- 
low. It was written to her more than 
fifty years before, when she was a little 
girl, by her father, Myron P. Tindall, 
as he then spelled the family name. He 
was but 32 years of age, a soldier in the 
Civil War, stationed at that time at 
Camp Haskel, D. C. Her mother had 
died five years before when she was 
five years of age, and her two brothers 
were several years younger. Mrs. 
Mitchell said she had read this letter 
a thousand times, and she believes it 
largely the means used of God to bring 
her to love and serve Jesus. 

It is not surprising that the daughter 
whose father’s heart inclined him thus 
to write, should become a church mis- 
sionary, and that three of his four sons 
should be ministers. 


Camp Haskel, Oct. 20, 1862. 
Dear Girl: 

This is the first time I ever wrote to 
you; the first time I ever was so far 
from you. I am well, I hope this will 
find you the same. I should like to 
see you, but that can’t be at present, 
but I hope to before many months. 

You must be a good girl, and write 

to me if you can. I want you to have 
your likeness taken, and send it to me. 
I should think a good deal of it. I 
guess your uncle and aunt will take 
you to some place, and let you have it 
taken. It won’t cost much. Two 
| stamps will fetch it here. 
You must mind your aunt and uncle, 
| and remember your father and little 
brothers. ‘Try to make as good a 
woman as your mother was. Go and 
see your brothers and tell them to be 
good children. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


You’re old enough to begin to think 
of another world. I hope you will 
strive to meet your mother who is in 
the other world. She was a good 
woman. I hope you will be as good. 
Try to meet her in heaven. There is a 
God who takes care of all that trust 
in him. He knows the hearts of all 
mankind. He loves little children and 
you must love him, and keep his com- 
mandments, 

I must write a few lines to your uncle 
and aunt, so good bye for the present. 

From your father, 


M. P. Tindall. 
— 1110— 
“NOW, THEN—!” 


To illustrate the fact that Christians 
should yield prompt obedience to the 
will of God, whether at home or abroad, 
and regardless of danger or difficulty, 
Dr. J. H. Jowett, in a sermon while yet 
a pastor in New York, related the fol- 
lowing incident: 

The crew of a coaling steamer landed 
at Messina shortly after the terrible 
earthquake. 

The captain saw two little children 
crouched on the top balcony of a build- 
ing eighty feet high, which had been 
wrenched from its support and threat- 
ened to collapse any moment. He got 
the children to fasten a string to the 
balcony, and he fixed a ladder to it, and 
then turned to one of his seamen with 
the words, “Now then, Smith.” The 
sailor ran up the ladder, hoisted a rope 
by the string, induced the. children or 
probably one of the older inmates to 
fasten it to the top balcony, climbed up 
the face of the tottering building, and 
shouted when he reached it that “there 
was a ton of them on the building,” and 
that he could not get them all down by 
himself. The captain turned to his 
second mate, “Now then, Read,” and in 
a few minutes Read stood by Smith’s 
side, and together the men lowered 
twelve cowering creatures by the rope. 
And the Lord is speaking to you and 
me to-day, and with reference to this 
great heroic work of saving the world— 
“Now then He 





ILLUSTRATIVE 


~—1111— 
DEGREES OF GRIEF 


Dr. Talmage, the celebrated Brooklyn 
clergyman, was riding one day in a rail- 
road coach, soon after the decease of a 
favorite son. His grief was constant and 
acute and he could not feel that anyone 
had ever suffered as he was doing. 

In a seat near him sat a gentleman 
who, he thought, possessed one of the 
most cheerful faces he had ever seen. 
“How happy that man is compared to 
me!” he thought. “I will get into con- 
versation with him. Perhaps he may 
console me, or cheer me up a little.” 

The dialogue ran upon general sub- 
jects for a little while, and then turned 
upon Dr. Talmages’ great loss. I can- 
not help envying you,” said the preacher. 
“You seem, from your appearance, as if 
you had not a trouble in the world.” 

The other gentleman looked grave, 
and a spasm of grief went over his coun- 
tenance. “I never saw a sadder face, 
for the moment,” said Talmage, in re- 
lating this incident to the writer. 

“My dear sir,” he inquired, “will you 
tell me where you are going?” 

“Why,” replied Talmage, “home; to 
Brooklyn, New York. I get there this 
evening, if all goes well.” 

“I suppose to a wife—perhaps a 
mother—a live son—a daughter or 
two?” 

“Oh, yes! I have all those awaiting 
me.” 

“Now I will tell you where I am go- 
ing. All my family are dead but one, 
and that is my wife; and I am making 
my regular weekly visit to her, at an 
asylum. She is hopelessly insane. But 
God has left me my life, my honor, and 
my faculties; and I am trying to keep 
patient and cheerful, with the hope of 
meeting them all again in a better world, 
by and by.” 

Talmage rose, and took the stranger 
by both hands. 

“I surrender!” he exclaimed. “My 
sorrow is as nothing compared to yours. 
I have learned a lesson, and I hope God 
will aid me to profit by it.”—Every- 
where. 


ANECDOTES 543 


mom 1112 mos 
GIVING THE LAST NICKEL 


The American Magazine tells how a 
man succeeded in making a great for- 
tune after he was forty years of age, and 
how its foundation was laid upon the 
gift to religious work of the last nickel 
possessed. 

Some twenty years ago a rascally 
partner beat J. C. S. Johnstone, then of 
Faribault, Minn., out of all he had. 
After years of habitual comfort, at the 
age of forty-one and in hard times he 
faced the world with practically nothing 
but his hands, He went to Minneapolis 
and tramped the streets for work in 
vain. At last he had but five cents be- 
tween him and beggary or starvation. 

Walking along the street, uncertain 
whether to try again or give up the 
battle altogether, he was asked by a 
Salvation Army girl for a nickel for the 
poor. Moved perhaps by the uncon- 
scious irony of the request, he gave her 
his last nickel and told her it was his 
last cent. 

“The Lord won’t forget,” she said, 
and went on. 

Almost convinced that the Lord had 
forgotten him, Johnstone watched her 
at her work. The next thirteen men she 
accosted gave her nothing. The four- 
teenth gave her a dollar. He remem- 
bered that he had asked for work several 
times and had always been refused. He 
made up his mind to ask again, up to 
fourteen times. He got the job. 

That was the end of his distress. He 
saved his wages and after a year or two 
bought a little mill out in the woods. 
His business prospered steadily. In ten 
years the commercial agencies were rat- 
ing his wealth at nearly seven figures. 
He was always utterly convinced that 
should he let a Salvation Army collector 
pass unheeded his prosperity would end. 

It pays to take God into our planning 
and put him to the test. He has prom- 
ised to bless beyond our capacity to 
receive when we properly meet the 
conditions. Let us prove Him.— The 
Chrisian. 


544 


— 1113 — 
WICKEDEST MAN IN NEW YORK 


I have often said, It is grand to see a 
man fighting an evil habit, and none 
but those who have passed through such 
a battle know what a conflict it is. 

Orville Gardiner of New York was 
called the most wicked man in this 
city. More than once since he became a 
Christian he has been in my house; and 
a warmer, tenderer heart than his never 
beat in a human bosom. I have seen him 
sit and cry as he said, “Only to think 
that Jesus should love me.” He was a 
prize-fighter, a blasphemer, a drunkard, 
in every respect a wicked man; and 
there was nothing bad that he would 
not do. 

Let me say here to mothers, he had 
a godly mother. When they would say 
to her, “Well, Mrs. Gardiner, what do 
you think of Orville now?” she would 
say, “I have given him to Jesus; I pray 
for him three times a day, and Orville 
will be brought into the kingdom yet.” 
He had a wife and one child. The boy 
died,—-was drowned. He became more 
desperate than ever, almost raving mad. 
“Drink! drink!’ he said, “I drank sixty 
glasses in twenty-four hours.” 

Soon after the death of his boy he 
was in a saloon, drinking with several 
fighting men. The room was very warm 
and close. They were smoking, and he 
went out. It was a bright night. Look- 
ing up overhead at the narrow strip of 
sky visible above the narrow street, he 
saw two stars shining brightly. He took 
off his hat and wiped his forehead, and 
the thought struck him, “I wonder where 
my boy is.” It flashed upon him that 
he was not on the right road ever to 
see his boy again. He went home and 
sent away two men whom he had been 
training for the ring; and then he went 
up to see his old mother, and they knelt 
and prayed together. “But,” he said, “I 
cannot be a Christian until I give up 
the drink, and that is the hardest work 
of all. Now,” said he, “mother, to-day 
I will drink myself to death or I will 
get the victory.” 

He bought a jug of liquor—it con- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


tained about two quarts of whiskey— 
and carried it in a boat across the river, 
went into the woods, found a clear space, 
and then set the jug down on a stone 
and began to fight it. “Now it is give 
you up forever, or I will never leave 
this place alive. I will drink the whole 
of you, or I will conquer you.” For nine 
hours that man fought and struggled 
with his appetite. He said, “I was afraid 
to break the jug for fear the smell of 
the liquor would drive me mad. My 
knees were so sore from kneeling while 
crying to God to help me, that I could 
hardly move. I knew my mother was 
praying for me. I kicked a place in the 
soft loam, and took up the jug, holding 
it at arm’s length, and placed it in the 
hole. Then I covered it up, and stamped 
upon it. And from that day to this not 
a drop has ever passed my lips.” 

It requires strength of mind and firm- 
ness of purpose to do such a thing as 
that. What I want to impress upon 
every man is this. You have a will. 
Did you ever exercise your will? Did 
you ever resolutely determine, “I 
WILL?” Why, there are circumstances 
that seem almost inevitable, that you 
can often fight off by the power of your 
will.—Selected. 


—1114— 


SHOW ME MYSELF 


A godly minister was once traveling 
in Scotland and put up at a certain 
tavern. At evening-time the landlord 
asked if he would conduct family prayer. 
He consented on the condition that the 
landiord would call all the servants of 
the household. The servants came in 
and when all seemed to be assembled, 
the minister asked, “Are all here?” 
“Yes,” said the landlord. “Not one miss- 
ing?” he asked. “Oh, well,” said the 
landlord, “there is a poor girl we never 
bring in. She does the dirty work about 
the kitchen and is not fit to come in 
with the others.” “Well then,” said the 
minister, “I will not go on until she 
comes.” He insisted and the landlord 
yielded. Seeing her neglected appear- 
ance, the minister took a peculiar inter- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


est in her. When he was leaving the 
next day, he called for the girl and said 
to her, “I wish to teach you a prayer, 
and I want you to pray it until I come 
back again. It is this, ‘Lord, show me 
myself.’ ” 

He left the hotel, but returned in a 
few days. He asked the landlord, “How 
is that poor girl?” “Oh,” replied the 
landlord, “she is spoiled. She is of no 
use whatever now. She can do no work. 
She is weeping all the time. She mopes 
and is melancholy. I don’t know what 
is the matter with her.” The minister 
knew, and asked to see her. The land- 
lord brought her in and the minister 
said, “Now I wish to teach you another 
prayer. You have been praying, ‘Show 
me myself’?” “Yes,” she said, in deep 
distress, “and I am so wicked I can do 
nothing but weep over my sins.” “Now 
let me teach you another prayer, ‘Lord, 
show me Thyself.’ ” 

Years passed. The minister was 
preaching in Glasgow when a neat- 
looking woman came up to him at the 
close of the sermon and said, “Do you 
remember me?” “No,” he said, “I do 
not.” “Do you remember teaching a 
poor girl in a hotel to pray, ‘Show me 
myself’?” “Yes,” he replied, “I remem- 
ber that well.” “I am that girl. I prayed 
that prayer and got such a view of my- 
self that I was overwhelmed with grief 
and despair. Then you taught me the 
other prayer, “Lord, show me Thyself,’ 
and He showed me Himself and my 
grief and despair went and I trusted 
Him and found salvation and He has 
made me what I am to-day. - 

It is a good prayer for us all to pray, 
“Lord, show me myself,” and after He 
has shown us ourselves, let us go on 
and ask Him to show us Himself.— 
R. A. Torrey. 

THE TRESPASSING HEN 


A man in New Jersey told me the 
following circumstances respecting him- 
self and one of his neighbors. “I once 
owned a large flock of hens. I generally 
kept them shut up. But one spring, I 
concluded to let them run in my yard, 


545 


after I had clipped their wings so that 
they could not fly. One day, when I 
came home to dinner, I learned that 
one of my neighbors had been there full 
of wrath, to let me know that my hens 
had been in his garden, and that he 
had killed several of them, and thrown 
them over into my yard. I was greatly 
enraged because he had killed my beau- 
tiful hens that I valued so much. I 
determined at once, to be revenged, to 
sue him, or in some way to get redress. 
{ sat down and ate my dinner as calmly 
as I could. By the time I had finished 
my meal, I became more cool, and 
thought that perhaps it was not best to 
fight with my neighbor about hens, and 
thereby make him my bitter enemy. I 
concluded to try another way, being 
sure that it would be better. After din- 
ner, I went to my neighbor’s. He was 
in his garden. I went out, and found 
him in pursuit of one of my hens with 
a club, trying to kill it. I accosted him. 
He turned upon me, his face inflamed 
with wrath, and broke out in a great 
fury, “You have abused me. I will 
kill all of your hens, if I can get them. 
I never was so abused. My garden is 
ruined.” “I am sorry for it,” said Ts 
“I did not wish to injure you; and 
now see that I have made a great mis- 
take in letting out my hens. I ask your 
forgiveness, and am willing to pay you 
six times the damage.” The man seemed 
confounded. He did not know what to 
make of it. He looked up to the sky, 
then down at the earth, then at his 
neighbor, then at his club, and then at 
the poor hen he had been pursuing, and 
said nothing. “Tell me now,” said I, 
“what is the damage, and I will pay 
you sixfold; and my hens shall trouble 
you no more. I will leave it entirely 
to you to say what I shall do. I can- 
not afford to lose the love and good- 
will of my neighbors, and quarrel with 
them, for hens or anything else.” “I 
am a great fool!” said my neighbor. 
“The damage is not worth talking 
about; and I have more need to com- 
pensate you than you me, and to ask 
your forgiveness than you mine.” — 
Selected. 


546 


—1116— 


WHAT A CRIPPLED BOY DID. 


One of the most touching incidents of 
the entire World’s Sunday School Con- 
vention at Tokyo, Japan, occurred when 
Dr, Frank L. Brown, the World’s Sun- 
day School General Secretary, told of a 
Japanese boy who, badly crippled, was 
one time crawling along the roadside 
when he heard music. He crawled into 
the building from which the music came, 
and found that it was a Christian 
Sunday-school. Becoming very much 
interested, he took home some of the 
literature that was given out. His open 
confession and baptism as a Christian 
believer followed. Then he started a 
Sunday-school in his own home. Not 
content with this, he started another 
Sunday-school, and another, and an- 
other, and another. To-day he is super- 
intendent of three Sunday-schools, said 
Dr. Brown. 

As the speaker stepped to one side, the 
young Sunday-school superintendent 
himself, Mr. Iwakiri, was carried to the 
front of the convention platform by 
friends. It was a blessed demonstration 
of the opportunity and mission of the 
Christian Sunday-school in heathen 
lands.—S. S. Times. 


— 1117 — 


HOW GOD PROVIDED A COW 


My grandfather was a very poor min- 
ister, and kept a cow, which was a very 
great help in the support of his children 
—he had ten of them—and the cow took 
the “staggers” and died. 

“What will you do now?” said my 
grandmother. 

“TI cannot tell what we shall do now,” 
said he, “but I know what God will do: 
God will provide for us. We must have 
milk for the children.” 

The next morning there came £20 
to him, He had never made application 
to the fund for the relief of ministers, 
but on that day there was £5 left when 
they had divided the money, and one 
said: “There is poor Mr. Spurgeon down 
in Essex; suppose we send it to him.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


The chairman—a Mr. Morely of this day 
—said: “We had better make it £10, 
and T’ll give £5.” Another £5 was 
offered by another member, if a like 
amount could be raised to make it up 
to £20, which was done. They knew 
nothing about my grandfather’s cow; 
but God did, you see; and there was the 
new cow for him. And those gentlemen 
in London were not aware of the im- 
portance of the service which they had 
rendered.—Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon. 


— 1118 — 
TOM PAINE AND THE BIBLE 


“When Tom Paine came back from 
Europe, sitting in a hotel on Broadway, 
New York, he said: ‘In five years from 
now there will not be a Bible in America. 
I have gone through the Bible with an 
axe and cut down all its trees; they are 
no longer timber but lumber, to be put 
with all other lumber on the shelf. The 
Bible is a tissue of absurdities and false- 
hoods, which I will expose to the ridi- 
cule of the world.’ This brilliant, but 
deluded American was not nly a poor 
but a false prophet. Now seven-tenths 
of the population of the world have 
Bibles in their own language. A century 
ago only one-fifth of the population of 
the world had the Bible in their own 
language. Each year nearly 20,000,000 
of Protestant Bibles and portions are 
published, in 500 languages and dia- 
lects.” 


Ai ib ce 
AN AGNOSTIC 


In one of our New England fishing 
villages a big boy who knew all about 
fishing, but had never learned the alpha- 
bet, was sent to school to learn it. He 
didn’t believe anything on anybody’s 
“say SO.” 

“That’s ‘A,’” said the teacher. 

“How d’yer know?” said the boy. 

“Because my teacher told me.” 

“How’d she know?” said the boy. 

“Because her teacher told her.” 

“How d’yer know but they lied?” said 
the boy.—Selected. 


— 1120 — 
NO ACCIDENTS WITH GOD. 


The Rev. Dr. Kennedy, of Basking 
Ridge, N. J., went into his pulpit one 
Sabbath and by a strange freak of mem- 
ory forgot his subject and forgot his 
text, and in great embarrassment rose 
before his audience and announced the 
circumstance and declared himself en- 
tirely unable to preach then launched 
forth in a few earnest words of entreaty 
and warning which resulted in the out- 
breaking of the mightiest revival of re- 
ligion ever known in that State, a re- 
vival of religion, that resulted in 
churches still standing and in the con- 
version of a large number of men who 
entered the Gospel ministry who have 
brought their thousands into the King- 
dom of God. 

Nothing in God’s universe swings at 
loose ends. Accidents are only God’s 
way of turning a leaf in the book of his 
eternal decrees. From our cradle to our 
grave there is a path all marked out. 
Each event in our life is connected with 
every other event in our life. Our loss 
may be the most direct road to our gain. 
Our defeats and victories are twin 
brothers. The whole direction of your 
life was changed by something which at 
the time seemed to you a trifle, while 
some occurrence which seemed tremen- 
dous affected you but little —Talmage. 


HE FEARED SIN ONLY. 


The Emperor Arcadius and his wife 
Eudoxia had a very bitter feeling to- 
wards Chrysostom, bishop of Constan- 
tinople. One day, in a fit of anger, the 
emperor said to one of his courtiers: “I 
would be avenged of this bishop.” 

Several then proposed how this should 
be done. 

“Banish him,” said one. 

“Put him in prison,” said another. 

“Confiscate his property,” said a 
third. 

“Let him die,” said a fourth. 

Another courtier, whose vices, Chry- 
sostom had reproved, said maliciously. 
“You all make a great mistake. You 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


547 


will never punish him by such propos- 
als. If banished from the kingdom, he 
will feel God as near to him in the des- 
ert as here. If you put him in prison 
and lead him with chains, he will still 
pray for the poor and praise God in 
prison. If you confiscate his property, 
you merely take away his goods from 
the poor, not from him. If you con- 
demn him to death, you open heaven to 
him. Prince, do you wish to be re- 
venged on him? Force him to commit 
sin. I know him; this man fears noth- 
ing in the world but sin.”—Selected. 


— 1122— 
WHY SHE COULDN’T WIN HIM. 


When her husband and her son, a 
young man of eighteen, came home, a 
woman said to them: “I wish you would 
remain a little after dinner, I want to 
speak with you.” 

They stepped into the parlor, and she 
put an arm about each and said: “I have 
not been a consistent Christian, there- 
fore I feel I have not been as good a 
wife to you, husband, or as good a 
mother to you, son, as I should have 
been. Will you join me in prayer that 
God will forgive me?” 

They all three knelt, and she tried to 
pray, but all she could say was, “O 
God! O God!” But the Spirit broke 
up the fountains of the deep, and all 
three wept. 

A few days later her husband publicly 
accepted Christ and joined the church. 

“Husband, tell me why I couldn’t 
win you to Christ before?” she asked, 
and he said: 

“fT would ask you to go with me to 
the theatre, and you would go; to the 
dance, and you would go; to play cards, 
and you would go. You drank wine 
with me. Then you would ask me to 
go to church with you and to prayer 
meeting, and I would go. You went 
where I went, and I went where you 
went. You did what I did, and I did 
what you did. Wherein was your life 
any better than mine?” 

To be able to convict others of sin 
we must ourselves first get right with 
God.—Billy Sunday. 


S48 


gas 1123 ami 
THE SINS OF A FATHER 


. God is still on the throne, gentlemen, 

and He has said, “The sins of the fath- 
ers shall be visited upon the third and 
fourth generations of them that are 
evil.’ Down to the third and fourth. 
There is no fifth, for the fourth will be 
a lunatic, and a lunatic born that way, 
either male or female, is sterile. If 
they could bear children the offspring 
would be idiots, so you see how God 
protects you. 

I never used to know, when I was a 
kid, what they meant when they said, 
“Chickens come home to roost.” But 
I know now. It means if you are a 
drunkard, your children will be drunk- 
ards; if you are a libertine, your chil- 
dren will be libertines. In other words, 
your children will return to disgrace 
you or bless you. 

Listen. If I were absolutely sure 
that there would be no hereafter, no 
future beyond the grave, I would go on 
living the same kind of life Pm living 
now. 

When I was in the Y. M. C. A. work 
I knew a gambler who was converted. 
He was making $75,000 a year, and he 
was going up and down the country 
showing that you can’t beat a gambler 
at his own game. 

He tells the story of a game which 
was on and one man was accused of 
ringing in a cold deck. The lie was 
passed and a man shot another dead. 
He was sentenced to die, and as he 
was being prepared for the scaffold, his 
four year old son toddled up the steps 
and said, “Come home,papa.” 

The sheriff was a kind man and un- 
buckled his feet and hands and let him 
lift the child up. He told his son he 
couldn’t come home, and for him to go 
away now and the sheriff would take 
care of him. Then he turned to the 
crowd and cried: “For God’s sake, 
boys, don’t let my son be what I have 
been.” 

The trap fell and he shot into eter- 
nity. 

A collection was taken for that child 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANBCDOTES 


among the crowd, and wien the money 
in the hat was counted it amounted to 
about $653, a big sum for that part of 
the country and' among those fellows. 
The boy was placed in a Christian 
home, and when he was twenty-one 
they gave him this money with accum- 
ulated interest. 

He started out on a career of crime. 
He got so low down that they wouldn’t 
let him sleep in the police station. He 
sunk so low that even the dogs seemed 
to shun him. He tried to beg to get 
enough to drink, and would clean cus- 
pidors in dirty, filthy saloons to get 
drink. 

Oh, men and women, blood will tell. 
I’m pleading with you, yield to Christ 
so that your children will not be blight- 
ed.—Billy Sunday. 


—1124— 


A WISE CRAB. 


The former president of Princeton, — 
Dr. Francis L. Patton, in the lectures 
which he is delivering widely through- 


-out the country telis the story of a wise 


crab. 


It seems that a young professor was 
trying to discover the psychology of 
crabs, and took one, and put him into 
a dark box for observation. The box 
was so arranged that a single ray of 
light could be admitted from either of 
the four sides, the others all being dark. 
The professor would let in the ray, and 
the crab would carefully work its way 
from anywhere else in the box, and plant 
himself where that ray appeared. If 
that hole was darkened and the ray was 
let in from another side, the crab would 
make straight for it again. Part of his 
psychology, the professor decided, was 
to follow the light wherever he saw it. 

Of course you see at once what Dr. 
Patton makes of that story and what 
the rest of us may make of it also. 
There are people who seem to revel in 
their difficulties; they nose around in 
the dark places; their main thought of 
religion is that it has a great many un- 
answered questions. That there are 
rays of light here and there, even in the 


So ey 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


dark boxes of life, is to these people 
meaningless, Wise people learn at least 
as much as the crab; they know the 
wisdom of making for the light ray. 

Mr. Robt. Speer tells of a young 
Swede who was going to India as a mis- 
sionary. A friend told him it was too 
hot there to work, that it was 120 de- 
grees in the shade. “Well,” he replied, 
“T don’t have to stay in the shade all 
the time, do 1?” 

And the apostle John told us to walk 
in the light. Surely we can do as well 
as a crab.—Rev. C. B. McAfee, D. D. 


o— 1125 — 
HE WANTED HIS CHECK BACK. 


Bishop Whipple used to tell a:story 
which will point a moral. 

He called upon a great New York 
merchant, moted for his generosity to 
Christian enterprises, and was given an 
opportunity of presenting the needs of 
his work in Minnesota. The merchant 
received him in his private office and 
listened with interest and sympathy to 
his appeal. 

When the bishop had finished he 
turned to his desk, and, writing a check, 
handed it to the Bishop, who of course 
received it without glancing at its face 
and expressed his thanks for the as- 
sistance rendered. 

At that moment an anxious attendant 
hurried in, bringing a telegram. The 
merchant read it with evident perturba- 
tion, thought a moment, and turning 
to the Bishop, said: 

“This message brings me the news 
of the loss of my finest ship with all 
her cargo. It is a severe blow. I must 
ask you to be good enough to return 
the check which I just gave you.” 

With a sinking heart the bishop took 
from his pocket the bit of folded paper 
which meant so much to him and re- 
turned it to the donor, who tore it across 
and threw the pieces into the waste 
basket. ‘The merchant again turned to 
his desk and writing quickly in his check 
book he handed the Bishop a second 
slip of paper, saying: _ | 

“Tf IT had gone on giving to God in 


549 


the same ratio that I have been doing, 
I should not deserve to have a vessel 
left afloat!” 

Of course the good Bishop never 
knew the amount of the first check, but 
the second one was the most generous 
he had ever received.—Diocesan Record. 


= 1126 — 
A CREATIVE BELIEFP. 


One of the greatest things one per- 
son may do for another is to believe in 
him yet how rarely do we realize this? 

A man on a tramping trip through 
the mountains of West Virginia, came 
one morning upon two children all 
alone on a desolate farm, away at the 
top of one of the highest mountains. 
The mother was dead, and “Pappy was 
away peddlin’ fruit,’ the stranger was 
told. 

“Why don’t you stay with the neigh- 
bors while your father is away?” the 
traveler asked. 

“Oh, we got to stay here, ‘cause if we 
didn’t somebody might come an’ steal 
our chickens,” the youngest child, a lit- 
tle girl explained. 

The stranger looked at her very small 
person. “Why,” he laughed, “what 
could you do to a chicken thief?” 

“T couldn’t do nothin’, but my brother 
could,” she returned promptly. “Why, 
he’s most nine years old!” 

At her words, the brother, a freckle- 
faced, insignificant youngster, was sud- 
denly transformed. “Yes, sir!” he cried, 
with shining eyes. “Yes, sir! I could 
’tend to ’em all right! I’m most nine 
years old!” 

Now whether he could “tend to ’em” 
or not, is beside the mark. The fact 
which struck home to the traveler was 
the change wrought in that small boy by 
his little sister’s loyal belief in him. In 
telling the story afterwards, the man 
was always wont to declare that what 
he desired from his friends was a crea- 
tive belief. ‘“Criticize me,” he would 
laugh, “and I am lost. But believe in 
me, believe in me as that little mountain 
child believed in her brother, and I can 
work miracles!”’The Wellspring. 


550 ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 1127 — 


THE ELDER WHO CONFESSED. 


One morning when I was out in lowa 
a woman came to my door and knocked 
and said that a man wanted to see me. 
I found that he was a church member 
—a ruling elder. He told me that he 
had not been living right. 

“How can I get right?” he asked. 


I told him that his confession must 
be as public as his sin had been great. 
I told him that he would have to stand 
up and tell the people that he hadn't 
been living right and promise that with 
God’s help he would do better. 

He said, “Oh, I can’t do that.” 

“All right,” I said, “but if you’re not 
willing to do what you must do to get 
right, what did you come to me for?” 


He finally said he would do it, and 
he did. Then he asked me to pray for 
him, and I did. Then he asked me to 
pray for his son, Ernest, and I prayed 
for him at intervals that day. The boy 
was at Shenandoah—that was out in 
Western Iowa—going to school. He 
didn’t go with his class that day. Late 
that night there was a knock at the 
door and when they opened it Ernest 
was there. He had walked sixteen or 
seventeen miles to get home, and he 
was almost frozen. 


“What’s wrong?” the father asked. 

“Oh, father, I’m an awful sinner,” 
the boy said. 

They called his mother and they got 
him warm. To-day he is preaching the 
gospel to the heathen. 

God shot the arrow of conviction over 
fifteen miles that day in answer to our 
prayers.—Billy Sunday. 


=— 1128— 
THE SAFE PLACE. 


Out in the Western country, in the 
autumn, when men go hunting and 
there has not been any rain for months, 
sometimes the prairie grass catches 
fire, and there comes up a very strong 
wind, and the flames just roll along 
twenty feet high, and travel at the rate 


ANECDOTES. 


of thirty or forty miles an hour, consum- 
ing man and beast. When the hunters 
see it coming what do they do? They 
know they cannot run so fast as the fire 
can run. Not the fleetest horse can es- 
cape. They just take a match and light 
the grass around them, and let the flames 
sweep, and then they get into the burnt 
district and stand safe. They hear the 
flames roar as they come along; they see 
death coming toward them, but they do 
not fear, they do not tremble, because 
the fire has swept over the place where 
they are, and there is no danger. There 
is nothing for the fire to burn. 

“There is one mountain that the 
wrath of God has swept over, and that 
is Mount Calvary, and the fire spent its 
fury upon the bosom of the Son of God. 
Take your stand by the cross, and you 
will be safe for time and eternity. Here 
alone is there safety.”—Sel. 


— 1129 — 
“NOT MY FEET ONLY.” 


The following story from far away 
India portrays the spirit in which the 
faithful missionary of the Cross of 
Christ seeks to save the souls of the 
humblest men and to uplift them into 
the privileges of sonship in the family of 
God. 

A Brahman visiting a missionary in 
India saw a picture on the wall of Christ 
washing the disciples’ feet. The Brah- 
man said: You Christians pretend to 
be like Jesus Christ, but you are not; 
none of you ever wash people’s feet.” 

The missionary said: “But that is 
just what we are doing all the time! 
You Brahmans say you sprang from the 
head of your god Brahm; that the next 
lower caste spring from his shoulders; 
the next lower, from his loins; and that 
the low caste sprang from his feet. We 
are washing India’s feet, and when you 
proud Brahmans see the low caste and 
out-caste getting educated and Chris- 
tianized—washed, clean, beautiful, and 
holy inside and outside—you Brahmans 
and all India will say, ‘Lord, not my 
feet only, but also my hands and my 
head.’”’—The Presbyterian. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 1130— 


“GOD IS ALIVE.” 


The story is told of Luther who came 
down to breakfast—it was the third day 
of one of his times of sorrow, pessimism, 
and hopelessness,——and found his wife 
dressed in mourning. 

Luther said, “Kate, what is the mat- 
tre?” 

She replied, “God is dead.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“God is dead.” 

Then again he asked her and again 
she replied, “Doctor Martin, God is 
dead.” 

He came around to her as she an- 
swered the third time and said: “Grac- 
ious God, this is blasphemy. What do 
you mean?” 

And her only reply was “God is 
dead!” 

“Gracious God,” he said, “my wife has 
lost her reason!” 

“Doctor Martin,” she asked, “if God 
were not dead, why would you be so 
cast down?” She had often heard him 
say that the “government is upon his 
shoulders” and that all power had been 
given to the Lord Jesus Christ. “Doc- 
tor Martin, if God is not dead, then why 
are you thus cast down?” 

Then he turned to her and said, “Go 
up stairs, Kate, and take that mourning 


off. God is alive!’—Selected. 


—1131— 


OBEDIENCE TESTED. 


In the life of the great Duke of Well- 
ington, it says that, on one occasion, he 
was employed in the pastime of hunting. 
The farmers in the neighborhood in 
which he was hunting, however, had had 
their crops so injured by huntsmen that 
they were determined to keep them out 
of their fields. The gates were locked 
and men and boys posted at different 
points. Up to one little farmer boy 
stationed there came a member of the 
Duke’s party, a gentleman in a red coat. 
Addressing the boy, the huntsman said: 

“Open the gate.” 

He replied, “I cannot.” 


ANECDOTES 551 


“Will you open it at once?” 

“No.” 

By that time, the Duke had arrived 
with his party, and the gentleman said: 

“Your Grace, the boy refused to open 
that gate.” The Duke looked down 
pleasantly and said: 

“My boy, won’t you open that gate?” 

“No.” 

“Why not?” 

“My master told me not to open it to 
anybody.” 

“But,” asked the Duke, “do you know 
who I am?” The boy, a little bewil- 
dered, looked up and said: 

“T believe you are the Duke of Well- 
ington, are you not?” 

“T am. Won’t you open that gate to 
me?” 

“My master said I was to open it to 
no one.” And the Duke was so pleased 
with the boy’s implicit obedience that 
he gave him a sovereign. As the Duke 
rode away the little boy was so rejoiced 
with what he received that he waved 
his hand and shouted: “Hurrah! I have 
done what Napoleon never could do. I 
have kept Wellington out of the field.” 

Friendship with Jesus depends upon 
obedience. Do I want to be one of His 
friends? Then there must be obedience. 
—Selected. 


— 1132 — 


“BELIEVE” AND “FAITH” 


When Dr. Paton was translating the 
New Testament into an island language, 
he. found great difficulty in finding a 
word for “believe” and “faith.” While 
at work in his study one day, one of his 
native teachers came in, hot and tired 
from a long walk. He threw himself 
down on a cane chair, and putting his 
feet upon another, used a word which 
meant, “I am resting my whole weight 
here.” Instantly Dr. Paton had his 
word. The natives of that island now 
know faith to be an act whereby the 
whole weight of mind and heart is rest- 
ing on Jesus. It is an interpretation that 
we of deeper insight can apply with per- 
fect satisfaction.—Northwestern Chris- 
tian Advocate. 


eae 1133 mm 
A BUSINESS MAN’S LUCK 


Not long ago, a well-known business 
man in New York was passing through 
a period of great stress. The life of his 
concern was hanging in the balance. 
Great interests, involving many persons, 
were at stake. He was fighting a de- 
termined battle against odds. Every 
step was taken only after the most care- 
ful thought and planning. 


One day a large note was due at the 
bank, It represented part of the ac- 
count of one of his principal creditors. 
Already the note had been renewed 
twice. The creditor was angry, and 
had served positive notice that under 
no circumstances would the note be re- 
newed again. It must be paid now, or 
the work on existing contracts would 
stop. That meant disaster. No mat- 
ter, the creditor had fully weighed the 
matter and had decided to stop, and 
get what he could out of the wreck 
rather than go on and increase the ac- 
count. 

It was the day before the note was 
due. For several days the man had 
tried to see the creditor and adjust the 
matter. No interview would be granted. 
He had written, but the reply was only 
a curt ultimatum that no adjustment 
except payment would be considered. 
Telephone communications met the 
same result. If disaster must come, let 
it come; the creditor had already made 
up his mind to accept it; there was 
nothing more to be said. 

On the afternoon of the day before 
the note would be due, the business 
man decided to make one last effort to 
see his creditor in a personal interview. 
He learned that the man he wanted was 
at his office. Before starting, and even 
on the way, the business man, as his 
habit was, had prayed earnestly for 
help; he had prayed that the heart of 
the man he was to see might be softened 
toward him, and that his own temper 
might be kept under control, so that no 
hard words should be spoken. Yet his 
heart was very anxious. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


About three o’clock he came out of 
the subway and turned down a side 
street. The sun was hot. Just a few 
hundred feet beyond was his destination. 
Suddenly he glanced down, and at his 
feet lay a bright new pin shining in the 
sunlight. How much can happen in an 
instant of time! The business man was 
not superstitious, yet instinctively he 
stooped to pick up the pin saying to 
himself the childish rhyme, “See a pin 
and pick it up; all the day you'll have 
good luck.” Surely he wanted good 
luck that day, and here almost at the 
threshold of his most desperate need 
was a good omen. 

Then, instantly, before his fingers 
touched the little omen, came another 
thought, flashing into his brain. Clear 
and decisive as the voice of one who 
would snatch him back from the act of 
foolishness, came the words, “My help 
is in the Lord which made heaven and 
earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be 
moved.” 

The man straightened up and a thrill 

ran through him. “What a_ fool! 
grasping at a pin, when I can lean upon 
the Lord which made heaven and 
earth!” 
His shoulders went back and his 
head was lifted to the skies; his feet 
trod the pavement like a conqueror; his 
jaw squared, and his eyes sparkled. In 
such fashion he entered the office of his 
creditor. The interview was one of the 
friendliest and most successful he ever 
had. Not only was the note renewed, 
but the creditor actually promised finan- 
cial assistance outside of the note. 

I have the facts from the man him- 
self. He believes the Lord spoke to 
him just as truly as he did to Saul on 
the road to Damascus. You may be 
sure what his idea is regarding “busi- 
ness man’s luck,”—Christian Herald. 


em 1134 — 


LINCOLN’S FIRST PET. 


We asked an intimate friend of Lin- 
coln’s early manhood to tell us a Lin- 
coln story which had never been printed, 
and he related this incident: 


“One moonlight night, when walking 
with Lincoln in the country, we spied 
a litter of pigs in the road that had lost 
their mother. We helped them find her. 
And he said to me, ‘I never see one of 
these little creatures that I do not think 
of my first pet. When six years of age, 
a neighbor gave me a little pig. The 
only garment I had on was a little shirt 
my mother wove, fastened at the neck 
with a wooden button my father had 
made. In the front of that garment I 
wrapped my pig and carried him home. 
It took me a week to teach him to eat. 
Meanwhile, I carried him back to his 
mother for his meals. He was my con- 
stant companion and we played many 
games together. I can see his little face 
now, said Lincoln, ‘peeping around the 
side of the cabin as we played hide-and- 
go-seek, I carried him everywhere till 
he got too big to carry. and then I made 
him carry me, which he did so happily 
everywhere to the ploughed ground, and 
to the woods where I helped him find 
the nuts. One day father said, “We’re 
going to kill the hog today.” I asked, 
“What hog?” He said, “Yours.” I 
answered, “Would you kill my precious 
pet?” and cried with agony. But my 
wit served me, for when father turned 
his back I jumped on the hog and ran 
him as fast as he could go into the 
woods, where I stayed all day; and the 
hot water in the big kettle was not used. 
The next day I undertook the same 
game, but father was too smart for me. 
He locked the pig up in the smokehouse, 
and I couldn’t reach the button to get 
in atit. And TI got sick. Could not eat 
any breakfast; went off into the woods 
and stayed all day, and when I came in 
at night I saw my pet dressed and hang- 
ing from a pole near the house, and I 
began to blubber. They never could 
get me to take a bite of the meat, neither 
tenderloin nor rib, nor sausage nor 
souse. And months after, when the 
cured ham came on the table, it made 
me sad and sick even to look at it. The 
next morning I went out into the yard 
and scattered soft dirt over the bloody 
spot, where they had killed my pet. 
Whenever I see a pig, like these little 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


553 


fellows we have just met in the road, 
my heart goes back to that pet pig, and 
to the old home and my dear ones 
there.’ ” 

Lincoln could not help being tender, 
any more than the songbirds about his 
cabin could keep from singing, or the 
sweetbrier his mother planted could 
keep from being fragrant. It is easy to 
see how a boy who was so tender to his 
first pet might grow to be the great man 
who lived “with malice toward none, 
with charity for all.”"—-Ferdinand Igle- 
hart, D.D. 


a 1135 —< 
LOVE’S CONQUEST OF HATE, 


Amanda Smith, the colored evangelist, 
once said to me that the most difficult 
act of her early Christian life was to 
become willing to pray for the impris- 
oned men who hung negroes to lamp- 
posts and set fire to the asylums for 
the people of her race during the awful 
riots in New York City in 1863, but 
she exclaimed: 

“I have gotten the victory! I could 
now go to those vile men and pray for 
and bless those who have persecuted 
me and mine. I could exclaim with 
Jesus, ‘Father, forgive them, for they 
know not what they do, or with 
Stephen, ‘Lord, lay not this sin to their 
charge.’ ” 

This is the way the Christian tries to 
overcome evil with good. If his ene- 
my hungers, he feeds him.—-Rev. E. W. 
Caswell. 


— 1136— 
THE GREAT QUESTION. 


Put into one scale hardships, self-de- 
nials and conflicts—and at the end of 
them Heaven. Put into the other scale 
self-indulgence and a sinful life—and at 
the end hell! Weigh the two! Weigh 
them for eternity! And while you are 
watching the loving Saviour will whis- 
per in your ear the solemn question, 
“What shall it profit you to gain the 
whole world and lose your own soul? 
What shall a man give in exchange for 
his soul?’—Rev. Dr. T. L. Cuyler. 


554 


— 1137 — 
. PERSEVERANCE IN PRAYER. 


A gentleman in Scotland recently said 
to me, “I was an intensely worldly man. 
I had all that this world could give me, 
yet it never satisfied. When my old 
father, who was a delightful Christian, 
passed into eternity, I was looking over 
his papers, and I noticed that he had 
given a great deal of money toward 
George Miller’s Orphanage at Bristol. 
I thought, I am sure father would like 
me to help that work, so I decided to 
go down and see it before helping it. I 
went and, as we looked through the 
buildings, I went into one room, where, 
on that very day, they were beginning a 
mission for the orphan boys and girls.” 
This wealthy and brainy man stopped 
and listened to the message to the chil- 
dren. God saved him, and when he told 
them that he was saved, they said, “We 
are not surprised. For thirty-eight 
years Mr. Muller never ceased to pray 
for you.” Oh, friends, pray on until we 
shall have entered into where universal 
praise begins!—Rev. Charles Inglis. 


o-— 1138 — 


THE WORD OF GOD A REFUGE. 


When almost all at the court of St. 
Petersburgh were agitated with the 
threatened invasion by French troops, 
Prince Galitzla maintained calmness. 
His companions were astonished. Had 
he become a traitor? It could not be; 
his loyalty was undoubted. At this 
crisis, he thought it his duty to acquaint 
the Emperor Alexander with the rock 
on which he rested. He asked an inter- 
view. The invasion was naturally first 
introduced, and next, as closely con- 
nected with it, the prince’s conduct. 
The emperor demanded upon what 
principle he remained calm in the midst 
of universal alarm. The prince drew 
from his pocket a small Bible, and held 
it toward the emperor. As the latter 
put out his hand to receive the book, 
it fell, and opened at the ninety-first 
Psalm. “Oh that your majesty would 
seek this retreat!’ said the prince, as 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


he read the words of the psalm. 

A day was appointed for public 
prayer. The minister who preached 
took for his subject the ninety-first 
Psalm. Alexander inquired of the prince, 
with surprise, if he had mentioned the 
circumstance that had occurred at their 
interview. He assured him that he had 
not. A short time after, the emperor, 
having a few minutes to spare, sent for 
his chaplain to read the Bible to him 
in his tent. He came, and commenced 
reading the ninety-first Psalm. “Hold!” 
said the czar; “who told you to read 
that?” “God,” replied the chaplain. 
“How?” exclaimed Alexander. “Sur- 
prised at your sending for me,” con- 
tinued the chaplain, “I fell upon my 
knees before God, and besought him to 
teach my weak lips what to speak. I 
felt that part of the holy Word which I 
have begun to read clearly pointed out 
to me. Why your majesty interrupted 
me, I know not.” The result was a 
great change in the emperor’s conduct, 
and he showed much zeal in the circu- 
lation of God’s Word.—Selected. 


— 1139 — 


HOW NATIVE CONVERTS GIVE. 


Visiting a college in Ceylon some 
time ago, Dr. John R. Mott found a 
band of students so poor that sixteen of 
them occupied one room. Near the 
building was a banana plantation, to the 
cultivation of which these youths de- 
voted all their spare time. 

“What do you boys do with the money 
you earn from this fruit enterprise?” in- 
quired Doctor Mott. | 

For answer they took him to the 
beach and pointed to an island far out 
at sea. “Two years ago,” they ex- 
plained, “we sent one of our graduates 
there. He started a school, which has 
since developed into a church. We are 
going to send him to another island this 
year.” 

They also said that they required the 
cook to lay aside every tenth handful 
of rice, which they sell in order to have 
Christ preached a little more widely.— 
Christian Guardian. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. 


— 1140 — 
WHY GOD’S CHILDREN SUFFER 


Said a certain friend of mine, “I have 
always supposed that if one became a 
Christian, he would escape many of the 
misfortunes which come to others, and 
would lead a life of prosperity. Indeed, 
I believe there is some kind of promise 
that all things shall work together for 
good to them that love God. Since you 
have started on this line, however, I have 
watched your career carefully, and it 
seems to me that you fared worse than 
you did before you were a Christian. 
First you lost your property; next your 
wife had a long sickness then a broken 
knee laid you on your back for six 
months, and when you got up you had 
a stiff leg for life. Now how do you 
account for all this trouble? If God is 
so good to His people as you say He is, 
why does He permit these disasters to 
come upon you?” 

“Well,” said the man addressed, “TI 
don’t know that I can account for these 
things to your satisfaction, but I think 
I can to my own. You know I ama 
blacksmith. I often pick up a piece of 
steel, and if I think it will take a tem- 
per, I put it into the fire and bring it 
into a white heat. Next I plunge it in- 
to the water and suddenly change the 
temperature. Then I put it into the 
fire, and again into the water. This I 
repeat several times. Then I lay it on 
the anvil and hammer it and bend it, 
and make some useful article which I 
put into a carriage where it will do 
good service for twenty-five years. If, 
however, when I first strike it on the 
anvil I think it will not take a temper, 
I throw it into the scrap-heap and sell 
it for a quarter of a cent a pound.” 

“Now I believe that my heavenly 
Father has been testing me to see if I 
will take a temper. He has put me into 
the fire and into the water; He has 
laid me on the anvil and hammered me 
and rasped me. I have tried to bear it 
just as patiently as I could, and my 
daily prayer has been, ‘Lord, put me 
into the fire if you will; put me into the 
water if you think I need it: do any- 


555 


thing you please, Oh Lord, only for 
Christ’s sake, don’t throw me into the 
scrap-heap.’ ” 

I wish I could describe to you the 
fine temper which this man has taken. 
He has come out of the fire with a shin- 
ing face, which is an inspiration to all 
who meet him. His worldly affairs 
have improved, and in his prosperity he 
does not forget God, but spends his 
money for Him with a willing hand. 
Though he is an untaught man in the 
schools, yet people of culture are glad 
to invite him to their homes, and sit at 
his feet and learn what God has taught 
him. His quaint illustrations and pro- 
found spiritual knowledge have shed 
light upon the pathway of many a per- 
plexed soul, and have led many a wan- 
derer into the path of peace. Yes, 
he has taken a keen temper, and God 
is using him to wield mighty blows in 
the world’s great spiritual conflict— 
Selected. 


— 1141 — 
PRAYER THE HEART’S DESIRE. 


A story is told of a little shepherd 
boy who was obliged to keep watch over 
the sheep, and so could not go to church. 
But in his heart there grew up a longing 
to pray to God, as they were doing in 
church. He had, however, never been 
taught any prayer, and so, kneeling 
down, he began with closed eyes and 
folded hands, saying the alphabet, “A, 
B, C, D,” and on to the end. 

“What are you doing, ‘my little 
man?” said a gentleman, passing by. 

“Please, sir, I was praying,” replied 
the boy. 

“But why are you saying your 
letters?” 

“Why,” said the little fellow, “I don’t 
know any prayer, only I felt I wanted 
God to take care of me and help me 
to take care of my sheep. So I thought 
if I said all I knew he would put it 
together and spell all I wanted.” 

“Bless your heart, my little man! He 
will! When the heart speaks right, the 
lips can’t say wrong,” said the gentle- 
man.—Selected. 


556 ILLUSTRATIVE 


we 1142 — 


‘HE CONQUERED THE PLUMBER. 


In one of the suburbs of New York 
there lived not long ago, a plumber, who, 
as a workman, enjoyed the respect of his 
community. No one could solder a leaky 
pipe better or at less expense; but 
though his heart was kind, his tongue 
was sharp. Oaths had lost their sig- 
nificance to him—he used so many. He 
believed in neither God nor man. For 
years he had not been seen to enter a 
church except to repair the furnace or 
the gas-pipes. j 

There had recently moved into this 
same suburb a young doctor. He had 
two small children, just at the age to 
be “troublesome comforts,” never still, 
and ceasing to want time and attention. 
Struggling to establish a practice, the 
doctor took in several house patients 
with their attendant nurses, to help out 
his income. These, with his office calls 
and outside professional work, were a 
steady drain upon his sympathy and 
patience. 

During a cold winter the water-pipes 
in the doctor’s house burst, and the 
plumber was called. This troublesome 
and expensive accident seemed almost 
the climax of ill-fortune, and weighed 
heavily upon the family. Repairs proved 
to be complicated, and nearly a week 
was consumed in finishing them. 

The plumber, wise in the ways of 
households and sardonic in his knowl- 
edge of the failings of people—trailings 
that are often not apparent to the outer 
world, although freely and constantly 
betrayed in the seclusion of the home— 
entered upon his work with his accus- 
tomed dexterity and rudeness. It was 
thus that he met the new doctor for the 
first time. 

Gentile in manner and speech, of un- 
ruffled temper—soothing and yet cheer- 
ful—the physician refused to become 
exasperated under these trying condi- 
tions. He met the plumber with a smile 
that gave no hint of his inward trouble, 
or of the emptiness of his purse. In an- 
other home anger, harsh words or re- 
proaches might have been stimulated by 


ANECDOTES 


so confused a state of things; here 
through the example of the master of 
the house, peace seemed to have come 
to stay. The doctor never argued for 
it; he lived it and it had to be. 

As the days went on the plumber 
found in his heart an unfamiliar feeling 
toward the members of this strange 
household. His own gentler language 
and bearing were a surprise even to 
himself. 

When, with uncomfortable anticipa- 
tions, the doctor asked for his bill, the 
plumber said: 

“T ain’t got a bill against you, doctor. 
I’ve enjoyed this job, and I don’t want 
to be paid for it.” 

“Why, what do you mean?” gasped 
the doctor. 

The mechanic was silent for a few 
seconds, and then said slowly, “I have 
been in almost every house around here, 
and I know ’m all. And yours is the 
first place I’ve been in where everybody 
seems to live as if they believed what 
the Bible and the ministers keep saying. 
I ain’t going to be a worse man for this 
job. If you are sensitive about the bill, 
you can take it out when my children 
have the measles. Ive seen folks 
enough that try to get the better of 
their plumbers, but you’ve got the best 
of me.” 

And so he had. The better nature of 
a rough and godless man had been 
awakened and won by a Christian gen- 
tleman.— Youth’s Companion. 


— 1143 — 
LINCOLN’S PASTORAL WORKS 


We made a pilgrimage to see an old 
retired army officer who had been a 
journeyman printer in an office in 
Springfield, Ill., and one of Lincoln’s 
intimate acquaintances, and asked him 
to tell us a story that the magazines and 
books had not found. He told this: 
“One day Lincoln asked me to ride fif- 
teen miles out in the country with him 
and become witness to a will he was 
to write for a woman on her deathbed. 
When the will had been signed and wit- 
nessed, the woman said to Lincoln: 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


‘Now I have my affairs for this world 
arranged satisfactorily. I am thankful 
to say that long before this I have made 
preparation for the other life I am so 
soon to enter. I sought and found 
Christ as my Saviour, who has been my 
stay and comfort through the years, and 
is now near to me to carry me over the 
river of death. I do not fear death; 
I am really glad that my time has come, 
for loved ones have gone before me and 
I rejoice in the hope of meeting them 
so soon.’ Mr. Lincoln said to her: ‘Your 
faith in Christ is wise and strong, your 
hope of a future life is blessed. You are 
to be congratulated on passing through 
life so usefully, and into the future so 
happily.’ 

“She asked him if he would not read 
a few verses out of the Bible to her. They 
offered him the Book, but he did not 
take it, but began reciting from memory 
the Twenty-third Psalm, laying especial 
emphasis upon “Though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will 
fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy 
rod and thy staff they comfort me.’ 
Without the book, he took up the first 
part of the fourteenth of John, ‘In my 
Father’s house are many mansions.’ 
After he had given these and other 
quotations from the Scriptures, he re- 
cited several hymns, closing with ‘Rock 
of Ages, cleft for me.’ I thought at the 
time I had never heard any elocutionist 
speak with such ease or power as he did. 
I am an old man now, but my heart melts 
as it did then in that death chamber, as 
I remember how with a pathos truly 
divine he spoke the last stanza begin- 
ning, ‘While I draw this fleeting breath’ 
The woman died while we were there. 
Riding home I expressed surprise that 
he should have acted as pastor as well 
as attorney so perfectly, and he. replied, 
‘God and eternity and heaven were very 
near me today.’”—Ferdinand Iglehart, 
D.D 

-— 1144 — 
THE BRIDGE WAS GONE 
One Thursday night an engineer of 


the Illinois Central Railroad left Spring- 
field at ten with a crowded train of 


557 


about two hundred excursionists, on 
their way to Chicago. They reached 
Guthrie on time, and pulled out for Mel- 
vin, five miles distant. Between these 
two places was a wooden bridge, span- 
ning a ravine. When about two miles 
from the bridge, in an instant he saw 
before his eyes, as plainly as though the 
picture was made of material objects, 
the outlines, of the place where the 
bridge was located, and said to himself 
“That bridge is gone, and I know it.” 
He went on slowly and stopped the train 
within thirty feet of the bridge. He 
and the firemen looked ahead. The 
bridge was really gone, consumed by 
fire. There was nothing left but the 
rails, which still hung over the ravine, 
held together by binders and bolts. The 
trestle was thirty-five feet long and 
eight feet high. When the conductor 
came forward and looked at the swing- 
ing rails he could scarcely speak. The 
engineer said, “I have been on the road 
twenty-five years, and have never had a 
smash-up, but I deserve no credit for 
this miraculous escape. An invisible 
power saved these two hundred lives.” 
—Sunday School Illustrator. 


— 1145— 
ENTER NOT INTO TEMPTATION. 


A reckless man in a zoological garden 
one seized a venomous serpent by the 
nape of the neck and held it up before 
his companions. The man thought he 
had the serpent wholly in his power. 
But it began to coil its long body about 
his. arm and then slowly tighten its 
grasp till the man in agony was obliged 
to drop his hold of its neck. Quickly 
then it turned and bit him, and soon the 
man was dead. . 

He thought he was strong enough to 
play with the serpent, and then thrust 
it from him when wearied of the play. 
Many think they are strong enough to 
play with temptation of any sort, but 
they find sooner or later that the temp- 
tation has mastered them. “Watch and 
pray that ye enter not into temptation,” 
said Christ. It is the entering into 
temptation which is to be guarded. 
against—Morning Star. 


558 


mm 1146 —~ 
A MODERN WIDOW’S MITE 


One day in 1899, I called on a poor 
widow, a member of the People’s Taber- 
nacle, who occupied three scantily 
furnished, carpetless rooms, and who 
supported her three small children by 
toiling at the wash tub, and wielding 
the scrubbing brush; and who withal 
kept up a cheerful courage. At that 
time the people of the congregation 
were giving and praying for the accu- 
mulation of money that we might soon 
begin the erection of our church. As 
I was about to leave her humble home 
the woman said in substance: “I want 
you to accept a small gift for the build- 
ing fund; it is only a trifle, $1.10.” I 
was reluctant to take the money, and 
told her I thought she needed it more 
than did the building fund. But she 
was insistent, and said, “You must take 
it for I have been a long while getting 
it. I saved it from my table.” Know- 
ing her table would not be luxuriously 
furnished anyway, I asked her how she 
did it; and after some hesitancy she 
replied: “I can get 31% lbs. of oatmeal 
fer ten cents, and a porridge from that 
and a pint of milk costing two cents 
will make us a breakfast for about five 
cents; and so several cents are saved 
for the building fund. And I can buy 
three loaves of stale rye bread for five 
cents; and I have heard that rye bread 
is healthier than wheat bread, and that 
stale bread is healthier than fresh bread, 
and my children do well on it, and I 
save several more cents for the build- 
ing fund.” 

I took the money and assured the 
giver it was much in the sight of God, 
and that I believed that He who com- 
mended the widow who gave the two 
mites would see to it that she was not 
made the poorer because of her gift. 
She replied, “I know I will not be, 
for I find that for every dollar I give to 
the Lord, he gives me ten in return.” 

Now for the sequel: shortly after 
receiving the gift I mentioned it in our 
church paper, and spoke of the self- 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


ANECDOTES 


denial of the giver. The account was 
read by a lady in Ohio, and she wrote 
Saying she thought the example of that 
poor woman ought to arouse God’s 
people like a trumpet blast. She re- 
solved to be more generous herself, and 
she began by sending the writer $10 
for the giver of $1.10. A woman in 
New Jersey sent $5 for her also, and said 
she and her children would practice self- 
denial for a week, and devote what was 
saved to the cause of Christ. 


Thus was fulfilled the saying, “Give 
and it shall be given you.” When I 
gave the poor woman the $15 she was 
amazed, and did not want to take it; 
but as I insisted she must, she gave 
me $5 of it for the building fund. I 
learned afterward that she loaned a poor 
neighbor $5 of the remainder to help 
her pay the rent, and six months later 
when that was repaid she gave it also 
to the building fund. 

Temporal prosperity is promised to 
those who honor God with their gifts, 
(see Prov. 3:9, 10) and the truth of this 
promise is verified by the experience of 
this widow. ‘Twenty-eight years have 
passed since I first met her in her 
wretched basement home, at the funeral 
of her husband. Her children are now 
grown up, and they are an honor to 
their mother.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 1147 — 
TEXT FAVORING TOBACCO 


When Mr. Moody was in Glasgow in 
the ’70s, he was conducting a “Ques- 
tion Meeting” one day, about 5,000 being 
present. 

One question was: “Are there any 
verses in the Bible against the use of 
tobacco?” 

Mr. Moody pondered for a moment, 
then said: 

“No, but I can give you one in favor 
DE it, 

The audience was breathless, and he 
continued: 


“He that is filthy, let him be filthy 
still (Rev. 22: 11).” 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 1148 — 
LETTING THE RAVENS IN 


A poor widow had four little children, 
the oldest about eight years old. One 
evening, in the midst of winter, her 
children were hungry, and she had no 
food to give to them. But she kneeled 
down to tell God of their wants, and 
ask Him to supply them. At the close 
of her prayer, the eldest said to her: 
“Mother, doesn’t the Bible say that God 
once sent some ravens with bread to 
a man who was hungry? Don’t you 
think God can send us some ravens with 
bread now, just as well as He did then? 
I’m going to open the door, or they 
can’t get in.” A few minutes after, the 
village magistrate passed, and glancing 
through the open door said: “My good 
friend, how does it happen that your 
door is standing open this cold winter’s 
night?” “It is my little boy who opened 
the door a moment ago, in order, as he 
said, ‘that the ravens might come in 
and bring us some bread.” Now, it so 
happened that this gentleman was actu- 
ally dressed in black from head to foot. 

“Ah! indeed,” said he, laughing; 
“Richard is right. .The raven is come, 
and he is a pretty big one, too. Come 
with me, my little man, and I will show 
you where the bread is.”—Selected. 


— 1149 — 
THE FIRST OFFER 


A clergyman was visiting a man of 
business and the following conversation 
substantially occurred: 

“It is true,” said the merchant, “I am 
not satisfied with my present condition. 
I am not ‘of a settled mind in religion,’ 
as you express it. Still I am not utterly 
hopeless. I may yet enter the vineyard, 
even at the ELEVENTH HOUR.” 

“Ah! your allusion is to the Saviour’s 
parable of the loitering laborers who 
wrought one hour at the end of the 
day. But you have overlooked the fact 
that these men accepted the FIRST 
OFFER.” 

“Is that so?” 

“Certainly; they said to the lord of 
the vineyard, ‘No man hath hired us.’ 


ANECDOTES 559 


They welcomed the first offer immedi- 
ately.” 

“True; I had not thought of that be- 
fore. But then the thief on the cross, 
even while dying, was saved.” 

“Ves, but it is likely that even he had 
never rejected the offer of salvation as 
preached by Christ and His apostles. 
Like Barabbas, he had been a robber by 
profession. In the resorts to which he 
had been accustomed the Gospel had 
never been preached. Is there not some 
reason to believe that he, too, accepted 
the first offer?” 

“Why, you seem desirous to quench 
my last spark of hope.” 

“Why should I not? Such hope is 
illusion. You have really no promise of 
acceptance at some future time. NOW 
is the accepted time! Begin NOW.” 

“How shall I begin?” 

“Just as the poor leper did when he 
met Jesus by the way and committed 
his body to the great Physician in order 
to be healed. So commit your soul to 
Him as a present Saviour. Then serve 
Him from love. The next—even the 
most common—duty of life that you 
have to perform, do it as a service to 
Him. Will you accept the FIRST 
OFFER? Your eyes are open to see 
your peril. Beware of delay!” 

“You are right; may God help me. I 
fear I have been living in a kind of 
dreamy delusion on this subject.”—Ex. 


— 1150— 
A PAINTER’S PARENTS 


A Bavarian lad, shabby, desperately 
poor, came to the great city of London 
some sixty years ago. His father was a 
peasant wood-carver, who had emigrated 
to Southampton. His mother gave music 
lessons to eke out the tiny family in- 
come. The two had made special sacri- 
fices for this boy, to help him become 
an artist, and sent him up to London. 

It was hard work to get a foothold. 
There were years of poverty and striv- 
ing. But at twenty-four, the young 
painter had a picture on the line in the 
Royal Academy, and it sold for five 
hundred pounds. Then he sent for his 
father and mother, who had done so 


560 


much for him, and set himself to do 
everything for them in his power. He 
bought a place in a tiny village near 
London, and built a house, just as he 
knew they would like it. He went there 
with them, and lived there, gathering 
a school of painting round him as his 
fame increased. His pupils came and 
lived in the village, and it changed and 
improved until it has become a show 
place. But the center of it was always 
the home of the old peasant pair, and 
as long as they lived their son showed 
them always the tenderest and most 
beautiful respect and love. , 

Even in the height of his fame, the 
painter had never taken a cent of pay 
from the pupils he taught. He has given 
to them time worth thousands of pounds, 
and done it gladly. Those who have 
studied under him in the little village 
have left on record that, great as his 
art is, the things impressed on the 
students most deeply of all were his 
exquisite devotion to his parents and 
his generosity of soul. We often hear 
of the “artistic temperament” as an 
excuse for unfaithfulness, ill-temper 
and evil character. It is good to record 
this story of Hubert Herkomer, which 
shows another side of art, and that a 
great modern painter can embody the 
Fifth Commandment and the Golden 
Rule.—Selected. 


—1151— 
BACK BROKEN BUT HAPPY 


One of the happiest men I ever knew 
was a man in Dundee, Scotland, who 
had fallen and broken his back when 
he was a boy of fifteen. He had lain 
on his bed for about forty years, and 
could not be moved without a good 
deal of pain. Probably not a day had 
passed in all these years without acute 
suffering. But day after day the grace 
of God had been granted to him, and 
when I was in his chamber it seemed 
as if I was as near heaven as I could 
get on earth. I can imagine that when 
the angels passed over Dundee, they 
had to stop there to get refreshed. 

When I saw him, I thought he must 
, be beyond the reach of the tempter, and 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


I asked him: “Doesn’t Satan ever tempt 
you to doubt God, and to think that 
He is a hard Master?” ‘ 

“Oh, yes,” he said, “he does try to 
tempt me. I lie here and see my old 
schoolmates driving along in their car- 
riages, and Satan says: ‘If God is so 
good, why does He keep you here all 
these years? You might have been a 
rich man, riding in your own carriage.’ 
Then I see a man who was young when 
I was, walk by in perfect health, and 
Satan whispers: ‘Ii God loved you, 
couldn’t He have kept you from break- 
ing your back?’ ” 

“What do you do when Satan tempts 

ou?” 

“Ah, I just take him to Calvary, and 
I show him Christ, and I point out 
those wounds in His hands and feet and 
side, and say, ‘Doesn’t He love me?’ 
and the fact is, he got such a scare 
there eighteen hundred years ago that 
he cannot stand it; he leaves me every 
time.” 

That bedridden saint had not much 
trouble with doubts; he was too full of 
the grace of God.—D. L. Moody. 


———1152— 
DISTRIBUTION OF TESTAMENTS 
GOSPELS AND TRACTS 


Many know the blessedness of using 
them; yet many orthers seldom, if ever, 
pass the printed message to another. 

A woman dropped a tract in the way of 
Richard Baxter, which led to his con- 
version. Richard Baxter wrote “The 
Call to the Unconverted,” which was 
the means of bringing a multitude to 
God, among others Philip Doddridge. 
Philip Doddridge wrote “The Rise and 
Progress of Religion in the Soul,” which 
brought thousands into the Kingdom; 
and among others the great Wilberforce. 
Wilberforce wrote “A Practical View of 
Christianity,” which was the means of 
bringing many to Christ; among others 
Leigh Richmond. Leigh Richmond 
wrote “The Dairyman’s Daughter,” 
which has been the means of the con- 
version of many. God compounds 
compound interest beyond our compu- 
tation, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 1153 — 
ASHAMED OF HIS MOTHER. 


There was a very promising young 
man in my Sunday School in Chicago. 
His father was a confirmed drunkard, 
and his mother took in washing to edu- 
cate her four children. This was her 
eldest son, and I thought that he was 
going to redeem the whole family. But 
one day a thing happened that made 
him go down in my estimation. 

The boy was in the high school, and 
was a very bright scholar. One day he 
stood with his mother at the cottage 
door—it was a poor house, but she could 
not pay for their schooling and feed and 
clothe her children and hire a very good 
house, too, out of her earnings. When 
they were talking a young man from the 
high school came up the street, and this 
boy walked away from his mother. Next 
day the young man said: 

“Who was that I saw you talking to 
yesterday?” 

“Oh, that was my washerwoman.” 

I said: “Poor fellow! He will never 
amount to anything.” 

That was a good many years ago. I 
have kept my eye on him. He has gone 
down, down, down, and now he is just a 
miserable wreck. Of course, he would 
go down! Ashamed of his mother that 
loved him and toiled for him, and bore 
so much hardship for him! I cannot tell 
you the contempt I had for that one act. 
—D. L. Moody. 


— 1154 — 


“HE MEANT TO HELP ME.” 


A young libertine of Ohio had mur- 
dered a beautiful girl and was tried, 
found guilty and sentenced to hang un- 
til “dead, dead.” G. K. Nash was the 
governor. A _ petition was circulated 
and presented to the governor to change 
the sentence to life imprisonment. But 
the crime was so atrocious that the gov- 
ernor refused to consider it. When this 
failed the mother of the young man went 
and, falling upon her knees, besought 
the executive to show clemency or at 
least go and see her boy. To this, he 


561 


consented, and without announcing his 
coming, he went to see the condemned 
man, The turnkey unlocked the large 
iron door and the little man, dressed like 
a minister, stepped in. As he started 
down the long corridor toward the death 
cell, the young man said to himself, 
“There comes some preacher to bow- 
wow over me and I refuse to see him.” 
As the stranger stepped up to the cell, 
he said, “Good morning, James,” In- 
stead of speaking James turned his back 
and walked to the corner of his cell. 
“Your friends have been talking to me 
about you and I have come to see you.” 

“I do not care to talk today.” 

“I am sure if you knew the impor- 
tance of the message you would give me 
an audience.” 

“I have told you I do not care to talk 
and you will do me a favor if you go 
away and let me alone.” 

“Very sorry; good day, sir.” 

Not long after the turnkey came in, 
and walking to the doomed man’s cell, 
Said: 

“Well, Jim, how did you and the gov- 
ernor come out?” , 

“The governor,” exclaimed the aston- 
ished man, 

“Yes, Governor Nash came to see you. 
Did you not see him?” 

“You don’t mean to tell me that that 
little man who looked like a preacher 
was Governor Nash!” 

“Yes, he came to see if he could do 
anything for you.” 

“My God, what a fool I am! He 
meant to help me and I wouldn’t let 
him.” 

He went into despair, but it did not 
keep his neck from breaking. The last 
thing he was heard to say as the black 
cap was being put down over his head 
and the hangman’s knot was being tied 
was: 

“He meant to help me but I would not 
let him!” 

Oh, sinner, friend, backslider, Christ 
rejector, like the rich young ruler, are 
you refusing to obey God and walk in 
the light? Your offense is worse than 
the young criminal’s. Jesus wants to 
help you, will you let Him?—Select. 


562 


wm 1155— 
LINCOLN’S FIRST PET. 


We asked an intimate friend of Lin- 
coln’s early manhood to tell us a Lin- 
coln story which had never been print- 
ed, and he related this incident: 

“One moonlight light, when walking 
with Lincoln in the country, we spied 
a litter of pigs in the road that had lost 
their mother. We helped them find her. 
And he said to me, ‘I never see one of 
these little creatures that I do not think 
of my first pet. When six years of age, 
a neighbor gave me a little, pig. The 
only garment I had on was a little shirt 
my mother wove, fastened at the neck 
with a wooden button my father had 
made. In the front of that garment I 
wrapped my pig and carried him home. 
It took me a week to teach him to eat. 
Meanwhile, I carried him back to his 
mother for his meals. He was my con- 
stant companion and we played many 
games together. I can see his little face 
now,’ said Lincoln, ‘peeping around the 
side of the cabin as we played hide-and- 
go-seek. I carried him everywhere till 
he got too big to carry, and then I made 
him carry me, which he did so happily 
everywhere to the ploughed ground, and 
to the woods where I helped him find 
the nuts. One day father said, “We’re 
going to kill the hog today.” I asked, 
“What hog?” He said, “Yours.” I an- 
swered, “Would you kill my precious 
pet?” and cried with agony. But my 
wit served me, for when father turned 
his back I jumped on the hog and ran 
him as fast as he could go into the 
woods, where I stayed all day; and the 
hot water in the big kettle was not used. 
The next day I undertook the same 
game, but father was too smart for me. 
He locked the pig up in the smokehouse, 
and I couldn’t reach the button to get in 
at it. And I got sick. Could not eat 
any breakfast; went off into the woods 
and stayed all day, and when I came in 
at night I saw my pet dressed and hang- 
ing from a pole near the house, and I 
began to blubber, They never could get 
me to take a bite of the meat, neither 
tenderloin nor rib, nor sausage nor souse, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


And months after, when the cured ham 
came to the table, it made me sad and 
sick even to look at it. The next morn- 
ing I went out into the yard and scat- 
tered soft dirt over the bloody spot, 
where they had killed my pet. When- 
ever I see a pig, like these little fellows 
we have just met in the road, my heart 
goes back to that pet pig, and to the 
old home and my dear ones there.” 

Lincoln could not help being tender, 
any more than the songbirds about his 
cabin could keep from singing, or the 
sweetbrier his mother planted could 
keep from being fragrant. It is easy to 
see how a boy who was so tender to his 
first pet might grow to be the great man 
who lived “with malice toward none, 
with charity for all.”—Ferdinand Igle- 
hart, D.D. 

— 1156 — 
THE COUNTERSIGN. 

The following incident was often re- 
lated by Mr. George H. Stuart, presi- 
dent of the United States Christian Com- 
mission. He was with the Army of the 
Potomac. Going about one dark night, 
he was suddenly halted by the guard, a 
mere boy: “Halt! Who goes there?” 

“A friend with the countersign.” 

“Advance and give the countersign.” 

“Blennerhasset.” 

“Mr. Stuart,” said the guard, lower- 
ing his gun, “I recognize your voice, 
but you have not got the countersign. 
Stand where you are till I call the offi- 
cer of the guard.” 

By some unaccountable oversight the 
countersign of the previous day had 
been given him, and by the rules of war 
he might have been shot. 

When the officer came he was admit- 
ted to the lines. Tapping the guard on 
the shoulder, Mr. Stuart said to him: 
“My boy, if you should be taken off in 
one of these battles, could you give the 
countersign at the gate of heaven?” 

“Yes, Mr. Stuart, ‘The blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth us from all sin,’ ” 

Two days later Mr. Stuart found this 
boy mortally wounded. He gave Mr. 
Stuart his watch and a parting message 
to his mother, and died in the triumph 
of faith—Selected. 


ILLUSTRATIVE 


— 1157 — 
PROVIDENTIALLY LOST. 


Rev. James McGregor went as a mis- 
sionary to Nova Scotia in 1786, and 
there labored until his death in 1830. 

One time in traveling from one set- 
tlement to another, when on a preach- 
ing tour, the guide through the forest lost 
the way and, traveling in a circle, came 
back to their own tracks, This sur- 
prised him, as he was familiar with the 
way. So he tried again, with like re- 
sults. Amazed at this, he attributed it 
to the minister’s conversation diverting 
his attention. So he enjoined silence 
and, taking more care, set forth again. 
But the result was the same. They 
came back to their former trail. Night 
coming on, as they came to the cabin 
of a new settler they resolved to stay 
all night. The guide introduced Rev. 
“McGregor as a minister from Pictou. 
But the settler seemed loath to keep 
them. The minister said, “It is now 
late and you would not turn us out?” 
The man reluctantly let them stay. 

In the morning he informed them he 
was to have a “raising” and that they 
ought to help to pay for their enter- 
tainment. They consented, as the min- 
ister thought he might have a chance 
to meet and exhort the company. Men 
gathered and the frame was erected, but 
rum was served, and quarreling started. 
The minister, to arrest attention, laid 
his Bible on a stump and gave out a 
psalm which he sung. A few gathered 
near, but most stood at a distance. Their 
host stood far off. The preacher took 
his text and began his sermon. As he 
continued his audience increased until 
at last, with upturned faces, all the com- 
pany was crowded about listening 
eagerly and, last of all, and most in- 
terested, was their host. 

When the service closed, the settler 
constrained them to remain all night, 
as he wanted to hear more. They stayed 
and it led to his conversion. He cir- 
culated notice of a second sermon, and 
then guided them to their destination. 
He became a happy, useful Christian 
and finally a church was erected on the 


ANECDOTES 563 


spot where these settlers heard their 
first sermon.—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 1158 — 
THE HIGHLANDER’S PRAYER. 


A Scotch Highlander, during the 
Revolutionary War, was brought before 
the commanding officer, charged with 
correspondence with the enemy—a cap- 
ital offense. In vain he protested his 
innocence. He was promptly silenced 
and dragged into court. It is Hugh Mil- 
ler who tells the story. 

There was no direct proof against the 
Highlander. He had been seen in the 
gray of the twilight stealing out from a 
clump of underwood in the immediate 
neighborhood of the British which 
swarmed with the troops of Washing- 
ton. He had stolen away from his fel- 
lows, he said, to spend an hour in pri- 
vate prayer. 

“Have you been in the habit of spend- 
ing hours in private prayer?” sternly 
asked the officer, himself a Scotchman 
and a Presbyterian. 

_ The Highlander replied in the affrma- 
tive, 

“Then,” said the other, drawing out 
his watch, “never in all your life had you 
more need of prayer than now.” 

The Highlander, in expectation of in- 
stant death, knelt down. His prayer 
was that of one long acquainted with 
the appropriate language in which a 
Christian addresses his God. It exhibit- 
ed, in short, a man who had made 
prayer the solace of many a solitary 
hour, and had, in consequence, acquired 
much fluency in expressing all his vari- 
ous wants as they arose in his heart. 

“You may go, sir,” said the officer as 
he concluded. “You have, I dare say, 
been in correspondence with a greater 
than any earthly power.”—Christian 
Life, 

——~ 1159 — 
PURPOSE IN LIFE. 


“It is a great thing to discover what 
our purpose in life may be. A promi- 
nent Chicago clergyman was in his 
study one afternoon when his nephew, 
a strapping fellow, came in. ‘Uncle, 
what are you going to preach about to- 


564 


morrow?’ he asked. ‘My text is To this 
end was I born, and for this cause came 
I into the world,’ replied the clergyman. 
‘Uncle, why was I born?’ asked the boy. 
‘Indeed I do not know,’ said his uncle. 
‘No more do I,’ responded the nephew, 
as he swung out of the door and down 
the hall. ; 

“That afternoon the Iroquois Theatre 
fire occurred. The young man rushed to 
the scene. Throwing off his coat, he 
addressed himself to the rescue. Again 
and again he made his way into the 
building and returned with an uncon- 
scious victim. He had saved thirteen 
and started in for another. 

“They tried to hold him back, as the 
walls were about to fall, but he threw 
them off and started in again. The great 
beam above the door fell and struck him 
on the head. 

“They took him to the hospital where 
he murmured his uncle’s name. 

“The clergyman came to his bedside 
just before he died. Taking his uncle’s 
hand, he whispered with his last breath, 
‘Uncle, to this end was I born, and for 
this cause came I into the world that I 
might save these thirteen.’ He had 
found the reason, and when you find 
yours, it will surely be somehow con- 
nected with the redemptive plans and 
purposes of God.—Rev. Raymond M. 
Huston, D.D. 

— 1160— 

BETTER THAN THEY KNEW. 

A congregation in a hilly district in 
Ohio bought a small tract of land and 
erected a church building upon it, says 
the “Youth’s Companion.” 

After the erection of the building the 
question of insurance came up. Mr. 
Sipes, the wealthiest member, who had 
contributed more than half the money 
needed for the new structure, declared 
that he did not believe in insurance. 
“This is the Lord’s building. He'll take 
care of it,” he said. 

His view prevailed, and there was no 
insurance. In a few weeks the build- 
ing was struck by lightning and almost 
consumed by fire. Another one was 
erected, Mr. Sipes contributing the 
greater portion of the fund, as before. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


This time the demand was almost 
unznimous that it be insured, but Mr. 
Sipes again objected, on the same 
ground. . 

“if it burns down again, brethren,” he 
said, “I’ll agree to rebuild it myself.” 

No objection could be made to that, 
and again he carried his point. In less 
than a month the new church was struck 
by lightning again, and although strenu- 
ous efforts were made to save it, the loss 
was almost total. 

“There must be some reason for this, 
brethren,” said Brother Sipes, “and I am 
going to find out what it is.” 

Thereupon he employed a force of 
men to sink a shaft on the site of the 
twice-destroyed church. Within a few 
days a rich vein of iron ore was found, 
and the church property was sold for 
many times the amount needed to buy 
in another locality and build again. 

“T tell you, brethren,” said Brother 
Sipes, “it pays to trust the Lord. He’s 
a great deal better business manager 
than anybody in this congregation.” 


— 1161— 


THE PUSH OF LIFE. 


One of the most remarkable exhibi- 
tions of plant force I ever saw was in a 
Western city where I observed a spe- 
cies of wild sunflower forcing its way 
up through the asphalt pavement; the 
folded and compressed leaves of the 
plant, like a man’s fist, had pushed 
against the hard but flexible concrete 
till it had bulged up and then split, and 
let the irrepressible plant through. 

The force exerted must have been 
many pounds. I think it doubtful if the 
strongest man could have pushed his 
fist through such a resisting medium. 

If it was not life which exerted this 
force, what was it? Life is a kind of 
explosion, and the slow, continued ex- 
plosions of this growing plant rent the 
pavement as surely as powder would 
have done. It is doubtful if any culti- 
vated plant could have overcome such 
odds. It required the force of the un- 
tamed hairy plant of the plains to ac- 
complish this feat—John Burroughs, in 
“The Atlantic.” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 1162 — 

SCHOOL BOY SUBSTITUTE. 

One of our boys had committed an 
offence so bad that Mr. Gibb, his teacher, 
though rarely raising the rod, felt it 
necessary to make an example of him. 
The punishment was to be publicly in- 
flicted, “that others might fear.” But 
when the culprit, who had been only a 
few days in our school, was stripped, he 
was such a living skeleton that the mas- 
ter had not the heart to beat him. At 
his wit’s end what to do—for the crime 
must be punished—it occurred to him to 
make such an appeal as, to compare 
small things to great, reminds us of the 
mystery of salvation, and the love of 
Him who was “wounded for our trans- 
gressions, and bruised for our iniquities, 
and by whose stripes we are healed.” 

Turning to the others: “It goes,” he 
said, “against my heart to lay my hand 
on that miserable creature. Wiil any- 
one take his place and be punished in 
his stead?” The words had hardly left 
his lips when with tears of pity brim- 
ming in his eyes, a boy stepped bravely 
out, pulled his jacket off, and pushing 
the culprit aside, offered his own back 
and shoulders to the rod. A ragged 
school boy, he was a hero in his way, 
presenting an example of courage and 
kindness, of sympathy and unselfishness, 
rare in schools—or anywhere else.— 
Thomas Guthrie, D.D. 


— 1163 — 
YOURSELF— 
A LIVING SACRIFICE. 


A minister I know who was in service 
overseas during the World War tells the 
following story. I give it in his own 
words: “A friend of mine carried a 
wounded boy to one of the hospitals. 
All that night he could not sleep for 
thinking of that terribly mangled pair 
of feet. Early next morning he went to 
the hospital and asked the nurse, ‘What 
happened to the boy with the feet?’ ‘Oh,’ 
she said, ‘we had to take the boy’s feet 
off.’ ‘What did the boy say?’ The nurse 
replied, ‘When he came out from the in- 
fluence of the anesthetic, he asked, 


565 


‘What did they do with me?’ I said, 
‘They fixed you up all right, laddie.’ 
He insisted, ‘Nurse, quit your kidding,’ 
what did they do with me?’ ‘I had to tell 
him, and he looked up and smiled ail 
over his pale face, saying, ‘My, nursie, 
I’m lucky. I offered my whole body 
and they took only my feet!” 

“I beeseech you, by the mercies of 
God, to present your bodies.” Present 
your whole self. Invest for God. The 
world is an immense stock exchange.— 
Rev. G. B. F. Hallock, D.D. 


— 1164 — 
THE POWER OF THE WORD. 


We must not fear the skeptical spirit 
of the age, nor let it silence us in giving 
forth the Word of God. History is con- 
stantly declaring to us that Holy Scrip- 
ture carries with it convicting power. 
Caesar Malan once met an infidel in the 
railway train and quoted texts of Scrip- 
tures to him. “It is no use,” he said, 
“to read that to me, I don’t believe the 
Bible.” “But,” said Mr. Malan, “a sword 
would cut if I trust it into your body, 
whether you believed it to be a sharp 
sword or not,” and then to the end of 
the journey he continued quoting Scrip- 
ture. Years after he met this man, no 
longer an infidel but a true believer, 
saved through that conversation in the 
train.—Herald of Light. 


-— 1165 — 
WHAT IS A WEIGHT? 


A weight is anything which, without 
being essentially wrong or hurtful to 
others, is yet a hindrance to ourselves. 
We may always know a weight by 
three signs: first, we are uneasy about 
it; second, we argue for it against our 
conscience; third, we go about asking 
people’s advice, whether we may not 
keep it without harm. All these things 
must be laid aside in the strength which 
Jesus waits to give.—Selected. 

With shame and confusion the faith- 
less witness was obliged to confess she 
had no sister; that she was the one who 
had been sometimes called the “religious 
Miss J.” and that cowardice had led her 
to hide her light.—Selected, 


566 


— 1166— 


A FATAL DELAY. 


When I lived in Chicago, I used to 
run out to Hammond, Indiana, once in 
a while, to preach. One night I was out 
there, and, after a talk, I gave out the 
invitation for people to come to the 
front. On my left sat a young man, and 
beside him a young woman to whom he 
was engaged. When I gave out the in- 
vitation, she arose to her feet and 
started to the front. The young man 
caught hold of her and said, “Hold on, 
my dear; don’t go tonight. If you wait 
a few nights, I may go with you.” She 
went back. 

A week afterwards I was out there 
again, and one night when I finished my 
sermon, someone came to me and said, 
“Mr. Torrey, get away from here as 
quickly as you can, for there is a young 
woman dying over here, one who attend- 
ed your meeting last week. When you 
gave out your invitation, she arose to 
her feet and started forward, but the 
young man with her held her back. 
Come and speak to her once more be- 
fore she dies.” As soon as I could get 
away from that opera house, I went to 
see that young woman. I went up a 
Stairway into her room, but would never 
have recognized her, for her face was 
painted with iodine. The erysipelas had 
gone to her brain, but she was perfectly 
conscious. I spoke to her, and she told 
of how she started forward in my meet- 
ing the week before, but went back to 
her seat. I said, “Won’t you accept 
Christ now?” She replied, “I cannot; 
I had an opportunity last week.” I said, 
“They tell me you cannot live through 
the night. This is your last chance, 
either to be saved, or to go into eternity 
unsaved. Will you take Christ?” She 
said, “It is too late. I had my oppor- 
tunity last week; I cannot come now.” 
I pleaded with her and showed her 
Scriptures. I told her about the dying 
thief on the cross, and told her Jesus 
said, “Him that cometh unto Me I will 
in no wise cast out.” I showed her all 
the passages that would make one think 
that even at the last hour one might be 
saved. She shook her head and said, 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


“It is too late.” With a heavy heart I 
walked out into the hall, and there met 
the young man. He caught hold of me; 
he was trembling like a leaf. He drew 
me into a room close by and said, “Oh, 
I am engaged to marry that young 
woman. Last week when you were 
here and preached, she started to the 
front, when the invitation was given, 
and I advised her not to go. Now she 
is dying and she is lost—lost, and I am 
to blame. She was just within a step 
of the Kingdom.”—Rev. R, A. Torrey. 


— 1167 — 


WHEN THE NEEDLE FAILS TO 
POINT TRUE. 


One night off the Irish coast during 
the war a steamer was torpedoed. The 
boats were provisioned and dropped 
over the side, and in the captain’s boat 
was placed a small machine gun for pro- 
tection. The boat carried also the ship’s 
compass, and the captain instructed the 
other craft to follow him as he laid his 
course toward land. 

But late in the morning the captain 
began to suspect that the needle was 
not pointing north. For a little while he 
was puzzled; then he understood. The 
machine gun was affecting the needle. 
Only when they had reluctantly dropped 
the weapon overboard—for there was 
no room for it in the other boats—did 
they find a course that brought them to 
land. 

How often in life something that we 
insist on taking unto ourselves solely 
for protection influences the delicate 
needle of conscience so that it no longer 
points true! For example, there is 
money. Most of us in laying out the 
course of our life feel sure that we must 
include it, for money is such a comfort- 
ing protection against so many woes 
and ailments. Yet how many times un- 
der its subtle appeal the needle of con- 
science swings away from the ideal of 
strict honesty or truthfulness or gener- 
osity to which God intended it to point. 

And there is the desire for popularity, 
it is a natural desire, but it carries with 
it the temptation to sacrifice principle, 
to surrender a high conviction of a 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


righteous ideal in order to get more of 
it. It is true that popular people have 
power of a certain kind, and on many 
occasions power is a great protection; 
but we must be sure not to pay too 
much for it. For the great end of life 
is not money or popularity or power; 
it is character. Whatever keeps us from 
attaining it had better be thrown over- 
board. Before the voyage is finished we 
shall thank God we have been wise 
enough to make the sacrifice.—Youth’s 
Companion. 
= 1168 — 


HIDING HER LIGHT. 


A young lady in a fashionable home 
had been brought to Christ, and had 
been enabled for some years, amid much 
opposition, to faithfully witness for 
Him. She was invited to visit friends 
whom she had never seen and who knew 
but little of her. She resolved that while 
there she would not openly speak of her 
Savior. Her visit passed away; and, 
not happily to herself, she was enabled 
to keep her resolution. Upon the day 
of her leaving for home a most attrac- 
tive and accomplished lady, a fashion- 
able woman of society, while walking 
alone with her, suddenly asked her: 
“Where is your sister, and why did she 
not come here? I mean your religious 
sister, the one who is known as the 
‘religious Miss J.’ It was because I 
heard that she was to be here that I 
accepted an invitation to come and 
spend the holiday. I am tired of the 
empty, unsatisfying life I am leading, 
and have longed to talk with a real 
Christian.” | (Cont’d under No. 1165) 

— 1169 — 
AGREEMENT IN PRAYER. 

_ In a Connecticut town some years ago 
there was no church. The inhabitants, 
some 400 in number were farmers. 

Somehow three women came to know 
each other as Christians. One in ad- 
vanced years lived in the center of the 
town, another in middle life lived three 
miles away, and the other, a girl, lived 
some distance in another direction. The 
old lady invited the others to her house 
occasionally for prayer. Finally they de- 


567 


cided to meet in a school-house and have 
a meeting open to all. The old lady said 
to the youngest, “You can sing.’ To 
the middle aged, “You can read. I will 
pray.” So they came together on a 
Thursday afternoon. Each took the part 
assigned. A man going by with a load 
of wood, seeing the school-house door 
open, thought he would close it. He 
went up to the door and heard the old 
lady praying. It was a new experience 
to him. He listened till she said, 
“Amen.” At the close they agreed to 
meet on the next Thursday. 

The man with the load of wood told 
everybody of what he had seen. The 
next week, when the three women ar- 
rived at the school house it was full. 
They went in. The young woman said, 
“I can’t sing before all these people.” 
The old one said, “You must.” So she 
sang. The Scriptures were read and 
prayer was offered. The power of God 
was there and some were converted. 

There stands today a white church on © 
the spot where the old school house 
stood, and many have found eternal life 
there—Frank S. Weston, D.D. 


— 1170— 


RACE SET BEFORE US. 


In Athens, long ago, games used to 
be held in honor of the Grecian gods 
and heroes. One of these was a torch 
race—that is a race of torch-bearers— 
which was run at night in honor of 
Prometheus. 

The starting point was a mile and a 
half out of the city in the olive grove 
where Plato had his “Academy,” this 
spot being chosen because Prometheus 
had a sanctuary there. The winning 
post was within the city, and the runner 
who reached it first with his torch still 
burning gained the prize. 

In like manner our Christian life here 
on earth is “the race that is set before 
us.” We shail have run that race well 
if, when we come at last in God’s pres- 
ence our lights are still burning. “They 
that be wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament; and they that 
turn many to righteousness as the stars 
forever and ever.”—-C. Jordan. 


568 


—1171— 
“WON’T YOU SHOOT ME?” 


The last two years I was pastor in 
Northern Michigan, before coming to 
New York City, I depended upon the 
free-will offerings of my congregation 
for family support. This was because 
of relinquishing my stated salary to en- 
courage a new and struggling church, 
which was being hard-pressed finan- 
cially. Although we did not receive so 
much money as before, yet God in vari- 
ous ways So graciously provided for our 
needs that we wanted for no good thing. 

For instance, not so much money was 
required to pay the butcher. For the 
pastor was so successful deer-hunting 
as to secure, late in the autumn of each 
year, a fine young deer. This was the 
more remarkable, as he was not an ex- 
perienced hunter. But asking God’s 
blessing upon his efforts, he succeeded 
in getting each deer at the first shot. 
They were strung up in the woodshed, 
and, during the succeeding cold weath- 
er, for weeks his table was plentifully 
supplied with choice venison. 

Prizing the rifle which had so con- 
tributed to family-support, it was 
brought to New York and stored away 
on top of a wardrobe. Its muzzle ex- 
tending beyond the wardrobe, it was an 
object of interest to the children of the 
family, especially to the youngest child, 
four or five years old. She had seen the 
deer-skin rug on the floor, and was 
aware that the gun was a dangerous 
thing; but what it really was she did 
not know. From time to time, she 
would point to the gun and coax to see 
it. Finally one day to satisfy her curi- 
osity, I took the gun down, and drew 
it from its case. 

_No sooner was this done than the 
little one, in alarm, fled and took refuge 
behind a chair. I placed the gun across 
my knees and said: 

“Come and see the gun!” 

But as she made no move to come, I 
repeated the invitation: 

“You wanted to see the gun, come, 
Ruth, and see it!” 


To my surprise, she peeped from be- 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


hind the chair, and innocently asked: 
“Won't you shoot me?” 

After repeated assurances that her 
father would stand between her and all 
harm, she ventured to approach him. 

How little she knew of the love of 
her father, and how precious she was to 
the holder of the gun. 

If we older children could only know 
the love of our Heavenly Father, how 
quickly our fears would vanish, and how 
gladly would we take refuge in His pro- 
tecting arms! Though at times we may 
unreasonably distrust Him, yet He as- 
sures us that, “Like as a father pitieth 
his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear Him.”—Ps. 103.13 — Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 

oe 1172 — 
THE ENTOMBED MINERS. 


In the north of England they have 
been digging the coal for a century. 
They have gone miles and miles. away 
from the shaft, under the sea, and there 
is danger of men getting lost. I heard 
of two old miners who lost their way. 
Their lights went out, and they were in 
danger of losing their lives. After wan- 
dering around for a long time, they sat 
down, and one of them said: 

“Let us sit perfectly quiet, and see if 
we cannot feel which way the air is 
moving, because it always moves to- 
ward the shaft.” 

There they sat for a long time, when 
all at once one of them felt a slight 
touch on his cheek, and he sprang to his 
feet and said: 

yLetelter. | 

They went in the direction in which 
the air was moving, and reached the 
shaft. 

Sometimes there comes a little breath 
from God that touches our souls. It 
may be so gentle and faint that you 
barely recognize it; but if you do, do 
not disregard it. Thank God that He 
has spoken to you, and praise Him for 
it, and whatever may come do not go 
in the opposite direction. Give yourself 
up to be led by it, and you will come out 
of darkness, out of bondage, out of sor- 
row, into perpetual light and joy.- 
D. L. Moody. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


as 1173 —— 
A STRANGE DELUSION. 


A prospector in California recently 
had a very narrow escape from death. 
He was searching for gold in the water- 
less wastes, and in some way he became 
separated from his companion and was 
lost. For five days and four nights he 
was without food and had no water. It 
was suspected that he had been lost; and 
a searching party was sent out, and the 
man was found. The discovery was 
made that he had been walking in ever 
widening circles; that his reason had 
been shattered by the intense heat and 
a lack of water, and that, in his delusion, 
he had believed he was walking through 
a stream, and had endeavored to drink 
the sand. His mouth and throat were 
parched by the heat and clogged with 
the sand when he was found, and he was 
very near to death. In a few hours he 
would have perished. 

There are many people who are simi- 
larly deluded. The most important part 
of man is not his body. The body is 
but the house that the man lives in. 
Man is a living soul. Just as the body 
needs water, and must have it, and will 
perish without it, the soul needs water, 
the Water of Life, and without it it per- 
ishes. Every soul has a consciousness 
of this inward need and seeks to satisfy 
it. All around us are the desert sands. 
The world apparently has much to offer. 
Men and women by the thousands have 
been deluded by the enemy. They are 
seeking to satisfy their soul for the 
water of Life by drinking the desert 
sands that never have satisfied and nev- 
er can satisfy, but the drinking of which 
only clogs their spiritual perception and 
destroys their spiritual faculties and 
hastens spiritual death. Jesus says, “If 
any man thirst let him come unto Me 
and drink.”—-Youth’s Counsellor. 


— 1174 -—~ 


KNOWING THE AUTHOR. 

A young woman once laid down a 
book which she had just finished with 
the remark that it was the dullest story 
she had ever read. | 

In the course of time she became en- 


569 


gaged to a young man, and one night 


' she said to him: “I have a book in my 


library whose author’s name, and even 
initials, are precisely the same as yours. 
Isn’t that a singular coincidence?” “I 
do not think so,” he replied. “Why not 
pray?” “For the simple reason, I wrote 
the book.” 

That night the young lady sat up un- 
til two o’clock reading the book again. 
And this time it seemed the most inter- 
esting story she had ever read. The 
once dull book was now fairly fascin- 
ating because she knew and loved the 
author. So a child of God finds the 
Bible interesting because he knows and 
loves the Author. It is the Father’s 
message addressed to him.—Record of 
Christian Work. 


== 1175— 
DEATH BED SCENE. 


Some one said, “Human bravery and 
fortitude are no defense against the ter- 
rors of death and the gloom of the 
grave.” God hath declared that, “The 
wicked shall be turned into hell with all 
the nations that forget God.” 

Altamont, that learned and defiant 
French infidel, made the members of his 
infidel club promise to come to his death 
bed when they should hear he was dy- 
ing. How he boasted to them that they 
should see him meet death boldly with- 
out the least reliance upon the blood of 
Christ. When he was about to change 
worlds, his club came. They said, “We 
have come to hear how it is with you in 
the dying hour.” As he fixed on them 
a look of fear and horror, shivering and 
shrieking with terror he exclaimed, “O, 
if you had one half the mountain upon 
your souls that is upon mine you would 
struggle with the martyr for his stake, 
and would bless God for a flame that is 
not unquenchable, for a fire that is not 
an everlasting fire.” After uttering such 
language, stretching his hands above his 
head and gazing upward in awful 
agony, he cried, “O thou merciful but 
blasphemed and insulted God, hell! 
HELL!! HELL!!! is a refuge from thy 
frown.” He then fell back on his pillow, 
dead—Selected. 


570 
— 1176 — 


HOW CHRIST FOUND ME. 


On this 11th of February, the anni- 
versary of my taking my stand for 
Christ, I have thought it may be of in- 
terest and help to others if I tell of my 
conversion. 

Because I was not given to vicious 
ways of living, using neither intoxicat- 
ing drinks, tobacco nor profanity, and 
having a habit of church attendance, and 
preferably associating with Christian 
people, there were those who esteemed 
me to be a Christian. But fortunately 
I knew that my heart was far from God, 
for I had never become willing to hum- 
ble my proud self to be what He would 
have me to be, and to do His will in all 
things. Hence I knew I was living un- 
der God’s condemnation, and to die in 
that condition would be to perish for- 
ever. 


In childhood, I deeply felt my need of 
an interest in Christ, but received no 
encouragement to come to Him. When 
older I put off God’s claims from one 
period of life to another, either because 
I thought I would have to sacrifice too 
much to live a Christian life, or because 
I dreaded the process of conversion, of 
which I had no clear conception. But 
fearing to provoke God by long delay, 
I promised the Lord if He would spare 
my life until I was married I would 
yield myself to Him.” 

I was married in my twenty-second 
year, January 31st. On Sunday after- 
noon, February 11th, while alone at the 
barn, on the farm, at my wife’s home, in 
Rose, N. Y., the question came forcibly 
to my mind: “You promised God if He 
would spare you until this time in your 
life you would serve Him. Now what 
are you going to do about it?” 

I had had no religious concern for a 
long time. But being thus brought face 
to face with this question there was no 
room to dodge. I had to keep my sol- 
emn vow, or deliberately break it. 

The thought came: “You better not 
become a Christian just yet. You have 
a wife, but no home. To be a real Chris- 
tian such as you mean to be, will hinder 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


your getting on in the world. Get some 
property first, and then attend to re- 
ligion.” 

I knew this to be a temptation of the 
devil, and that he would talk that way 
even if this were to be my last year of 
life, and I knew it was dangerous to 
dare to trifle with God. 

While considering this important 
matter, I had come out of the barn and 
was standing between it and the house, 
when in less time than I have taken to 
tell it, I decided: “I will be a Christian 
now!” 

No sooner had this decision been 
reached than an earnest feeling pos- 
sessed me, which I now know to have 
been in-wrought by the Spirit of God. 
I know it as a tree can be known by its 
fruit. It was really my conversion. 

My wife’s parents were Christians. 
Her father, who had died had been es- 
pecially active in the Lord’s work. My 
wife, however, while a regular church 
attendant, was not a professing Chris- 
tian. Going to the house I found her 
alone in the parlor. We had talked to- 
gether on church matters in general, but 
never respecting our personal relations 
to Christ; and my abrupt question ad- 
dressed to her: “Are you willing to be 
a Christian?” surprised and embarassed 
her. She blushed, but making no reply, 
I exclaimed, “I don’t want you to be 
ashamed to tell me what you think 
about it; for if religion is something to 
be ashamed of I want nothing to do 
with it!” 

She replied:' “Religion is a good 
thing, and nothing to be ashamed of.” 

“T have long known that,” said I, “but 
that is not the question. Are you will- 
ing to be a Christian?” 

“I am if you are,” she rejoined. 

I then said, “I am. But I want you 
to know I mean to be a whole-hearted 
Christian or none at all!” 

She replied, “That is the only kind to 
be.” 

I then said, “It is settled, is it, that 
hereafter we are going to be Chris- 
tians.” 

She replied, “Yes, it is.” 

“All right,” said I. “Now we must 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


not be ashamed to let it be known.” 

I then had got to the end of my rope. 
So poorly did I understand the way of 
salvation that I was not aware that it 
was sufficient to come to Christ and 
trust Him. I thought we would have 
to be converted after that. And just 
what that was I did not know. But 
from the preaching I had heard I sup- 
posed of course we would have to seek 
God if we would find Him. I did not 
understand that Christ had long been 
waiting to be gracious, and was far 
more willing to receive us than we were 
to come to Him. I imagined that God 
was so justly offended because of our 
sins, that those who enjoyed His favor 
would have to intercede for us before 
He would become willing to receive and 
forgive us. | 

Consequently when we let it be 
known that we wanted to be Christians, 
and were invited to do so, we cheerfully 
went forward to the “anxious seat” for 
‘prayers. In the absence of all instruc- 
tions, three evenings I so did, before I 
was able to entertain the hope that the 
Lord received me. 

I was fully willing to do the will of 
Christ, and at last as I began to trust 
His love, peace and joy began to reign 
in my heart, and I was glad to commend 
Him to others. And so it has continued 
now for more than forty years, and these 
have indeed been happy years to me. 
—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 1177 — 


THE PERIL OF NEGLECT. 


I sat one day by the far-away shores 
of the Great Lakes listening to a tragic 
story from the lips of a white-haired 
fisherman. Years before, he said, when 
the village was but a hamlet the mail 
was carried from the distant shore of 
the bay to, the fishing village by an In- 
dian and his son-in-law. One bitter day 
in mid-winter they set out from the 
south shore for the long trip across the 
Great Lake. All day they traveled on 
the ice, skirting the frozen shore of the 
bay. As night came on they pitched 
their tent and went ashore for fire-wood. 
Gathering what they needed they started 


571 


back from the mainland toward camp. 
Just as they stepped upon the ice it 
broke loose from its moorings and be- 
gan to drift out from the shore. The 
boy, quick-witted and alert, immediate- 
ly dropped his bundle of wood and 
leaped ashore across the crevice in the 
ice. The father-in-law hesitated a mo- 
ment and in that moment the gap 
widened too much to over-leap. He 
paused in hesitation, for the waters 
were black and forbidding in their dead- 
ly chill. The boy shouted to the older 
man to leap in and swim to shore, as 
that was his only chance for life. But 
the old man still delayed. Then the lad 
began to cry out in earnest entreaty for 
his father-in-law to leap, as it was his 
only chance to be saved from a dreadful 
death. The older man seemed paralyzed 
with fear and indecision. He began to 
call out farewell messages for his wife 
and children across the watery waste 
now rapidly widening as the wind kept 
drifting the great ice-floe out into the 
darkness. The last the boy saw him he 
was standing with outstretched hands 
drifting to death in the bitter cold and 
darkness of the night. He perished a 
victim of deadly indecision. “How shall 
we escape if we neglect so great salva- 
tion?”’—James H. McConkey. 


— 1178 — 
NEED INSPIRES ENERGY. 


After Sir Colin Campbell’s silent re- 
treat from Lucknow in the last Indian 
War, Captain Waterman was left be- 
hind. He had gone to his bed in a retired 
corner of the brigade mess-house and 
having over-slept himself was forgotten. 
At two o’clock in the morning to his 
great horror he found all was deserted 
and silent, and that he was alone in an 
open entrenchment with 15,000 furious 
barbarians outside. Frightened, he took 
to his heels and ran himself nearly out 
of breath, until he overtook the retiring 
rear guard, mad with excitement and 
breathless with fatigue. But was not 
his earnestness reasonable, seeing he 
realized his danger? And if uncon- 
verted sinners realized their danger, 
would they not be desperately in ear- 
nest?—A. Tucker. 


5727, 


| yb yas ye 
HOLDING THE LINE. 


“Have you found a diamond pendant, 
which I feel sure I dropped in your hall 
last night?” 

So telephoned a lady a few days ago 
to the business manager of a large con- 
cert hall. 

“Not yet found,” was the reply, “but 
search is being made. Please hold the 
line.” 

The trinket, a valuable, first quality 
diamond, was finally found; but when 
the manager returned to the telephone 
the call had been cut off. For some 
time he waited, but no fresh application 
was made; and as, in the first instance, 
the lady had given no name or address, 
he could only have recourse to adver- 
tising in the papers, still, when I last 
heard, in vain. 

As I read of this instance, the thought 
arose that too often we thus act con- 
cerning our requests to our Father in 
Heaven. We turn to Him in our trou- 
bles, trials, difficulties, needs, according 
to His gracious invitation; and then 
sometimes, weary of waiting, our faith 
and hope give way, and we fail to 
“hold the line;” so that when the full- 
ness of time is come to grant what we 
desire, we are not there to receive it, 
to our own great loss and the dishon- 
oring of our faithful God. Yet how re- 
peatedly we are bidden in this all-im- 
portant matter of prayer to “wait pa- 
tiently for him” and surely His call to 
such exercise of trustful patience is no 
small part of His gracious dealing with 
His praying people. “The preparation 
of the heart is of God.”—The Christian. 

— 1180 — 


“MIND THE LIGHT!” 


_Many years ago, Jacob Walker and 
his young wife kept the lighthouse at 
Sandy Hook. It was on the bluff, high 
above the water, and was the home of 
its keeper. Mrs. Walker had fa fine 
garden back of the lighthouse, and was 
delighted with the situation. But Jacob 
Was a government employe, and finally 
the summons came for him to take 
charge of the lighthouse on Robbin’s 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


Reef in New York Bay. So sorry was 
Mrs. Walker to leave her old home, and 
beautiful garden, and take up her resi- 
dence on that bit of rock entirely sur- 
rounded by water, that for a long time 
she refused to unpack her trunks and 
make that desolate place her home. But 
gradually she became reconciled to her 
lot, and at last the place became home 
to her. But one chill day Jacob became 
so ill with a bad cold that he had to be 
removed to a Staten Island hospital. As 
he was put into the boat which sturdy 
arms were to row to the mainland, his 
parting words to his faithful wife were: 
“Mind the Light!” 

At the hospital he developed pneu- 
monia, and a few days later she heard 
out of the darkness voices calling her: 
“Mrs. Walker, we have bad news for 
you. Jacob has passed away!” 

She became his successor, nor did she 
forget his final admonition: “Mind the 
Light!” For thirty-four years she kept 
that light burning. And in early morn- 
ing or gathering twilight, as she from 
the porthole gazed upon Jacob’s hillside 
grave, she seemed to hear him say: 
“Mind the Light!” 

Christ calls His followers “the light 
of the world.” Christian! You are like 
the lighthouse on a storm-swept coast. 
By the beams of your light imperiled 
souls on life’s sea are making the har- 
bor: “Mind the Light!’—Rev. Henry 
M. Tyndall. 


— 1181 — 
RIDING ON: THE PLATFORM. 


A writer in the “Messenger” tells the 
following: 

“The best illustration I ever heard, 
showing the disadvantage of living a 
Christian life outside the church, was 
given me by a young convert whom I 
had recently received into oyr church. 
I expressed my pleasure in the step he 
had taken when he replied: ‘I had not 
made up my mind to join when I came 
to the meeting tonight, but while you 
were talking, I thought it was just like 
buying a ticket to Chicago and then 
riding on the platform. I thought I 
might as well go inside’.”—-Rev. H. F. 
Sayles. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 1182 — 
DOUBLE-TONGUED. 


During the Civil War in America, 
three Northern officers were appointed 
on a commission with three Southern 
officers, after the battle of Prairie Grove, 
to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. 
While the commission was sitting, an 
aged farmer strayed into the room, 
thinking it was the provost’s office. His 
eyes were dim, but he quickly noticed 
the uniforms, and supposing himself in 
the presence of the Northern staff, be- 
gan protesting his loyalty to the Union. 
One of the officers facetiously advised 
him to be cautious, and pointing to the 
Southern officers, told him to look at 
them. 

The old man put on his spectacles, 
and recognizing the uniforms, explained 
that his heart was with the South in the 
great struggle, and that his only son 
was a soldier in the Southern Army. 
Gazing around the room he recognized 
the Northern uniforms also, and was be- 
wildered. At last he leaned both hands 
on the table, and surveying the entire 
party he said: “Well, gentlemen, this 
is a little mixed; but you just go on and 
fight it out among yourselves. I can 
live under any government.”’—Christian 
Herald. 

— 1183 — 
TRAPPED! 


A Boston shoplifter was caught in a 
comical way. He had stolen a muff in 
a department store, and ran with it to 
the escalators; but instead of boarding 
the one going down, in his haste he took 
the ascending stairway. He tried hard 
to run down, but was confronted by the 
ascending passengers, while all the time 
the merciless steps were rising. Finally, 
in spite of his frantic efforts, he was 
borne back to the head of the stairs 
again, where he found a policeman 
awaiting him. 

This is just a picture of the difficult 
ways of sinners. They try to escape 
with their booty, but they find all the 
ways of providence running against 
them. Everything conspires to their 
discovery. | 

“Be sure your sin will find you out.” 


573 


The sinner is his own detective. If there 
is no policeman at hand he will arrest 
himself. If the police-wagon is out of 
commission he will run to the court- 
room. Remorse is sterner than any 
judge, and a guilty conscience is more 
terrible than any prison. 

Be certain of this: If you sin the en- 
tire universe will become an escalator, 
going the wrong way.—Amos R. Wells. 

— 1184 — 


RENEWED DAY BY DAY. 


One morning Donald observed that 
the big clock was striking the hour very 
slowly, and heard his Uncle John re- 
mark: “Sounds as if the striking part 
of it is nearly run down.” Donald not 
only saw him wind it but did not forget. 

The following Sunday morning while 
his uncle was reading the paper, his 
wife came in and inquired if he was go- 
ing to church. He replied very slowly: 
“Oh, I—I suppose so.” Donald eyed 
him wonderingly as he remarked: 
“Why, Uncle John, that sounds as if the 
meeting side of you is nearly run down! 
Is it?” Aunt Hannah laughed, and 
Uncle John flushed as he threw the pa- 
per aside, saying: “Maybe it is Donald. 
But we'll wind it up again and get a 
little stronger movement. Neither 
clocks nor people are of much use when 
the springs that ought to keep them go- 
ing are neglected.”—Forward. 

— 1185 — 


SECRET DISCIPLES. 


The boy was expressing the opinion 
of many older than himself when he 
said to his mother: “I should like to be 
just such a Christian as father is, for no 
one can tell whether he is a Christian 
or not.” This father is like the clock 
attached to a certain church, which pos- 
sessed neither face nor hands, but which 
was wound up by the sexton on Sun- 
days and continued to tick year after 
year, affording an apt illustration of the 
religion which many are content to pos- 
sess. The movements of the clock were 
as regular and accurate as ariyone could 
desire, but inasmuch as it kept the time 
to itself, no one was the better for its 
existence.—C. H. Robinson, D.D. 


574° 


— 1186 — 
A STUPID GATEKEEPER. 


Dr. Walter Elliott, a missionary in 
China, had a stupid gatekeeper to guard 
the entrance to the compound and wel- 
come the Chinese who came to see the 
preacher. Jow—for that was his name 
—could not read. Worse than that, he 
could not tell one Chinese character from 
another. He spent all his spare time, 
indeed, in drawing Chinese hiero- 
glyphics on the ground by the gate with 
a pointed stick. “Jesus wrote on the 
ground, you say, and I guess I can, too,” 
was his reply to all who laughed at him, 
writes Edward L. Whitney in the “S. S. 
Advocate.” 

The missionary had chosen Jow 
against everybody’s advice. “Get a 
scholar, for your gatekeeper,” people 
had said, “one who by his learning will 
command the respect of the proud 
Chinese literati who may come to your 
door. To see a numskull like Jow there 
—a man who cannot read—will preju- 
dice them against you finally.” But Dr. 
Elliott knew of no scholarly Chinese 
who loved Jesus as Jow did, even though 
Jow had no idea whether a book was 
upside down or not and could not tell 
one character from another. Jow was 
by nature a “truth-seeker,” as the Mis- 
sionaries call it—a rare quality in the 
East. 

Before he came to sit at the mission 
gate Jow had sought truth in all kinds 
of places. He had made pilgrimages 
under Buddhist teaching and had done 
penance; he had visited many noted 
Taoist temples, and paid tribute to their 
greedy priests. But nowhere could he 
find truth, until one day, up in a moun- 
tain village on the borders of Honan 
Province he heard a native Christian 
preacher. As he listened he said to him- 
self, “That at last is the truth!” 

He followed the preacher to the vil- 
lage inn and questioned him. Sitting 
by the feeble light of a wick of pith float- 
ing in a saucer of peanut oil, the preach- 
er, who was also a Bible colporter, ex- 
plained how the Gospel message was 
contained in the “Sacred Classics,” as 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


the Chinese call the Bible. Jow had only 
one hundred and fifty brass “cash’— 
equal to five cents in American money— 
in the world. He paid them over 
promptly for a copy of the New Testa- 
ment. He could not read a word, so 
everybody thought him more _ stupid 
than ever for such a purchase. But Jow 
did not care. He went about with his 
book, asking people what the characters 
meant, and in a few weeks he had 
learned the characters of the Lord’s 
prayer after some queer fashion of his 
own. 

He soon found the missionaries and 
offered himself as their gatekeeper. All 
day long he wrote characters in the sand 
in the intervals of his duties, and learned 
them. He marked the hieroglyphics of 
his book after a memory system which 
he had invented. The missionary, talk- 
ing to him about it, was surprised at its 
simplicity and value. The language has 
fifty thousand separate characters, but 
only four hundred and eighteen sounds. 
Jow was learning and noting down the 
sounds. By the end of the summer he 
could puzzle out all the New Testament 
in this way, and became thoroughly fa- 
miliar with it. 

Within a year Jow’s ignorance had be- 
come knowledge. The stupid peasant at 
the gate was transformed into a teacher 
of others. Around him a nightly Bible 
class gradually sprang up, with mer- 
chants, laboring men, soldiers, and even 
school-teachers among its members. 
Often it was midnight before they scat- 
tered, and then, very often, Jow would 
spend the hours until dawn praying for 
each of them by name, that they might 
learn “wondrous things out of the law.” 
The first convert from this class of 
Jow’s was Jen, the city school-teacher, 
and others soon followed. 

The young man whom people thought 
too stupid to keep the mission gate be- 
came in the end a flaming evangelist, 
respected by all his townsmen and recog- 
nized as an upright, intelligent, and 
powerful member of the community. 
Was not the missionary wise in choos- 
ing him rather than an _ educated 
heathen? And is not the whole true 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


story only a modern instance of how 
God can use the weak things of the 
world and transform any soul dedicated 
to His service?—The Christian. 


— 1187 — 
THE BIBLE AS A SOURCE. 


A Brahmin in Mysore, India, was led 
by the Holy Spirit to inquire into the 
truth of Christianity. He read the 
Scriptures and tracts very eagerly. He 
was deeply impressed with Pilgrim’s 
Progress. “That book is better than the 
Bible,” said he. His teacher, a mission- 
ary, did not think it wise to give a direct 
contradiction to that statement, but 
taught the difference by a sort of par- 
able. Pointing to a scene before him, 
he said, “Do you see that beautiful 
mango tree there?” 

“Yes,” was the answer. : 

“Don’t you see the beautiful fruit, 
which drops its nectar upon the 
ground?” 

eVect 

“Do you eat the fruit, and enjoy its 
Sweetness?” 

“Ves,”’ 

“And where would that tree be if it 
had no root?” 

“Oh,” said the man, “now I see what 
you mean; the Bible is the root, and all 
other good books in the world spring 
from it.” 

He never afterwards said that any 
book was better than the Bible. It 
pleased God to so bless the teaching of 
his own Word, that this poor man be- 
came a humble and earnest Christian, 
and his own son and daughter grew up 
to be useful workers among the heathen 
around, 


— 1188 — 
SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER. 


Mr. Meyer said that one time when 
he was pastor at Leicester there was a 
strike. The working people smashed 
and ruined homes in their riot. One day 
they threatened to come into a house 
where there was a big brother riveting 
shoes in the attic upstairs and a little 
fellow downstairs. The little fellow 


975 


feared they were going to break the 
house open. He went to the stairs and 
calied his big brother: 

“Tom, Tom, they are going to smash 
this door open! Hurry up and come 
down.” 

Tom was a strong, well-built man, and 
he came down and put his big body 
against the door and said: 

“Now, youngster, you go on with 
your game. All the rioters in Leicester 
can’t break this door open when 
brother Tom stands against it.” 

“And so,” said Mr. Meyer, “the Devil 
often wants to come back into this house 
of mine, and I am afraid of him and 
when he comes along and swears he will 
take me by force, I go to the foot of the 
ascension ladder and cry: 

“*Christ, Christ, stronger than the 
strong man armed, make haste and come 
down! The Devil is going to get me!’ 

“And He seems to come,” said Mr. 
Meyer, “like the lightning flash and puts 
himself against the door of my heart, 
and ali hell can’t break the door open.” 
—William E. Biederwolf. 

ae TR 


INFLUENCE AFTER DEATH. 


It is related of a broker in one of the 
Italian cities that his® strict economy 
brought on him the reputation of miser- 
liness. He lived plainly and poorly, 
and at his death a hundred thousand 
men in the city were ready to curse him 
until his will was opened, in which he 
declared that early his heart was 
touched with the sufferings of the poor 
in the city for lack of water. Springs 
there were none, and the public wells 
were bad, and he had spent his life ac- 
cumulating a fortune that should be de- 
voted to bringing by an aqueduct from 
the neighboring mountains, streams 
that should pour abundantly into the 
baths and dwellings of the poor of the 
city; and he not only denied himself of 
many of the comforts of life, but toiled 
by day and by night, yea, and bore ob- 
loguy, that he might bless his fellow- 
citizens. He is dead; but those streams 
pour their health yet into the city— 
H. W. Beecher. 


576 


© m= 1190 — 
A SHELTER AND AN ENRICHER. 


A tourist relates how he once came 
upon a village which nestled at the 
foot of a great mountain. He asked the 
villagers if they had many storms there. 
Yes, they replied, if there is a storm any- 
where in the neighborhood it seems to 
findus. Oursis the highest of the moun- 
tains, and it attracts the rainclouds. 
Have you many accidents from light- 
ning? he asked. None, was the answer. 
We have seen the lightning strike the 
mountain many a time, but no one in 
the village is ever touched by it. We 
have the thunder, which shakes our 
homes, and then we have the rains, 
which fill our gardens with the beauty 
which everyone admires, but the light- 
ning never touches us. 

This is a parable of what God in 
Christ is to all who believe in Him. He 
is the mountain on which the storms 
break. He shelters His own. He bears 
their sorrows and their griefs. He keeps 
them safe from every threatening dan- 
ger. And He enriches their lives. He 
is the means of the healthful spirit of 
grace being poured upon them.—H. T. 
Dixon. 


— 119i — 
LACK OF LOVE. 


A friend of mine employed for five 
years an ex-convict who had seemed to 
be converted, and during that time this 
man handled twenty-four thousand dol- 
lars a year of his employer’s money 
without the misappropriation of a cent. 
At the close of that time my friend, 
not having need for him, told his 
whole story to a gentleman in another 
city who needed such a helper, and who 
received this former convict into his 
employ. Inside of three weeks he was 
arrested for stealing from his new em- 
ployer. And when my friend finally 
heard of it he went to see him in the 
jail, and said to him: “Ike, how is it that 
when you worked for me you could be 
trusted with anything, and as soon as 
you came into this new employment you 
went back to your old dishonest life?” 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


The man burst into tears and said: “I 
couldn’t help it. He suspected me, and 
I had to steal!”——B, Fay Mills. 


— 1192 — 
WORKING AT THE KEYHOLE. 


A blessed work of grace had been 
going on in various parts of Scotland. 
Many had accepted God’s “great salva- 
tion” and rejoiced in their newly-found 
Saviour. Among these was a Mr. Mur- 
ray, an office-bearer in one of the 
churches, and for fifty years a professor 
of religion without, however, the “one 
thing needful.” One day as Mr. Mur- 
ray was reading a gospel paper, he came 
across the following statement: “The 
Gospel brings us not a work to do, but 
a word to believe about a work done.” 
“I see it all,” said he to his wife. “I 
have been working away at the keyhole, 
and the door has been open all the time. 
My fifty years’ profession goes for noth- 
ing, and I get salvation through simply 
accepting Christ.”—-Love Wins. 


— 1193 —— 
THE BROKEN HOUSE OF LIFE. 


When the carriage swerved to the left 
of the road, something crashed under the 
rolling wheels. It was near a farm- 
house, and the driver asked: 

“What was that?” 

“It was a toy of some kind,” said his 
wife. 

He looked back and saw a little boy 
crying over the broken wooden box that 
had been his toy house. 

The thought of the child’s sorrow lay 
heavy on the man’s heart until he gave 
a fine new toy house to replace the poor 
little one he had ruined. 

Years aiter, on his deathbed, he called 
the scene to his wife’s remembrance. 

“I am being crushed by the wheels 
of death,” he said, “but this thing will 
lie heavy on the heart of God till he 
comes to replace my broken house of 
life; for we know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, 
we have a building of God, an house not 
made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens.”—Arthur Wentworth Hewitt. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—1194— 
THE WATCH AND ITS CASE. 


A clergyman once tried to teach some 
children that the soul would live after 
they were all dead. They listened, but 
evidently did not understand. Taking 
out his watch, he said: “What is this?” 

“A watch, sir.” 

“How do you know it is a watch?” 

“Because we see it and hear it tick.” 

“Very well.” 

He then took off the case and held it 
in one hand, and the watch in the other. 
“Now, children, which is the watch? 
You see there are two which look like 
watches. Now I will lay the case aside, 
put it away down here in my hat. Now, 
let us see if you can hear the watch 
ticking.” 

“Yes, sir, we hear it,” exclaimed sev- 
eral voices. 

“Well, the watch can tick, go, and 
keep time, as you see, when the case is 
taken off and put in my hat, just as well. 
So it is with you children. Your body 
is nothing but the case; the body may 
be taken off and buried in the ground, 
and the soul will live just as this watch 
will go when the case is taken off.”— 
Selected. 


— 1195 — 
CAPTURED BY FRIENDS. 


An escaped prisoner in the Civil War 
wandered for many days and nights, 
seeking the Union lines. At last, in the 
dusk of the early twilight, he came to a 
camp which he supposed belonged to 
the Confederates. Before he knew it he 
was surrounded by the pickets and cap- 
tured, to be hurried back to prison, as 
he thought. But what was his surprise 
and joy, on looking a little closer, to 
find that it was the Union blue, and not 
the Confederate gray. He had been 
captured by his friends. 

When he thought his friends were far 
away they were all about him. Oh, 
wanderer and fugitive from God, lift up 
your eyes, the hosts of your friends sur- 
yound you. Jesus Christ is by your side. 
The Holy Spirit is hovering over you. 
The opening of your spiritual eyes will 
reveal it all.—Francis E. Clark, 


577 


— 1196 — 
GHANDI?S TESTIMONY TO 


CHRIST. 


The Dean of Bristol has told a striking 
story of Mr. Ghandi. After one of his 
foreign tours, as a champion of Indian 
interests, he was received by a tremend- 
ous meeting of people in Calcutta. He 
was the popular hero of the day, and the 
place was crowded with 15,000 Bengalis 
who came to welcome him. My friend 
was the one Englishman present. For 
three hours the orators of Bengal spoke 
in praise of themselves and Mr. Ghandi; 
and then came the great moment, when 
Mr. Ghandi rose, and all this vast as- 
sembly settled themselves, waiting for 
their great orator to speak. His speech 
consisted of one sentence, and one sen- 
tence alone: “The Man to whom I owe 
most, and to whom all India owes most, 
is a Man who never set his foot in India 
—and that was Christ.” And then he 
sat down. 


eh Es es 
DAVID BRAINERD PRAYED. 


In passing through Northampton, I 
went into the old cemetery, swept off 
the snow that lay on the slab, and I 
read these simple words: “Sacred to 
the memory of David Brainerd the 
faithful and devoted missionary to the 
Sesquehanna, Delaware, and Stock- 
bridge Indians of America, who died in 
this town age thirty-four years, October 
8, 1847.” That was all there was. 

Now that man did his greatest work 
by prayer. He was in the depths of 
those forests alone, unable to speak the 
language of the Indians, but he spent 
whole days literally in prayer. What 
was he praying for? He knew that he 
could not reach these savages: he did 
not understand their language. If he 
wanted to speak at all he must get 
somebody who could vaguely interpret 
his thought; therefore he knew that 
anything he should do must be abso- 
lutely dependent upon the power of God. 
So he spent whole days in praying, that 
the power of the Holy Ghost might come 
upon him so unmistakably that these 


578 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


people should not be able to stand be- 
fore him. What was his answer? Once 
he preached through a drunken inter- 
preter, a man so intoxicated that he 
could hardly stand up. That was the 
best he could do. Yet scores were con- 
verted through that sermon. We can 
account for it only that it was the tre- 
mendous power of God behind him. 


That man prayed in secret in the 
forest, and a little while after, William 
Carey read his life, and he was so moved 
by it that he went to India. Henry 
Martyn read his life, and by its irapulse 
he went to India. Payson read it, as a 
young man of twenty years, and he said 
he had never been so impressed by any- 
thing in his life as by that story. Mur- 
ray McCheyne read it, and was power- 
fully moved by it. 

Let me simply enforce this thought, 
that the hidden life, a life whose days 
are spent in communion with God in 
trying to reach the Source of power, is 
the life that moves the world. Those 
living such lives may soon be forgotten. 
There may be no one to speak a eulogy 
over them when they are dead. The 
great world may take no account of 
them. But, by-and-by, the great moving 
current of their lives will begin to be 
felt as in the case of this young man 
who died when only a little over thirty 
years of age—Unknown. 


— 1198 — 


THE HELP OF HABIT. 

A few years ago the Twentieth Cen- 
tury Limited went into the ditch. The 
engineer was killed with many others. 
It was found that in the moment before 
the engineer was killed he had turned 
off steam, put on brakes, reversed the 
lever, and turned on the sand. He was 
so trained that these acts were auto- 
matic. That training combined early 
study of his task with long experience. 
It also meant a high sense of responsi- 
bility and loyalty. A minister’s training 
and efficiency are infinitely more import- 
ant than those of an engineer so far as 
human values are concerned. Auburn 
Seminary is giving that training.— 
Chapel Bell. 


— 1199 — 
FRANCIS MURPHY & SONS. 


There was no capital, in the market 
sense, behind this firm, and no specula- 
tive luck started its wonderful story, but 
it brought honourable fame to its man- 
agers, and large and lasting profits to a 
multitude of persons dealing with it in 
America, and in England, Scotland, and 
Ireland. ‘The head and founder of the 
firm was as low down as any man of his 
day. He was only sober when in prison, 
and had given up hope of being any- 
thing better than a bit of social wreck- 
age. 

capede Sturdevant, who was sure 
that Jesus Christ could and would save 
anyone who trusted Him, visited the 
prison during Francis Murphy’s latest 
detention. Putting his hand on the 
criminal sot’s shoulder, he said cheerily, 
“Mr. Murphy, trust in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and you will be all right yet.” 
The first word was the strangest he 
had heard for years. “He called me 
Mr. Murphy,” mused the sot; “the man 
who talks of Jesus Christ thinks there’s 
still a chance for me!” 

Murphy knelt in prayer with this 
new friend, and, like a drowning man, 
grasped the unseen hand of the greater 
Friend he heard of. He became the 
Moody of his day, bringing peace, purity 
and power to many thousands in his 
own and other countries. His sons 
caught the flame from his ministry. Ned 
was in a great crowd waiting for his 
father, and for the first time opened his 
mouth in public to explain the delay; 
but he went on to tell the Gospel which 
he too had learned, and forthwith found 
himself an effective partner in the work 
of evangelism. The other son, William, 
proclaimed the same great message in 
the Middle States, and added about sixty 
thousand members to the churches of 
that part of America. 

The explanation of that vast sum of 
reformation and of happiness is in the 
name of Jesus—“The Saviour,” the only 
Saviour—as able to save the reader to- 
day as He was to save Francis Murphy 
one day long ago, in a New York jail.— 
Wm, A. Sunday Association. 


- 
— oe 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


= 1200 — 
“SUCCESS” AND SERVICE 


Two middle-aged graduates of an 
Eastern college met in Washington not 
long ago, and one of them, a teacher- 
missionary home from South America 
on vacation, said to the other: “When 
we were in college together you said you 
intended to become a United States 
Senator, and here you are. You have 
succeeded.” 

“Yes,” replied the other a bit sadly, 
“when I was a boy I made up my mind 
to become a minister to a European 
country, and to reach the Senate. I have 
realized both my ambitions, but I have 
missed the satisfaction I expected to 
find. Fame and honors are as a 
squeezed orange.” 

In telling of the incident later, the 
teacher-missionary said: “When I left 
my post in South America a few months 
ago to come home for a year, 200 of the 
people came to the pier to see me off, 
and many of them were weeping in the 
fear I would not return.. I have very 
little money, and scarcely know how I 
shall manage from month to month; but 
in spite of that, I prefer my position as 
a teacher and helper to these poor people 
who depend upon me, to that of my 
famous classmate in the United States 
Senate.”—McNaught’s Monthly. 


— 1201— 
THE WORLD OVERCAME 


A revival was in progress in a school 
in Kentucky. Among,the students was 
a young man of extraordinary promise. 
He had the premonition that if he should 
surrender himself to Christ he must be- 
come a minister. The world flattered 
his ambition and held out to him most 
tempting inducements. He might be- 
come one of the most celebrated orators 
of the land, brilliant at the bar, dis- 
tinguished as a statesman. Could he 
bring all his ambitions, his longings for 
fame, and sacrifice them on the altar of 
duty? One evening he was kneeling 
with others for prayer. Petitions of 
special fervency were offered for him. 


579 


He sprang to his feet and fled the room. 
He afterward said he felt that if he 
stayed until that prayer was concluded, 
he must decide for Christ and abandon 
all his projects. He chose the world. 
At the age of thirty he was in public 
life, and at forty he had become cele- 
brated throughout the country as an 
orator; yes, and as a drunkard, too. He 
characterized his appetite as a “hot, 
feverish thirst, a horrible yearning after 
the distillations from the alembic of hel) 
which scorch the throat and consume 
the vitals with fires kindled for eternity.” 
Quite different, this, from “the sweet 
comfort and peace” from which he 
turned away. Not long previous to his 
death he confessed to a Presbyterian 
clergyman with whom he had a life-long 
acquaintance, that he understood only 
too well that there was neither hope nor 
mercy for him. So died Tom Marshall, 
the once praised and petted Tom Mar- 
shall, a drunken pauper, and he is said 
to have been buried in the potter’s field, 
an object at once of pity and general 
detestation. An instance of the conflict 
between the world and faith, in which 
faith did not overcome—Wm. H. 
Bates, D.D. 
— 1202 — 
DEFLECTING THE HEART. 


Captain Scott, in “The Voyage of the 
Discovery,” tells of the immense care 
that was taken by the magnetic experts 
on board to banish alliron and steel from 
the vicinity of the magnetic observatory. 
Everything within thirty feet of the ob- 
servatory had to be made of brass, lead, 
hemp, or some other non-magnetic ma- 
terial. These regulations secured the 
accuracy of the magnetic observation. 

But the motions of the heart are dis- 
turbed by a bit of gold anywhere in its 
neighborhood. The thought of gain 
seems to mar and deflect the whole deli- 
cate machinery of the moral sense. Let 
a single yellow particle insinuate itself 
too near the sacred circle of the con- 
science, and the judgment is no longer 
true to the eternal verities. We must 
watch here lest greed should cause us to 
forget honesty, fairness, brotherliness.—- 
Watkinson. 


580 ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—— 1203 — 
WHAT FAITH WILL DO 


When I first went to America, thirty- 
one years ago, I crossed the Atlantic 
with the captain of a steamer who was 
one of the most devoted men I ever 
knew; and when we were off the banks 
of Newfoundland, he told me _ this 
story: 

Mr. Inglis, the last time I crossed 
here, five weeks ago, one of the most 
extraordinary things happened, and it 
has completely revolutionized the whole 
of my Christian life. Up to that'time I 
was one of your ordinary Christians. 

We had a man of God on board, 
George Muller, of Bristol. I had been 
on the bridge for twenty-two hours, and 
never left, when I was startled by some 
one tapping me on the shoulder. It was 
George Muller. “Captain,” he said, “I 
have come to tell you that I must be in 
Quebec on Saturday afternoon.” 

This was Wednesday. 

“It is impossible,” I said. 

“Very well, if your ship can’t take me 
God will find some other means of loco- 
motion to take me. I have never 
broken an engagement for fifty-seven 
years.” 

“TI would willingly help you. 
can I? I am helpless.” 

“Let us go down to the chart-room 
and pray.” 

I looked at the man of God, and I 
thought to myself, what lunatic asylum 
could the man have come from? I never 
heard of such a thing. “Mr. Muller,” I 
said, “do you know how dense this fog 
isi. 

“No,” he replied, “my eye is not on 
the density of the fog, but on the living 
God, who controls every circumstance 
of my life.” 

He went down on his knees, and 
prayed one of the most simple prayers. 
I muttered to myself, “That would suit 
a children’s class, where the children 
were not more than eight or nine years 
of age.” The burden of his prayer was 
something like this: “O Lord, if it is 
consistent with thy will, please remove 
this fog in five minutes. Thou knowest 


How 


the engagement thou madest for me in 
Quebec for Saturday. I believe it is thy 
will.” . 

When he finished, I was going to 
pray; but he put his hand on my 
shoulder and told me not to pray. “First, 
you do not believe he will; and second, 
I believe he has, and there is no need 
whatever for you to pray about it.” I 
looked at him, and George Muller said 
this: “Captain, I have known my Lord 
for fifty-seven years, and there has never 
been a single day that I have failed to 
gain an audience with the King. Get 
up, Captain, and open the door, and you 
will find the fog is gone.” I got up and 
the fog was gone!—C. Inglis. 

oe eae 
HE OVERCAME THE WORLD 


A theological professor tells of a 
young man of his acquaintance who 
commenced his course of study with the 
determination to distinguish himself at 
the bar and in politics, and to acquire 
wealth. The world made him large 
promises. Christ called him. The 
thought came, “If I serve Christ, He 
may, and probably will require me to 
preach the gospel; and if so, I must 
renounce all my favorite plans. I can- 
not do it: I will not give them up.” 
With fearful violence the conflict be- 
tween the claims of Christ and ambition 
waged within him. Appetite and sleep 
forsook him. The world pleaded, but 
faith caught a glimpse of the invisible 
and the eternal. Deliberately he laid 
all on the altar ‘of sacrifice and en- 
throned Christ in his heart. He became 
a devoted and successful preacher of 
the gospel. His faith overcame the 
world.—Wm. H. Bates, D.D. 

— 1205 — 
FAITH AND FEELING. 


Just in the proportion in which we be- 
lieve that God will do just what He has 
said is our faith strong or weak. Faith 
has nothing to do with feelings or with 
impressions. If we desire to couple 
them with faith, then we are no longer 
resting on the Word of God, because 
faith needs nothing of the kind.—George 
Muller. 


Tor, “ee 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


= 1206 — 
THE FAITH OF THE COAL 
MINER’S WIFE. 

Evangelist Hicks had been conducting 
revival meetings in Coal Creek, Ten- 
nessee, and was there in December, 
1911, when the great gas explosion in 
Cross Mountain Mine occurred. In 
company with the Methodist pastor of 
Coal Creek he visited the mine imme- 
diately after the disaster, and. thus 
describes what he saw: 

‘Such a scene I never expect to see 
again this side the judgment! At one 
end a woman sat on the ties of the tram- 
way screaming, “O God, if he’d only 
been ready to go!”’ Another stood near 


her twisting the ropes, her face as pale 


as death, not uttering a word. An old 
man wearing a mackintosh walked up 
and down the tramway crying, “My 
God, my poor boy!” The people became 
so frenzied that it was necessary to 
make a door and put it over the mouth 
of the mine lest some irresponsible per- 
son should slip in. One poor fellow 
rushed up to the door crying, “Let me 


in! Let me in! I want to go to my 
brother!” They led him away stark 
mad. 


After the men had been in the mine 
two days, we gave up all hope that any 
of them should come out alive. By and 
by they began to bring out the dead. 
Mr. Wood, a leader in our campaign, 
went to his sister, Mrs. Henderson, 
whose husband and boy were in the 
mine, and asked her, “Where do you 
want Bill and the boy buried when they 
are brought out? I think they will 
reach their entry to-day.” 

“There'll be time enough to talk about 
burying Bill and the boy when they are 
dead,” she replied. He said, “Oh, you 
might as well give up. They’re all 
dead; they couldn’t possibly live in there 
this long.” She looked at him for a 
moment and answered, “Bill and my 
boy are not dead; I haven’t been on my 
knees two days and a haif for nothing.” 

He thought she was going crazy. He 
asked some neighbor woman to watch 
her. Upon his own initiative he had the 


581 


graves dug where he thought he would 
like to have them buried. 

That night after supper Mrs. Hender- 
son went into the kitchen and put some 
water on to heat. The watchers asked 
her what she was going to do. She 
said, “I’m heating some water for Bill 
and the boy to wash with when they 
come out.” They said to her, “Mrs. 
Henderson, they’ve had an explosion, 
and they’re all killed; none of them will 
come out alive.” “Oh,” she replied, “Bill 
and my boy will be out before ten 
o'clock to-night.” 

Between nine and ten o’clock that 
night, somewhere in the bowels of old 
Cross Mountain a rescue party had their 
lights go out. They were asking one 
another for a light when a poor fellow 
behind some boards and mud plaster 
that had been put over an entry to keep 
back the bad air shouted to them, “TI’ll 
give you a light, if you’ll break down 
these boards.” 

Quickly they tore down the boards 
and there stood Bill Henderson. He had 
come down from a room a little farther 
back where he, his boy and three 
others had barricaded themselves, and 
spent the hours fighting back the choke- 
damp and praying. Most of them, not 
expecting to get out alive, had written 
farewell letters to their loved ones. 
These five came out before ten o’clock 
that night. Of the eighty-six souls that 
went into Cross Mountain Mine on the 
morning of the explosion they were the 
only ones who came out alive.”—Rev. 
Henry M. Tyndall. 


— 1207 — 
SATAN’S RIGHT-OF-WAY. 


I found when studying law that there 
was a law of “reserved right.” For in- 
stance, suppose I should sell ten thou- 
sand acres of land, and should retain one 
acre in the center. I would have a right 
to go over those 9,999 acres to get to 
mine. One trouble with us is that we 
reserve a room in our hearts which be- 
longs to Satan, and he knows it and 
uses his right-of-way.—Record of Chris- 
tian Work. 


582 


cme 1208 a= 
MY CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 


My mother, as I early learned from 
aunts and others, was no ordinary 
Christian. She was one who sought the 
salvation of sinners, and, in the meet- 
ings she attended, used to plead with 
the impenitent to come to Jesus; and 
she was instrumental in the conversion 
of the young man who later became her 
husband. 

It seems my mother very early con- 
secrated me to God, and to the ministry 
of the gospel. For I have been tole that, 
while yet a babe in her arms, she used 
to call me her preacher. Her desire that 
her children be used to extend the King- 


dom of God was realized. Going to _ 


heaven in her twenty-ninth year, she 
left behind three children; a babe of five 
weeks, the writer, a lad of two years, 
and a daughter of five. By God’s grace, 
and in answer to that devoted mother’s 
prayers, her two sons became ministers 
of the gospel, and the daughter a city 
missionary. 

Although not converted until my 
twenty-second year, I had long a pre- 
sentment that if I surrendered my heart 
to God I would become a preacher. At 
once, after my conversion, I became so 
interested in the welfare of the unsaved 
that it was a privilege to exhort them to 
come to Christ; and at times I would go 
to their homes to speak with them re- 
garding matters of eternal importance. 

I was a country school teacher; and 
the winter of 1878, I taught the school 
at Glenmark, near North Rose, N. Y. 
The school was ungraded, and some of 
my older pupils were nearly of my own 
age. Availing myself of my privilege to 
board around, I became well-acquainted 
with many of the families of the district, 
both with the parents and children. 


This acquaintance with the people of 
Glenmark doubtless helped to make me 
the more interested in their religious 
welfare. At any rate, the following sum- 
mer, they were much on my mind, and 
finally I began to feel that God would 
have me go down there and hold some 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


meetings in their school house. 

I had not yet become a member of any 
church; but impelled solely by a desire 
to see the cause of Christ flourish, fre- 
quently I would drive four or five miles 
in an evening to attend some school 
house meeting, where, by prayer and 
testimony I might be of some possible 
help. I had never been in charge of 
such a meeting, much less had I ever 
attempted to preach; nor did I wish to 
make a move in the direction of the min- 
istry until fully convinced the Lord 
would have me do so. While feeling 
deeply my inefficiency, yet I did believe 
that should God really call me to the 
sacred work of the ministry, the call it- 
self would be a guarantee of enabling 
power. 


As the summer advanced, heavier, 
and heavier on my heart became the 
burden for the people of Glenmark; and 
I could not rid myself of the impression 
that I should go there and have some 
meetings. Because so doing would in- 
volve my admission that I was called to 
the ministry, I was unwilling to start 
as a preacher until satisfied that the call 
was from God. 


Finally, one day about the middle of 
July, while employed cultivating corn 
for my uncle, whose land adjoined that 
of Lewis Barrett, a local preacher of the 
Methodist church, as I came up to the 
fence separating the two farms, there I 
found Mr. Barrett, and we engaged in 
conversation. 

After talking awhile, all at once he 
said to me: “Brother Tyndall, don’t you 
think you ought to go to Glenmark and 
hold some meetings?” 

Amazed at the question, for I had 
mentioned to no one my feelings on the 
subject, and being as yet unprepared to 
answer the question, I dodged it, by re- 
plying that no doubt the people there 
needed badly enough the help of such 
meetings. 


After a little further talk, we sepa- 
rated. But the first thing I did, on going 
back to my work, was to kneel down 
beside my cultivator, in the tall corn, 
and tell the Lord if He wanted me to 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


go to Glenmark and try to preach, trust- 
ing Him for help, I was willing to go. 

With that decision, the joy of the 
Lord possessed me, and I was happy at 
the prospect of going. 

The next time I saw Mr. Barrett I re- 
minded him of his question, and told 
him it was as the voice of God speaking 
to my soul; that I had long been trou- 
bled about going to Glenmark, and his 
question had helped to bring me to a 
decision. “All right,” said he, “I will 
send down notice that I will preach 
there next Sunday evening, and you go 
with me, and I will announce that the 
following Sunday evening you will 
preach.” 


And so it came about that I attempted 
to preach my first sermon in Glenmark 
in the summer of 1878. The text, most 
assuredly the best part of the sermon, 
was: “Acquaint now thyself with Him, 
and be at peace; and thereby good shail 
come unto thee.” The people were in- 
terested in the service, and in subse- 
quent meetings, and the speaker was not 
disheartened, although no conversions, 
so far as known, resulted. 

Other school-house meetings were 
held with encouraging results, and on 
the 4th of January, 1880, having sought, 
in my own home, and definitely received 
the gift of the Holy Spirit, which I had 
shortly before learned to be the privi- 
lege of all believers (Acts 2:38; 19:2), a 
revival broke out the next evening in 
my “Spunk School House” meeting, in 
Rose, which stirred the whole region 
round about, and some seventy persons 
were hopefully converted. 


Not until after these meetings, which 
continued nightly for eleven weeks, and 
in which the power of God was marvel- 
ously displayed, was I convinced that 
the ministry was to be the work of my 
life, and that I should accordingly pre- 
pare myself for it. And in the many 
happy years which have followed, I 
have never doubted my “call,” and have 
thanked God continually for the high 
honor of being a preacher of the glori- 
ous gospel of Christ—Rev. Henry M. 
Tyndall. 


583 


i 1209 
SOUL-WINNING POWER. 


I attended a convention known as a 
“Holy Spirit Convention.” Many of my 
church members advised me against 
going; they said it was a meeting of 
cranks, and fanatics, and that one of my 
enthusiastic nature could not afford to 
go. But I had gotten the consent of my 
mind that I might be used of God. 


The first night of the convention a 
brother spoke on the Holy Spirit from 
the text, “Have ye received the Holy 
Spirit since ye believed?” At once it 
seemed to me the Lord said, “There is 
your trouble,’ and, when he had fin- 
ished, he made a call for those who 
would surrender everything and come 
out wholly for Christ, and by faith look 
up and receive the promised power, to 
come and kneel, and by faith accept. 
This I did. It was a struggle, but it 
was a victory. 


When I went back to my seat a friend 
asked me: “Have you received?” 

I said, “Yes.” 

He said, “How do you feel?” 

I said, “I did not ask for feeling; I 
was asking for the Holy Spirit.” 

“How do you know you have any- 
thing more than you have had?” 

“I know it,” said I, “just as I know 
I have Christ; I know it by faith.” 

From that time forward God, the 
Holy Ghost, has been more to me than 
ever before. In the next four years God 
gave me more than four hundred souls 
to baptize into the fellowship of my 
church.—Rev. Len G. Broughton. 


— 1210 — 


WHOSOEVER. 


“T thank God for this word ‘whoso- 
ever’,” remarked Richard Baxter. “Did 
it read there is mercy for Richard Bax- 
ter, I am so vile, so sinful, that I would 
have thought it must have meant some 
other Richard Baxter; but this word 
‘whosoever’ includes the worst of all the 
Baxters that ever lived.’—Pres. C. G. 
Finney. 


584 


— 1211— 
THE CONVERTED ACTRESS 


The Episcopal Bishop of Michigan, 
related the following incident to a large 
audience in St. Louis, Mo.: A young 
talented and tender-hearted actress was 
passing along the street of a large city, 
and seeing a pale, sick girl lying upon 
a couch just within the half-open door 
of a beautiful dwelling, she entered with 
the thought that she might cheer, by her 
vivacity and pleasant conversation, the 
young invalid. ‘the sick girl was a 
devoted Christian and her words, her 
patience, her submission and heaven-lit 
countenance so demonstrated the spirit 
of her religion, that the actress was led 
to give some earnest thought to the 
claims of Christianity, and was thor- 
oughly converted, and became a true 
follower of Christ. She told her father, 
the leader of the theater troupe, of her 
conversation, and of her desire to aban- 
don the stage, stating that she could not 
live a consistent Christian life and fol- 
low the life of an actress. Her father 
was astonished beyond measure and told 
his daughter that their living would be 
lost to them and their business ruined, 
if she persisted in her resolution; and, 
loving her father dearly, she was shaken 
somewhat in her purpose, and partially 
consented to fill the published engage- 
ment to be met in a few days. She was 
the star of the troupe, and a favorite. 
Every preparation was made for the 
play in which she was to appear. The 
evening came, and the father was re- 
joiced that he had won back his 
daughter, and that their living was not 
to be lost. The hour arrived; a large 
audience had assembled. The curtains 
rose, and the young actress stepped 
firmly forward amid the applause of the 
multitude. But an unwonted light 
beamed from her beautiful face. Amid 
the breathless silence of the audience, 
she repeated: 


“My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou 
art mine, 

For Thee all the pleasures of sin I 
resign; 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art 

Thou, 

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis 
now.” 

This was all. Through Christ she had 
conquered, and, leaving her audience in 
tears, she retired from the stage never to 
appear upon it again. ‘Through her 
influence, her father was converted; and 
through their united evangelistic labor 
many were converted to God.—Un- 
known. 


— 1212 — 


BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE. 


Fire on the farm of George Thurman, 
five miles north of Pomona, California, 
brought him singular good fortune. To 
stop the progress of the fiery monster 
which was fast devouring his stubble 
field, he ploughed a furrow, and in doing 
so he turned up a tin can, which would 
hold about half a gallon. He found, up- 
on opening it, a large quantity of gold, 
both coin and nuggets. The total value 
of the find was something near seven 
thousand dollars. Many, in reviewing 
their lives, find abundant cause for 
thanking God for the times when the 
fires threatened them. In seeking some- 
thing to quench it, they found much 
more than they sought for—blessings of 
inestimable value, that otherwise would 
have lain hidden and unpossessed. 


wu soiges 
SURE OF HIS PLACE. 


The late Dr. John McFerrin, who in 
his day was a tower of strength among 
the Methodists of the South, was lying 
on his deathbed calmly awaiting the 
summons to come up higher. His son, 
who had charge of a circuit twenty 
miles away, was at his bedside, and 
when Saturday came was reluctant to 
leave his dying father. Whereupon the 
venerable minister said: “My son, I feel 
a little stronger, and you had better re- 
turn and fill your appointment to-mor- 
row. If while you are away, John, I 
should happen to slip off, you know 
where to find me.”—The Sunday Circle. 





ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—1214— 


SABBATH PLEASURING. 


My experience in the ministry thus 
far has not been extensive. Only three 
years ago I came to my first charge. 
But my observations have made me ap- 
prehensive when I see people neglecting 
the means of grace. When people neg- 
lect the Bible, give up prayer, and are 
indifferent to the services of worship, 


they are turning away from the con-- 


ditions of spiritual growth. And they 
most certainly are not climbing heav- 
enward. 

What is this that the Dean of Syra- 
cuse University tells us in a recent ad- 
dress? Only one person out of twenty 
in New York State attends church on 
Sunday. Where are the others? Go to 
the pleasure resorts, the movies, the 
theatres, the crowded highways, and you 
will find them. We are becoming a na- 
tion of Sabbath breakers. 

The greatest menace to the welfare 
of our country is not the Communist 
organizations here and there in our 
cities. The Communists are not laying 
the foundations of anarchy and chaos 
half so fast as the respectable American 
citizens who selfishly take the Lord’s 
day and use it as a day of joy riding 
and pleasure seeking. The dean is right 
when he says the greatest menace to 
the welfare of America is Sabbath dese- 
cration. 

William E. Gladstone was once asked 
why he always attended church on Sun- 
day even when the preaching was poor. 
He replied: “I go to church on Sunday 
because I love England.” There is a 
wealth of meaning in his words. Those 
who love America and have her highest 
welfare at heart will be found in church 
—some church—on Sunday.—Rev. Har- 
old J. Bortle. 


— 1215 — 
“RUN AWAY, BOY!” 


Doctor Potter tells the story of a 
young man who stood at the bar of a 
court of justice to be sentenced for forg- 
ery. The judge had known him from a 
child for his father had been a famous 


585 


legal light, and his work on the “Law of 
Trusts,’ was the most exhaustive work 
on the subject in existence. 

“Do you remember your father,” 
asked the judge sternly, “that father 
whom you have disgraced?” 

The prisoner answered: “I remember 
him perfectly. When I went to him for 
advice or companionship, he would look 
up from his book on the ‘Law of Trusts’ 
and say, ‘Run away, boy, I am busy.’ 
My father finished his book, and here I 
am.” The great lawyer had neglected 
his own trust with awful results —T. De 
Witt Talmadge, D.D. 


— 1216 — 
BALAAW’S ASS. 


A friend of mine was going back to 
Scotland, and he heard a couple of these 
little modern philosophers discussing 
the Bible. One said: “The Bible says 
that Balaam’s ass spoke. Now, I ama 
scientific man, and I have taken the 
pains to examine an ass’s mouth, and it 
is so formed that it couldn’t speak.” 

He was going to toss the whole Bible 
over because Balaam’s ass couldn’t 
speak. 

My friend said he stood it just as long 
as he could, and finally he said: 

“Ah, man, you make an ass, and I 
will make him speak.” 

The idea that the God who made the 
ass couldn’t speak through his mouth! 
Did you ever hear such stuff? And yet 
this was one of your modern philoso- 
phers!—D. L. Moody. 


— 1217 — 
A MOTHER OF CRIMINALS. 


In 1740, according to records, a 
woman was born named Ada Take. True 
to her name she took everything there 
was to be had in the way of liberties and 
licenses. She died a confirmed drunk-~ 
ard, and altogether she had 700 descend- 
ants. 

Among them were 100 children born 
out of wedlock, 181 women of the street, 
142 beggars, 46 workhouse inmates, and 
76 criminals. It has been estimated that 
this woman cost the country $1,200,000. 
—Presbyterian Record, 


586 “ 


~— 1218 — 
THE PRAIRIE FIRE. 


Out in the Western country, in the 
autumn, when men go hunting, and 
there has not been any rain for months, 
sometimes the prairie grass catches fire, 
and there comes up a very strong wind, 
and the flames just roll along twenty 
feet high, and travel at the rate of thirty 
or forty miles an hour, consuming man 
and beast. When the hunters see it 
coming, what do they do? They know 
they cannot run as fast as the fire can 
run, Not the fleetest horse can escape. 
They just take a match and light the 
grass around them, and let the flames 
sweep, and then they get into the burnt 
district and stand safe. They hear the 
flames roar as they come along, they 
see death coming toward them, but they 
do not fear, they do not tremble, because 
the fire has swept over the place where 
they are, and there is no danger. There 
is nothing for the fire to burn. 

There is one mountain that the wrath 
of God has swept over—that is, Mount 
Calvary; and the fire spent its fury upon 
the bosom of the Son of God. Take your 
stand by the cross, and you will be safe 
for time and eternity.—D. L. Moody. 


— 1219 — 
FORSAKING THE SANCTUARY. 


There is an erroneous idea that Chris- 
tians of this generation need to get rid 
of. It is advanced simply as an excuse 
by some, but there are many who sin- 
cerely believe that God can be reached 
and worshipped through nature. Some 
who ignore the worship of the church 
tell us that they can worship God best 
in His Great out-of-doors. “What is the 
necessity of a man-made temple?” they 
ask. “Get out into God’s great open, 
and through nature you will find your 
way up to nature’s God.” 

It all sounds big and grand, but it has 
one little defect: it doesn’t work. For 
salvation is from within. First man 
finds God in his own soul. Then he finds 
God in nature. 

During the past summer I read the 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


wonderful story of David Livingstone’s 
achievements in Africa. The author des- 
cribes the natural beauties of the regions 
in which Livingstone labored: the lux- 
uriant vegetation; the beautiful flowers 
and foliage; the lovely lakes and dash- 
ing waterfalls; the splendor of the sun- 
sets; the matchless blue of the sky. Sure- 
ly there, if anywhere, man must share 
in his own soul the purity and grandeur 
of nature. But what are the facts? 

Livingstone found groups of savages 
sitting around their campfires gnawing 
away at the flesh and bones of their en- 
emies—in every respect as low in the 
scale of being as the animals of the jun- 
gle. For thousands of years they had 
been surrounded by nature’s most lavish 
gifts. There, if anywhere, nature would 
lead a man into the presence of God. 
But it was notin nature. The story of 
the cruelty and depravity that Living- 
stone found among the savages makes 
the heart sick. 

I am one of that vast host who love 
the mountains, the valleys, the sea and 
the streams, and all that Gad has made. 
But I am convinced that man cannot 
forsake the sanctuary of God without 
peril to his temporal and eternal wel- 
fare.—Rev. Harold J. Bortle. 


— 1220 — 
A PREACHER’S SUCCESS. 


In the church at Somerville, New Jer- 
sey, where I was afterwards pastor, John 
Vredenburgh preached for a great many 
years. He felt that his ministry was a 
failure, and others felt so, although he 
was a faithful minister preaching the 
gospel all the time. He died, and died 
amid some discouragements, and went 
home to God; for no one ever doubted 
that John Vredenburgh was a good 
Christian minister. A little while after 
his death there came a great awakening 
in Somerville, and one Sabbath two hun- 
dred souls stood up at the Christian 
altar espousing the cause of Christ, 
among them my own father and mother. 
And what was peculiar in regard to near- 
ly all of those two hundred souls was 
that they dated their religious impres- 
sions from the ministry of John Vreden- 
burgh.—_T. DeWitt Talmadge, D.D. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


—122i— 
PAYING, NOT GIVING. 


Dr. Adam Clarke once preached on 
the words, “Let him that is athirst come. 
And whosoever will let him take of the 
water of life freely.” At the conclusion 
of the discourse he announced a collec- 
tion. 

“How can you, Doctor,” asked a lady 
afterwards, “reconcile the freeness of the 
water of life with the collection at the 
close?” 

“Oh, madam,” answered the learned 
and venerable divine, “God gives the 
water without money and without price, 
but you must pay for the water works, 
for the pipes, and the pitchers which 
convey the water to your neighbor- 
hood.” 

Remember, you pay nothing to God; 
you are charged nothing for the water; 
but you cannot have convenient chapels 
to sit in without paying for them, nor a 
regular ministry to urge the water on 
your acceptance without making suit- 
able provision for its support.—J. C. 
Jones, D.D. 


—1222— 
THE UNLIKELY ONE CHOSEN. 


Dr. Isaac Barrow, when a lad was 
most unpromising. Such was his mis- 
conduct and so irreclaimable did he seem 
that his father in dispair, used to say 
that “if it pleased God to remove any of 
his children, he wished it might be his 
son Isaac.” 

What became of the other and more 
hopeful children of the worthy linen 
draper, we cannot tell; but this un- 
worthy son lived to be the happiness 
and pride of his father’s old age, to be 
one of the most illustrious members of 
the university to which he belonged, 
and one of the brightest ornaments of 
the church of which he became a min- 
ister.—Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. 


—1223— 


LAZINESS THE ORIGINAL SIN. 
Dr. Storrs tells of an Indian who was 


587 


a candidate for the ministry and was 
asked before the Presbytery the impor- 
tant question, “What is original sin?” 
He answered he didn’t know what other 
people’s might be, but he rather thought 
that his was laziness. There is no doubt 
at the present time that many are suf- 
fering from the same disease. Truly he 
is to be pittied who has nothing to do. 
He is like a barnacle on a ship, or a 
floating derelict, useless to himself and 
dangerous to others.—Rev. E. W. Cas- 
well. 


—1224— 


THE CROSS ATTRACTS. 


In a little book entitled, “Gospel 
Ethnology,” the author shows by a 


careful comparison of missionary enter- 
prise for the past 170 years, that what 


has been most effective to pierce 
through the callousness and prejudice 
of heathenism has been the story of the 
Cross, the sufferings of the sinless Sa- 
viour proclaimed to men as the means 
of their pardon and acceptance with 
God. And what is seen abroad in 
heathen lands is seen here also at home. 
When we want to win men, what do we 
do? We get back to the old story.— 
J. D. Jones. 


—1225— 


CO-OPERATION NEEDED. 


In the establishment of one of the 
great goldsmiths is a vast iron safe with 
many locks, containing immense trea- 
sure. But no one person can open that 
chest; the keys are in the hands of many 
trustees, and only by their concurrence 
can the hidden wealth be made mani- 
fest. Thus it is in the natural and in 
the spiritual world, the wealth of the 
divine blessing can be reached only 
through the brotherhood of saints. “Not 
forsaking the assembling of yourselves 
together.”——-W. L. Watkinson. 


588 


—1226— 
A $10 BILL FROM HEAVEN. 


“About fifty years ago, I was a mem- 
ber of the West Virginia Conference, 
and stationed at Point Pleasant,” writes 
George Cleaton Wilding, in The Metho- 
dist Protestant. “We had formed a 
Conference Insurance Society of a very 
simple type. There were about one 
hundred members in the society, and 
each one, upon the death of a member, 
was obligated to promptly send ten dol- 
lars to the secretary for the widow. 


“One morning in the early autumn, I 
was planning to go out to Hickory 
Chapel, to begin a protracted meeting, 
to be away from home for possibly two 
weeks or more. My little bay horse was 
hitched at the parsonage gate while I 
went to the post-office for my mail. 


“As I looked over my letters, I found 
one from the secretary of our Confer- 
ence Insurance Society, informing me 
of the death of my good friend, Brother 
Hartley, and requesting me to send my 
ten dollars for Mrs. Hartley. I opened 
my purse and counted my pile. It was 
all there. I had no bank account behind 
it. All told, I had ten dollars and forty 
cents, all I had in the world. 


“I did not hesitate for a moment. 
Sister Hartley must have her money. 
My promise must be made good. I 
stepped up to Postmaster French’s of- 
fice window and bought a money order 
for ten dollars, bought a stamped envel- 
ope, and begged a sheet of writing 
paper. 

“TI went to the desk and wrote a letter, 
enclosed the money order, addressed the 
envelope to the secretary, and dropped 
it in the slot. I walked out of the post- 
office feeling that I had done the right 
thing. I had about thirty cents left. 

“As I walked up the street, I fell to 
wondering where I could borrow some 
money to leave with my wife for family 
supplies while I was away out in the 
country. 

“T had just concluded that I would 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


stop in at Brother Cable’s hardware 
store and approach him for a loan. As 
I drew near this store, I met Judge 
Redmond. The Judge was a good Pres- 
byterian, who lived out in the country at 
Pleasant Flats. They had a pretty, white 
church, out in that fertile farming re- 
gion, but were without a preacher. I 
had been preaching for them on Sab- 
bath afternoons, twice a month, for 
several months. 

“As I draw near the Judge, he 
stopped and shook hands with me. Then 
he drew forth from the inside pocket of 
his coat a large, plump wallet, saying, 
‘I have had a peculiar experience. Just 
as you stepped out of the post-office a 
voice seemed to say to me, “You Pres- 
byterians are not treating that young 
Methodist preacher right. Those vol- 
untary collections taken at the church 
have amounted to but little. If you had 
a pastor, his services for this length of 
time would have cost you quite a sum.” 
So I'd better pay my quarterage. I think 
that is what you Methodists call it.’ 

“He unstrapped that fat wallet and 
drew forth a ten-dollar bill and reached 
it to me. I gasped for breath as I man- 
aged to thank him for his thoughtful 
kindness. Then I explained to him just 
what had taken place in the post-office. 
We both agreed that it was well-nigh 
miraculous. Note that he did not give 
me five, nor seven, nor eleven dollars, 
but ten dollars, the exact amount that 
was at that moment reposing in my let- 
ter in the box at the post-office. 

“Whose voice was it that spoke to 
the Judge? Ihave always spoken of this 
gift as a ‘ten-dollar bill from heaven’.” 


— 1227 — 
A POOR EXAMPLE. 


The story is told of a pastor who was 
urging a boy to become a Christian. 
“Religion is a continual joy,” said he. 
“Look at your sister Sarah. How much 
that dear girl enjoys her religion!” 
“Yes,” replied the boy, “Sadie may en- 
joy her religion, but nobody else in the 
house does.”—The C. E. World. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


— 1228 — 
THE IDIOT TRUSTED GOD. 


A New York boy caused his parents 
geat anxiety, for they had made up 
their minds that he was an idiot. He 
had frequent convulsions, and as he grew 
older showed fewer signs of average in- 
telligence. But one day the father over- 
heard the boy praying, and the pathetic 
prayer brought hope to his heart. “Thou 
knowest, Lord, that my father and 
mother are disappointed in me,” the lad 
prayed. “They can find nothing in me 
to be proud of. Thou knowest why, and 
Thou knowest why Thou hast given me 
the burden of these terrible convulsions. 
But I will trust in Thee; I will trust in 
Thee to the end.” 

That boy is now a leading specialist, 
and is known the world over for his re- 
markable success as a surgeon. When 
the world’s Congress of Surgeons and 
Physicians met at Heidleburg and again 
at Brussels, that boy was chosen vice- 
president—the idiot boy who told God 
he would trust Him, and the boy be- 
lieved though he could not understand. 


— 1229 — 
“GO TO HELL, THEN!” 


At the religious assembly held at 
Stony Brook, N. Y., in August, 1920, the 
Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D., related 
an incident substantially as follows, to 
show that God is pleased often to make 
use of weak instruments to accomplish 
great results: 

When Dr. Broughton was pastor at 
Atlanta, Ga., he learned from one of the 
city papers that a man had been jailed 
for disturbing the service at the Metho- 
dist church by his enthusiasm in prais- 
ing God. The case was so unusual that 
in his sermon the following Sunday he 
referred to the incident, criticizing the 
church for so doing. His remarks were 
published, and this shouting brother 
reading them decided that Dr. Brough- 
ton’s church was the one for him to at- 
tend thereafter. 

The Sunday following, as soon as the 
pastor appeared on the platform, a 


588A 


strange man sitting in a front pew 
aroused the quiet assembly by exclaim- 
ing, “Glory to God! Amen!” 

During the sermon which followed 
the hearty exclamations of approval and 
of praise to God of this new worshipper 
were so disconcerting to the preacher 
that before the sermon was half over he 
almost harbored a sneaking wish that 
the man had been kept in jail. But that 
man, though deficient mentally, was so 
possessed and used by the Holy Spirit 
that he did more in the bringing of souls 
into the kingdom of Christ than any 
other ten persons of that congregation. 


So show how this one-talented, Spirit- 
filled brother was used, Dr. Broughton 
said hat after he had preached one Sun- 
day evening in special evangelistic meet- 
ings he announced if any Christians 
present felt lead to go and speak to un- 
converted friends they should not hesi- 
tate to do so, and he himself stepped 
down from the platform to speak to a 
man near the front of the church. As 
he did so he passed the shouting brother, 
and remarked: “If the Lord wants you 
to speak to some one, obey Him.” 

After his return to the platform, he 
observed this enthusiastic brother get 
up and start in a bee-line for the rear of 
the church. And to his dismay he saw 
him heading for a certain skeptical 
lawyer for whose salvation the pastor 
had been for some time concerned, and 
he was fearful lest this erratic brother 
might spoil any good impression his 
preaching and conversation may have 
made upon this keen but doubting 
friend. As the pastor watched, he saw 
this Spirit-led man speak only a few 
words to the lawyer, and then turn back 
and resume his seat, but he had no idea 
what was said. 

The next day, Monday, shortly be- 
fore noon, the pastor’s telephone bell 
rang. Answering it, to his surprise he 
found his lawyer friend was calling. He 
wanted to know if the pastor was at 
liberty, as he wished to see him. The 
minister replied that he was at liberty, 
and he invited his parishioner to come 
and lunch with him. He came, and the 


588B 


pastor saw at a glance he was in an ex- 
cited frame of mind. He began at 
once: 

“fT am so indignant! That shouter 
came to me last night in the meeting 
and said, “Do you want to go to heaven 
when you die?” 

“T said, ‘I don’t know whether I do or 
not.’ And he replied, “Go to hell, then!” 
and turned around and left me. 

“That is the result of your cranky 
teaching, Parson; and the impudence of 
that fellow, and his remark so wrought 
me up that I slept but little last night. I 
am unble to get it off my mind.” 

The pastor could do little more than 
to assure this troubled soul that this 
good brother was unquestionably inter- 
ested in his eternal welfare, and meant 
for his good anything he had said. 


ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 


The next day the lawyer called again. 
He was more disturbed than ever. He 
was unable to sleep or to give attention 
to business. “Go to hell, then!” kept 
ringing in his ears, and he was as un- 
easy as a fish out of water, 

The pastor tcld him that undoubtedly 
the Spirit of God was dealing with him, 
and that he must beware not to resist 
and grieve away the Holy Spirit. 

The burdened soul was not yet pre- 
pared to submit, and he turned away. 
But the arrow of the Almighty contin- 
ued to rankle in his heart, and on Wed- 
nesday he could hold out no longer. He 
called on the pastor. Was glad to be 
prayed for and to pray. He fully sur- 
rendered to Christ, became an active 
Christian, and an officer of the church. 
—Rev. Henry M. Tyndall. 


TOPICAL INDEX 


“Abide ’Till the Morrow!’ 318 Arnold of Rugby, 716 

Abiding Influence, 413 Artist and Gipsy Girl, 301 

Ability, Unused Wasted, 513 Artist, Find of an, 595 

Accepting the First Offer, 194 Artist, Sidney Cooper, 455 

Accident, Discovered By, 1051 Asbury’s, Bishop, Appeal to Negro, 326 
Accidents, No, With God, 1120 Ashamed of Christ, 729, 417, 677 
Accused by Conscience, 477 Ashamed of Mother, 417, 677, 1153 
Achievement, A Great, 892 Ass, Balaam’s, 1216 


Acquainted with God, 63 


Weenie Spenie 762 Associations, Danger of Evil, 428 


Assurance of Prayer Ans., 640, 676, 1206 


Actress, The Converted, 1211 Atheists, Seamen Not, 239 

Adams, John Quincy, 232 Atonement, Christ Our, 436, 672 

Advice, Good Better Than Money, 620 Atonement, Hebrew’s Search for Blood of 
Advice, The Negro’s, 598 382 

Advice, Wrong, 291 Atonement of Christ, 672, 822 

Advocate, 53, 267 Atonement of Christ Sufficient, 524 


Affliction, Joy Amidst, 506 Atonement, Vicarious, 557 


Afraid of the Wet, 565 Atonement, Why Necessary, 672 
oe Berenson 120 Attendance, Church, Helps, 1184 
ahs saat i : Attraction of the Cross, 1224 

er Many Years, At Your Own Doors, 203 


Aged, How Not to Treat the, 847 “Audience of One, 624 
Agnostic Equals Ignorance, 234 Aurelius, Marcus, Letter of, 164 
Agreement in Prayer, 545, 1169 Author, Knowing the, 1174 


Air, Breath of, Directed, 1172 
Alcohol, Soldiers and, 430 


Allen, Ethan, Ryan’s Visit to, 145 Babies, Couldn’t Let, Freeze, 961 
“Almost Up! Almost Up!” 198 Bad Company, Danger of, 428 
Alpine Hunter’s Escape, 244 Balance Came, How the, 19 
Allston’s Prayer Answered, 671 Ballast, Without, 718 

Altamot’s Death-Bed, 1175 Bank of Faith, 157 

Amazing Grace, 887 Bank, Saved by Faith, 211 
Amazing Grace in Conversion, 887 Bar, Crossing the, 946 
Ambition of Louis Napoleon, 317 Barber, The Sabbath Keeping, 308 
Ambition, Worthy, 744 Barn, How Mary Built the, 905 
Ambitious Shoemaker, 908 Basket of Water, 271 

America’s First Rice, 281 Battle, Saved in, by Prayer, 93 
“Am I Better Off?”, 388 Beate Paulus’ Faith, 242 

An Agnostic, 1119 Bedridden Saint’s Prayer, 49 

An African Lake, 391 Beggars, The Two, and the King, 906 
Anarchist Saved, 883 Beginnings of Evil, 1071 

Anchor Hold?, Will Your, 999 Beginning, The, of Faith, 868 
Anderson, Sir James, 324 Begins, How it, 50 

Angel of Mercy, 149 Believe When You Pray, 617 
Angelic Guards, 124 Believe, Why You Should, 879 
Angels, Guardianship of, 385 Believing the Bible, 219 

Angels, Ministry of, 719 Believing on Testimony, 219 
Animals Know Men, 292 Ben Hur, How Written, 114 
Answered Prayer, 14, 135, 137 Benevolence of a Crow, 714 
Answered While Asking, 919, 983 Benefactor, No Thanks ‘to, 419, 417, 426, 
Answers to Prayer, 59, 164, 167 Bent Nails, 64 

Anxiety, to be Put on Christ, 550 Better Off? Am I, 388 

Anywhere for Christ, 873 Beware, Things to, of, 1077 
Apology Not Needed, 485 Bible, Accuracy of the, 826 
Appeals For Money, Why No Personal, 950 Bible the Best Argument, The, 393 
Applied Faith, 846 Bible, Believing the, 219 
Arbitrary, Sabbath Law Not, 885 Bible, The, and Bullet, 878 
Argument, Dazzling, 328 Bible Needs No Defense, 605 
Armada, Spanish, and New England, 174 Bible Difficulties, How to Treat, 863 


Army Miraculously Delivered, 164 Bible, The, First, 783 


590 


Believer, The Security of the, 1188 

Bible, Evidence of Truth of, 887, 487, 826 

Bible, His, 8238 

Bible, How It Finds Us, 450 

Bible, How, Saved Boy, 953 

Bible, Influence of, in Home, 888 

Bible, Japan’s First, 713 

Bible, Influence of a, 290 

Bible, Lincoln and the, 555 

Bible, Love of the, 347, 384, 427, 463, 658 

Bible, Mary Jones’, 463 

Bible, The Neglected, 346 

Bible, The, and Other Books, 1187 

Bible, The, and Wm. Hone, 526 

Bible, Old Testament, Power of, 429 

Bible, One Page of, "Enough, 862 

Bible Prized, The, 347, 384, 427 

Bible Read With Lips, 347 

Bible Reading in Chimney, 384 

Bible Reading Works Wonders, 451 

Bible and the Robbers, 255 

Bible on Rubbish Heap, 954 

Bible Shown True by Prophesy, 487 

Bible, Shut Up With a, 214 

Bible, Study of the, 790 

Bible, The Story of a, 290 

Bible, Walking 240 Miles for, 427 

Bible as a Weapon, 898 

Bible, Wealth in the, 21, 871 

Bible, What the, Is, 772 

Bible, What It Can Do, 438 

Bible, Won by the, 1018 

Bible Works Wonders, 656 

Bird Only Hurt Itself, 220 

Bishop Simpson, 544 

Bishop Simpson’s Recovery, 25 

Bishop’s, The, Prescription, 1025 

Blacksmith’s Power with God, 408 

Blacksmith’s Reminiscence, The, 359 

Blanket Story, 678 

Blessings in Disguise, 1212 

Blessing, ‘The Greater, 1044 

Blind, A Boy Born, Made to See, 205 

Blind, Believed Himself, 973 

Blind, Joan Waste, 579 

Blind Man’s Testimony, The, 445 

Blind, The, Man Who Saw, 1065 
lindness, His, a Blessing, 366 

Blindness, She Thankful for, 778 

Blizzard, Lost in a. 291 

Blizzard, A Story of the, 837 

Biood, Saved by, 286 

Blood, The Precious, 534 

Blood of Atonement, Search for, 382 

Boarder, Faithfulness to Fellow, 303 

“Boat, My, is so Small,’”? 592 

Body Only a Tenement, 232 

Bold, A, Confession, 538, 666 

Book, Influence of a, 330, 659 

Book, Indians and the Great, 658 

“Book, The, of Heaven,’’ 427 

Book, The, that Makes Things Safe, 668 

Bondage, The, of the Heathen, 604 

Boos, Martin, The Story of, 655 

Bootblack’s, The, Question, 594 

Boots, He Saved His, 67 

Bortle, Rev. H. J., Articles by, 1214, 1219 


TOPICAL INDEX 


Bowen, George, 87 

Bowl, The Old Man and His, 847 
Boy, Finding his Lost, 786 

Boy, His Own, 196, 367 

Boy, Only a, 28, 152, 378 

Boy in Danger, Whose, 367 

“Boy, Run Away,” 1215 

Boy, Sankey and Gipsy, 379 

Boy Saved by Mother’s Prayer, 8, 733 
Boy, Save Somebody’s, 209, 367 
Boy, The Runaway, 160 

Boy, The, and the Man, 581, 679 
Boy, The Kingly Elevator, 476 
Boy, When He was a, 2838, 324 
Boy, Winning a, 1070 

Boys that Get Ahead, 1014 

Boy’s Two Bricks, 1i 

Boy’s, A, Contribution, 711 

Boy’s Faith, A Little, 118 

Boy’s Future Endangered by Mother, 630 
Boy’s, Hindoo, Faith, 542 

Boys, Stupid, "Encouraged, 720 
Boy’s, The, Hand Saved, 223 

Boys Who Succeed, 1069 
Brainerd, David, 336 

Brainerd, David, Prayed, 1197 
Brand, A, 924 

Brand, From the Burning, 122 
Brave Chinese Boy, 666 

Brave, A, Missionary, 104 
Bravery, Kate Shelley’s, 230 
Bread Day by Day, 877 

Bread? Have Ye Brought the, 570 
Bread Upon the Waters, 113 
Bread Upon the Waters, 609 
Breakfast Came, Their, 135 
Breakfast, Washington’s, 1047 
Brentz, John, 166 

Bribe, Not to be Bribed, 963, 982 
Brick Without Straw, aes 

Bricks, The Boy’s Two, 1 

Bridge, The Undefended, 80 
Brigade, Memory of Picketts, 176 
Bright Side, Look on the, 614 
Brilliant but Useless, 1001 

Broken House of Life, 1193 
“Brother, Your, Is There-” 735 
Brother Will, 173 

Brothers, The Jewish, 407 
Broughton’s, Len G., Healing, 777 
Brown, John, Body of, 486 

Bryan, Wm. J., 941 

Bug, Lessons from a, 827 

Burden, Saved by a, 718 
Button-Coat Christians, 574 

Build Higher, 37 

Bullet Proof, 405 

Bullet and the Bible, 878 

Bullets, Preserved From, 578 
Bunyan Returned, Why, 130 
Burden Cast Upon Christ, 1022 
Burglar, Conversion of Burke the, 296 
Burke the Burglar, 296 

Burt, Rev. William, 441 

Busch, C. H., How, was Called, 401 
Business, Farwell’s Start in, 294 
Business Suecess, 602 

Butter, She Liked Bad, 687 


TOPICAL INDEX 


Call, Another, 257 

Call, My, to the Ministry, 1208 

Call, How His, Came, 401 

Call, The Divine, 4, 

Call, The Divine, 750 

Calm in the Depths, 751 

Calm in the Storm, 439 

Cap, God Sent a Fur, 665 

Captain, The, and Quadrant, 416 

Captain, The, and the Stowaway, 528 

Captured by Friends, 1195 

Card Playing, 327, 840 

Care, God’s, in Little Things, 202 

Care, God’s, Shown, 988 

Carey and Missions in India, 606 

Carey, William, 483 

Carey, William, His Perseverance, 462 | 

Carvosso’s Children, Conversion of, 566 

Cass, General, 140 

Catching Monkeys, 633 

Caught in the Rapids, 704 

Chamberlain’s, Dr. Jacob, Prayer Answered, 
116, 424 

Chance, A Second, 217 

Character Counts, 549 

Character, Nobility of, 589 

Character Preaches, 788 

Character Tested, 42, 56, 914 

Charlie’s, For, Sake, 53 

Chastening, God’s, 643 

Cheap, Yet Not Cheap, 1028 

Cheerful, A, Giver, 269 

Cheerfulness, Duty of, 796 

Chemist’s Deliverance, 1064 

Child, A Little, Shall Lead, 55, 4538, 471, 488 

Child and the Queen, 556 

Child, Faith of a Slum, 834 

Child, Little, Lead Him, 697 

Child, Loss of a, 707 

Child, Prevailing, Prayer of, 1027 

Child, Saved from Suicide by a,190 

Child, The, Heroine, 248 

Child, The, in the Crevasse, 275 

Child, The Switchman’s, 98 

Child-like Humility, 592 

Children Cared for by Prayer, 535 

Children, Deceiving, 925 

Children Like Their Parents, 519 

Children’s Regard for Parents, 719 

Children, Teach the, 692 

Children, The Lost, Prayed, 253 

Child’s, A, Influence, 7, 471 

Child’s, A Little, Testimony, 162 

Child’s, A, Question, 453, 471 

Child’s, A, Reproof, 5, 471 

Child’s, A, Song, 561 

Chimney, Reading Bible in. 384 

China Inland Mission, 489 

Chinese Boy, Kindness Shown a, 609 

Choice, A Foolish, 505 

Choice, A Wise, 293 

Choice, A Wise, 527 

Choice, The Saddler’s, 797 

Christmas in Heaven, 743 

Christ As a Protector, 66, 1190 

Fst Atonement of, Sufficient for World, 


591 


Christ, Cast all Upon, 1022 

Christ, Casting all Upon, 550 

Christ, Cowboy’s Idea How to Serve, 809 
Christ, Ghandi’s Testimony to, 1196 
Christ, How, Found Me, 1176 

Christ, Humble Work for, 126 

Christ, How to Come to, 580 

Christ, Josephus on, 1039 

Christ Made Welcome, 736 

Christ, Napoleon’s Opinion of, 433 
Christ, Not Recognizing, 417, 419, 426 
Christ, Power of the Story of His Love, 335 
Christ Seen in the Christian, 652 
Christ, Speaking for, 549, 341, 371 
Christ the Light of the World, 300 
Christ, The Master of the Soul, 454 
Christ, Why, Died, 672 

Christ’s Constraining Love, 154 
Christ’s Presence, 398 

Christianity, Try, 1053 

Christians, The Kind of, Wanted, 159 
Christians the Light of the World, 300 
Church, A Holding, 552 
Church-Builders, Boy, 975 

Church, Destroyers of the, 478 

Church, Forsaking the, 1219 

Church, Getting Money for, 1053 
Church Attendance, Plea for, 1214, 1219 
Church-going, 985 

Church-Going Renews Strength, 1184 
Church, Holding, Drawing Preachers, 552 
Church Hospitality, 675 

Church, Invitation to, 626 
Church-Member Stumbling-Blocks, 327, 1127 
Church, On Joining the, 1181 

Church, Quality not Quantity, 547 
Church, Saved by Prayer, 843 

Church, Self-denial for, Building, 92 
Church-support, The Miller’s Plan, 511 
Church, Swimming to, 472 

Church, The Unlighted, 344 

Church, Why the, Burned, 1160 

Claflin and the Young Man, 977 

Clark, Adam, 720 

Climbers or Flyers, 962 

Clock, When the, Struck Thirteen, 320 
Cigarettes, Judge Crain’s Opinion of, 611 
City, An Underground, 415 

Civil War, Hand of God in, 184 
Coal-Driver, The, 549 

Coals of Fire, 717 

Collection, The Penny, 836 

“Coming!” 499 

Coming to the Father, 267 
Common-Place Duties, 490 

Communion, A Story Told at, 479 
Communion With God, 1008 
Companions, Bad, Avoided, 514 
Company, Christians in Strange, 262 
Company, Danger of Bad, 428 
Company, Evil, 974 

Compass, What Deflected the, 1167 
Compensation for What? 941 
Compound Interest, 139 

Concealing His Light, 371 

Condemning Others, 345 

Confessing Jesus, 802 


992 


Confession, A Bold, 538 
Confession, A Fearless, 142, 679 
Confession, A Remarkable, of Guilt, 1 
Confession, A Worthy, 142, 341, 363, 432, 
679, 371, 376 
Confession of Christ, 852, 368, 371, 729 
Confidence in God, 734 
Confidence in Knowing, 815 
Confidence, Surprising, 957 
Congregation of Four, 210 
Congregation of Two, 344 
Congregation, Preaching to Small, 554 
Conscience, A Boy’s, 829 
Conscience, A Child’s, 875 
Conscience, A Guilty, 1, 477 
Conscience, Accused by, 477 
Conscience, One Negro’s, 245 
Conscience, Power of, 225 
Conscience, Restrained by, 302 
Conscience, The Voice of, 875 
Conscientiousness, Jenny Lind’s, 458 
Consecration, A Kitchen Maid’s, 168 
Consecrated to God, 168 
Consumptive’s Prayer of Faith, 470 
Control, How to, Temper, 444, 468 
Control, Self-, Need of, 292 
Control Voice and Temper, 979 
Control Your Passions, 978, 979 
Conversation, Religious, How to Begin, 682 
Conversion, A Remarkable, 357 
Conversion, Bilhorn’s, 1070 
Conversion, Billy Sunday’s, 1037 
Conversion, Dr. Conyer’s, 952 
Conversion, Gen. Howard’s, 896 
Conversion is Loving Jesus, 800 
Conversion, John Wanamaker’s, 520 
Conversion of Africaner, 120 
Conversion of an Actress, 1211 
Conversion of Attorney-General Geo. H. 
Williams, 363 
Conversion of Burke the Burglar, 296 
Conversion of Carvosso’s Children, 566 
Conversion of a Chinaman, 138 
Conversion of a Filipino, 529 
Conversion of a Hackman, 537 
Conversion of Henry M. Tyndall, 1176 
Conversion of Henry Wagner, 122 
Conversion of an Infidel, 526 
Conversion of Jacob Hodges, 469 
Conversion of a Lawyer, 478 
Conversion of a Lawyer, 530 
Conversion of Persecuting Husband, 887 
Conversion of Persecutors, 623 
Conversion, Robert Stephens’, 295 
Conversion Secured by Love, 522 
Conversion, Wooley’s, 179 
Convict, The Transformed, 183 
Convicted of Sins, How, 593 
Convict Weakened by Distrust, 1191 
Co-operation Needed, 1225 
Countersign, The, 886 
Countersign, The, 1156 
Courage, A Boy’s, 514 
Courage, A Lack of, 538 
Courage, A Missionary’s, 104 
Courage, A Monk’s, 538 


& 


TOPICAL 


INDEX 


Courage for the Right, 60 

Courage, Senator Wilson’s, 914, 548 
Courage, The Praying Soldier’s, 352 
Courage, What, Did, 304, 324, 352 
Coveteousness, 523 

Cow, The, Came Back, 319 : 
Cowboy’s Idea of Serving Christ, 809 
Crab, The Wise, 1124 

Crawling for Salvation, 625 
Creation Reveals the Creator, 651 
Crevasse, A Child in the, 275 
Criminal Course, How Begun, 2 
Criminals, A Mother. of, 1217 
Criminals, No Escape for, 1183 
Cripple, A Heroic, 452 

Cripple, What a Did, 674 

Crippled, Why He Was, 127, 674 
Crippled, Why He Was, 127 

Crosby, Fanny, 377, 773 

Cross, The, Attracts, 1224 

Crow, Story of a, 714 

Crown, Preaching for a, 582 

Crown, Race for a, 678 

Crown, Rejecting a, 52 

Cruelty, Restrained from. 302 
Crutch, She Gave Her, 86 


Daily Renewal of Strength, 1184 
Dance, The Last, 1081 

Dark, A Plunge in the, 244 

Darkest Day, Man’s, 497 

Daughter, Lost, Found, 314 

Deaf Mute, What a, Did, 185 
Deaf, Prefers to be, 771 

Death, Fear of, Removed, 1031 
Death-Bed of Altamot, 1175 

Death Overcome by Faith, 244 
Death, The Cold Narrow Stream of, 244 
Death, The Mist of, 819 
Debasement of Sin, 660 
Deceitfulness of Sin, 704 

Deceiving Children, 925 

Decision, Prompt, 769 

Decision, Prompt, Saved Him, 246 
Defense, The Missionaries’, 124 
Defiected, The, Needle, 1167, 1202 
Delay, The Fatal, 1166, 1177 
Disappointment, His Appointment, 294 
Deliverance, A Chemist’s, 1064 
Deliverance, A National, 36 
Deliverance, A Wonderful, 36, 311 
Deliverance from Fire, 443 
Deliverance from Lions, 386 
Deliverance from Pirates, 195 
Deliverance of Army by Prayer, 164 
Demon, A Transformed, 120 
Depravity, Total Illustrated, 897 
Delusion, A Heathen’s, 319 
Delusion, A Strange, 1173 

Desert, Manna in the, 101 

Devices of Satan, 34, 633 

Devil, The, Defeated, 1026 
Diamond, The Lost, 867 

Difficulties, Overcoming, 579 
Difficulties, Overcoming, 99 
Direction, Giving Wrong, 291 
Disasters, Why Not Prevented, 1044 


TOPICAL 


Death, Confidence at, 1218 

Directed by Air Current, 1172 
Discouragement of a Preacher, 544 
Discovered by Accident, 1051 
Discovery, His Greatest, (the Saviour), 576 
Dishonesty, 2, 

Distance, Keep Your, 918 

Distrusting a Father’s Love, 1171 
Doctor’s, The, Story, 719 

Dog, Fidelity of a, 289 

Dog, Man Risked Life for, 745 

Dog Sent as Protector, 1070 

Dog, The Misjudged, 738 

Doing Good, Luxury of, 992 

Doing, Will ‘to Do and Know, 87 
Dollar, A Ten, Bill from Heaven, 1226 
Double-Tongued, 1182 

Doubt, Cure of, 757 

Doubt, Faith Casts Out, 851 

Doxology in Empty Flour Barrel, 375 
Dragon of the Abyss, 644 

Dream, A Powerful, 995 

Dream, Encouraged by a, 486 
Dream, Warned in, 238, 527 

Dreams from God, 316, 486 
Dressing, Why Dressed Settee 78 
“Drop Your Penny!” 741 

Drunkard’s, A, Death, 917 

Drunkard, Thirst of the, 322 

Duty, A Dreaded, Done, 119 

Duty, Commonplace, 490 

Duty, Faithful to, 1180 

Duty, His to Chisel, Not to Know, 856 
Duty, Loyal to His, 98 

Duty More Than Life, 900 

Duty, The Voice, 739, 98 


Eagle, As an, 780 

Earnestness, 383, 6387, 651, 737 
Earthly, Our, House and Heavenly, 11938 
Earthly+~ Body and Spiritual, 1198, 1194 
Ease-loving Church Members, 616 
Eddystone Light House, 228 

Edison, 771 

Edison’s Long-lived Ancestors, 634 
Edison’s Belief in God, 651 

Effort, No Lost, 310 

Egypt, Israel in, 387 

Egypt, Oil in; How Found, 826 
Elevator Boy, Heroic, 476 

Elijah’s God Ours, 839 

Eloquent Speech, His, No Help, 549 
Emma Jones’ Substitute, 481 
Encouragement for Stupid Boys, 720, 549 
Encouragement from Another’s Failure, 544 
Enemies, Love for, 84 

Enemy, How Won, 689 

Enemy, Love Your, 762 

Enemy, Winning an, 4038 

Energy, Need Inspires, 1178 

Engineer Who Prayed, 1084 
Entombed, The, en ad 1152% 

Envied, Not to Be, 388, 

Envy a Rare Sin, 523 

Envy, No, of Rich, 388 

Error, Only a Slight, 934 

Escape, Alpine Hunter’s, 244 


INDEX 593 


Escape, A Narrow, 389 

Escape, John Patterson’s, 509 

Escape of the ‘“‘Spree,’’ 170 

Eternity, 252 

Kthiopian, The Skin of the, 541 

Evangelist, An, in Prison, 813 

Kvil, Beginnings of, 1071 

Evil Company, Danger of, 428 

Evil, Overcome, With Good, 1050, 1090 
Evil. Resulting in Good, 366, 368 

Evil, Undoing, 431 

Evil, Unconscious Influence for, 465 
Example, A Good, 39 

Example, A Poor, 1227 

Example, Bad, by Parents, 630 

Example, How Good, Helps, 178, 181, 479 
Experience Trusting God, 893 

PE Man’s, God’s Opportunity, 386, 


Eyesight, Preserved by Prayer, 615 


Faith and Feeling, 1205, 1209 

Faith Applied, Walter Scott, 846 
Faith, A Little Boy’s, 118 

Faith, A Little Girl’s, 181, 721 
Faith, A Little Slave’s, 89 

Faith, A Slum Child’s, 834 

Faith, Bank Saved by, 211 

Faith Casts Out Doubt, 851 

Faith, Finding a Word to Translate, 1132 
Faith for Conversion of Children, 566 
Faith, God Honors, 569, 570 
Faith, Her, Unshaken, 46, 676, 721 
Faith, Hindu Boy’s, Rewarded, 542 
Faith; How Developed, 516 

Faith in God, 734 

Faith in God Illustrated, 396 
Faith in Guide Board, 702 

Faith in Soul-winning, 501 

Faith, Loss by Lack of, 546 

Faith, Muller’s, Dispelled Fog, 1203 
Faith, Muller’s Mighty, 986 

Faith, Not Feeling, but, Required, 845 
Faith of Coal Miner’s Wife, 1206 
Faith of Franklin in Convention, 621 
Faith, Reward of, 895 

Faith, Reward of, 70, 317, 375 
Faith, Sailing by, 411 

Faith, The Bank of, 157 

Faith, The Beginning of, 868 
Faith, The Wall of, 440 

Fatal, The, Sleep, 23 

Faith, The Prayer of, 470 

Faith, Took Umbrella by, 617 
Faith, Unshaken, 46, 676 

Faithful Unto Death, 180 
Faithfulness in Little Things, 474 
Faithfulness Rewarded, 308 

Faith’s Beginning, 868 

Fame, A Humble Girl’s, 402 

Fame’s Duration, 894 

Family Prayers, 880 

Family Resemblance, 519 

Family Worship, 1072 

Farragut’s Turning Point, 192 
Farrar, Dean, His Conscience, 875 
Farwell’s, John E., Start, 294 


594 TOPICAL INDEX 


Fascination, Spoiling Our, 231 
Fatal, A, Delay, 1166 

Father, Distrusting Her, 1171 
Father, Forgiveness of a, 314 
Father, Honoring His, 719 
Father, Trusting Her, 721 
Father, Your, Knoweth, 1023 
Father’s, A, Influence, 708, 1109 
Father’s, A, Regret, 20 
Faultfinding, 728 

Faults Seeing Other’s, 345 
Fearless, Confession, 142 

Fear of Death Removed, 1031 
Fed by Ravens, 1089 

Feeling Saved, 848 

Feet, Lost, Only; Gave Body, 1163 
Fellowship with a Meaning, 274 
Fence, The Line, 199 

Fettered for Another, 259 
Fidelity of a Dog, 289 

Fidelity, of a Horse, 700 
Fidelity of Lighthouse Keeper, 1180 
“Fifty Dollars or Fifty Cents?” 178 
Fight, He Would Not, 348 
Fight, Sailors, for Life, 737 
Finding the Lost $20 Bill, 151 
Finney, Charles G, 191, 673 
Fire, Delivered from, 443 

Fish, The Lord’s, 575 

Fishes, The Little Boy’s, 18 
Fishing, Not Accounting, 670 
Five Cent Test, 56 

Flag, Protected by, 405 
Flogging, Taking a, for Another, 557 
Fog Cleared by Faith, 1203 

Fog, How the, Was Lifted, 146 
Folly, According to His, 795 
Food in Answer to Prayer, 266 
Fool, The Greater, 650 

Fool, Was Teddy a, 694 

Forgive to be Forgiven, 480 
Forgiveness, A Governor’s 539 
Forgiveness, Power of, 709, 314 
Forgiveness with God, 314 
Forgives, As God, 314 
Forsaking the Sanctuary, 1219 
Foundations, Safe cr Sandy, 981 
Fountain, The, of Life, 27 
Francke, August Herman, 535 
Franklin and Prayer, 75, 621 
Franklin’s Illustration, 636 
Freedom, Claim Your, 932 
Frightened Too Easily, 563 
Frozen, A, Crew, 406 


Gatekeeper, The Stupid, 1186 
Gambling, The End of, 840, 327 
Genuine Repentance, 608 

Getting What We Give, 461 
Ghandi’s Testimony to Christ, 1196 
Gideon’s Fleece, A Modern, 1033 
Gift, A Kurdish Mother’s, 852, 494 
Gift, A Widow’s, 852, 715 

Gift, Louisa Osborne’s, 235 

Gift of Holy Spirit, 1208, 1209 

Gift, Refusing a, 673 
Gift, Why Refused, 678 


j 


j 


Gift, The Gift He Accepted, 928 
Gifts, Great, from Small Income, 1060 
Gipsy Boy and Sankey, 379 

Gipsy Girl and the Artist, 301 
Gipsy, The, Boy’s Prayer, 1054 
Gipsy Smith’s Mother’s Death, 561 
Girl, Faith of a Little, 181, 617 
Girl, Influence of One, 16, 661 

Girl, A Poor, Became Famous, 402 
Girl, Prayers of a Little, 208 

Girl, What a Little, Missionary Did, 150 
Give and it Shall be Given You, 562 
Give and it Shall be Given to You, 147 
Give, As Kings, 83 

Give, Impressed to, $5.00, £100, 165, 188 
Give While You Can, 632 

Giver, A Cheerful 269 

Giving, a Loan to God, 374 

Giving as God Gives, 748 

Giving as to the Lord, 642 

Givers, God Honors Generous, 1092 
Giving and Getting, 147, 1085, 1092 
Giving benefits the Giver, 391, 461 
Giving, Generous, 235 

Giving, Generous, 1060, 1085 
Giving God the Best, 629 

Giving Her Crutch, 86 

Giving, How Example Helps in, 178 
Giving, Indian Gave His Life, 487 
Giving, The, of a Coal Carter, 178 
Giving, The Luxury of, 518 

Giving to Church Support, 511, 607 
Giving, Wrong Cheerful, 916 
Gladness, Gloom to, 911 : 

God, Acquainted With, 63 

God, Always in God’s Presence, 664 
God, A Son of, 32 

God, Care of, in Little Things, 202 
God Consecrated to, 168 

God, Elijah’s, Ours, 839 

God Held the Train, 61 


-God Is Everywhere, 44. 


God, Hand of, in Civil War, 184 
God Helps When Needed, 307 
God, His Communion with, 1009 
“God, Is This?’’, 172 

God Not a Merchant, 132 

God, Nothing Impossible with, 537 
God, Proving, 625° 

God Seen in His Works, 651 

God So Loved He Gave, 698 

God, The Voice of, 128 


-God, Thou Seest Me, 1011 


God, Trust in Rewarded, 71 

God Welcomes Sinners, 362 

God’s Will is Best, 707 

God, Why Invisible, 328 

Gold, Greed for, 321 

Golden Rule, 339 

Goldmine for Whiskey, 460 

Good Name, Lee Valued His, 1024 
Good Out of Evil, 446 

Good Out of Evil, 1212 

Good, Returning, for Evil, 53% 646 
Good Samaritan, A, 329 

Good, Some, in the Worst, 501 
Gospel for Children, 692 


TOPICAL INDEX 


Gospel for the Poor, 899 

Gospel Good News to Heathen, 648 
Gough, John B., How Saved, 691 
Governor, He Tho’t, a Preacher, 1154 
Grace, Amazing, 887 

Grace, A Trophy of God’ 3, 1046 
Grace, Great, in Trial, 309 

Grace of God, 524 

Grace of God Misunderstood, 673 
Grace Sufficient, 1056 

Grant, General, Declined, 315 
Gratitude, How Expressed, 591 
Grave, Her, Opened by Tree, 1066 


Great Good from Small Efforts, 326, 379, 


537, 548 
Greatness, General Lee’s, 1024 
Greatest, The, Sin, 1068 
Greed for Gold Brings Grief, 321 
Greediness, Better than, 1059 
Greediness Ruinous, 638, 636 
Grist, The Unground, 587 
Guards, Angelic, 124 
Guidance Confirmed, 43, 207 
See st Divine, 534, 610, 645, 884, 920, 


Guidance, Seeking God’s, 695 
pees of the Spirit, 692 ,698, 695 705, 


Guan The Spirit’s, 249, 312, 318, 457, 
610, 1042 

Guide, Confidence in a, 90 

Guide, Killing the, 109 

Guided Aright, 207, 312, 994, 1042 

Guided to Life’s Work, 920, 922 

Guilt, A Remarkable Confession of, 1 

Guilty, All Men, 1021 


Habit Gains a Right, 618 

Habit, How Bad, Hindered, 565 
Habit, How Good, Helps, 559, 620 
Habit, Power of 755 

Habit, The Help of, 1198 

Habits, Danger of Bad, 467, 618 
Habits, Good, A Recommendation, 977 
Hackman, Midnight Visit of a, 537 
Hamlin, Cyrus, 2138, 770 

Hand of God in Civil War, 184 
Hand, The Boy’s, Saved, 223 

Hand, The Saving, 79 re 
Hand, Taught by His, 188 

Hands, Mary’s, 30 

Handkerchief, The Child’s Silk, 945 
Handkerchief, The Lost, 897 
Happiness in God Only, "1093 
Happy, Why Too, to Sleep, 648 
Hardship, Among the Heathen, 247 
Harmonic Lives, 559 


Harrison, Benjamin, Christian Work of, 496 


Harvest, A Strange, 182 

Head, He Forgot to Bow His, 80 
Head, The, of the Firm, 865 

Healed by Faith, 10338 

Healing, AS ase ‘of Divine, 1096 
Healing by ‘Prayer, 434, 466, 657, 640 
Healing, Len G. Broughton’s, 177 
Healing of Chaplain McCabe, 601 
Healing of Myron P. Tyndall, 640 
Healing of Rev. Chas. H. Tyndall, 1096 


595 


Health, Prayer Brought, 1091 

Hearing God’s Voice, 825 

Heart in Work, 9938 

Heart, Keeping the, 1167, 1202 
Heathen, Delusion of, 319 

Heathen, How, Girl Found Christ, 841 
Heathen, In Perils by the, 247 
Heathen Mob Won by Story of Christ, 335 
Heaven, A Seat in, 678 

Heaven, The Book of, 427 

Heaven, Where, Is, 1030 

Heaven, Visions of, and Hef¥l, 270 
Heaven’s Gate Ajar, 1192 

Hebrew’s Search for Atoning Blood, 382 
“He Got In,” 588 

Heights, Living in the, 830 


~ Hell Better Than Heaven for Some, 631 


Hell on Earth, 399 

Help, Divine, When Needed, 307 

Help from the Lord Only, 906, 1002 

Help, He Meant to, Let 1154 

“Help Me, Lord?’, 

Help Sent Via ae 901 

Helper, God the Only, 906 

Helped by Russell Sage, 620 

Helper, An Unknown, 284 

Hen, The Misjudged, 144 

Henry Ryan and Ethan Allen, 145 

Hero, A Crippled, 452 

Hero, A Modest, 476, 725 

Hero of Puncheon Camp, 378 

Heroine, A Missionary, 1045 

Heroine, The Child, 24 

Heroism of a Black Boy, 456 

Heroism of an Elevator Boy, 476 

Heroism of Jacob Kenoly, 456 

Heroism, Rock of Moral, 816 

Hiding, Her Light, 1168 

Highlander’s, The, Prayer, 1158 

Highwayman, Knife of the, 765 

Hindrances That Help, 948 

Hindu Idea of Sin, 498 

Hodges, Conversion of Jacob, 469 

Holding the Line, 1179 

Holy Spirit, Guidance of, 534, 610, 645, 
884, 920, 1040 

Holy Spirit, Gift of the, 1208, 1209 

Holy Spirit, His Work Mysterious, 525 

Holy Spirit, Moved by the, 600 

Holy Spirit, Resisting the, 109 

Holy Spirit, Work of, 357, 645 

Holy, Take Time to be, 833 

Honest Abe Stee 4, 515 

Honest, An, Man, 2 

Honesty, 236, 527 

Honesty, Lincoln Trusted, 690 

Honesty of Livingston’s Family, 828 

Honesty of Sophia Holmes, 527 

Honesty, Scottish, 17 

Honor, Deserved, 6 

Honor, Parental, 91, 719 

Horse, A Sermon by a, 108 

Horse Fidelity, 700 

House, The Power, 136 

House, Why Unfinished, 803 

Howard, General O. O., 170, 896 

Humble Place, Greatly Useful in, 168 

Humble, Willing to Do, Service, 361 


596 


Humble Work Done Well, 915, 168 

Humble Work for Christ, 126, 361 
Humility, 361, 592, 625 

Hungry for Kind Words, 106 

Hunter’s, The, Story, 571 

Hurricane, Saved from, 33 

Husband, Persecuting, Converted, 887 
Hymns, How Written, 309, 377, 395, 1062 


“T Don’t Know,” 411; “Him,” 417 

Idle Foot Tired, 866 

Ignorance, Bondage of, 604 

Ignorance Enslaves, 85 

Ignorance Not Necessarily Harmful, 670 

Ignorance of Value, 512 

Ignorance, Sin of, 291 

Impatience Lost Diamond, 1179 

Imperfect Made Perfect, 854 

Impressed to Give £100, 165 

Impressed to Give £20, $5.00, £100, 188, 
165 

Impression Obeyed, 372 

Impressions, Worth of, 599, 645 

“Inasmuch,” 817 

Incident, A Striking, 645 

Indian Died for His Tribe, 487 

Indians and Great Book, 427, 658 

Indians Respected the Quaker’s Trust, 169 

Inconsistent Church Members, 327, 422 

Indecision, Lost by, 1177 

India’s Debt to Christ, 1196 

Indulgences, Stories of, 638 

Infidel Books Burned, 746 

Infidel’s Trust in the Bible, 668 

Infidel, Converted, 447, 466, 526, 635 

Infidel Converted, 976 

Infidel’s Death-Bed, 1175 

Infidel Prayed, 306 

Infidel Reproved, 678 

Infidel, The, and the Bishop, 1025 

Infidel’s, The, Death-Bed, 1175 

Infidelity, What, Does, 105 

Influence Abiding, 413 

Influence, A Child‘s, 7, 11 

Influence, A Dead Mother’s, 29, 577 

Influence After Death, 1189, 1220 

Influence for Evil, 465 

Influence, One Girl’s, 16 

Influence, Quiet, 1055 

Influence of a Bible, 290 

Influence of a Bootblack’s Question, 594 

Influence of a Boy’s Gifts, 711, 11 

Influence of a Child’s Song, 561 

Influence of a Good Book, 330, 659 

Influence of a Letter, 641, 1109 

Influence of a Picture, 41, 301, 663 

Influence of a Servant Girl, 661 

Influence of a Tract, 849 

Influence of a Word, 295 

Influence of Bible in Home, 888 

Influence of Dead Mother, 29 4 

aoe: of Faithful Church Attendance, 

Influence of Kindness to Chinese, 609 

Influence of Little Things, 590, 934 

Influence of One Bible Verse, 1035 

Influence of One Tract, 732, 353 


TOPICAL INDEX 


Influence of Self-possession, 304 

Influence of Small Sins, 2, 64 

Influence, One Girl’s Evil, 1217 

Influence, Personal, 626, 635 

Influence, Silent, 13, 126 

Influence, The Story of Christ, 335 

Influence, Unconscious, 74, 299, 310, 459, 

465 ; 

Influence, Wesley’s, 413 

Ingersoll Rebuked, 881 

Ingratitude, 417, 419, 426 

Inheritance, Awaiting an, 662 

Insanity, Moral, 644 

Insanity, Recovery from, 161 

Instant Healing, 466, 640 

Instant Salvation, 100 

Intercession for Charlie’s Sake, 53 

Intercession to Lincoln for Soldiers by 
“Tad,” 267 

Interest, Cause of His, 927 

Interest, Compound, 139 

Inventor, An Unselfish, 421 

Investment, A Good, 842 

Invitation Promptly Accepted, 272 

Invitation to Church, 626 

Irenaeus, Testimony of as to Jesus, 835 


Jack, Poor, 929 

Japanese Girl Found True God, 841 

Japan’s First Bible, 712 

Jenny Lind’s Reply, 1034 

Jesus, Liked, Best, 422 

Jesus, Loving, is Conversion, 800 
“Jesus, Safe in the Arms of,’’ How Written, 


377 
Jesus, The Word, 801 
Jesus, Trusting, 221 
Jewels from Mud, 639 
Jewish, The Brothers Quarrel, 407 
Jonah and the Whale, 965 
Jones’, Mary, Bible, 463 
Josephus Concerning Christ, 1039 
Journey, Life’s Hard, 153 
Joy Amidst Affliction, 506 
Joy, He Shouted for, 747 
Joy, Miraculous, in Sorrow, 872 
Judge Not, 123 
Judge Pays Prisoner’s Fine, 970 
Judge the Saviour is the, 731 
Judgments, God’s, 904 
Jungle, In the Tiger’s, 553 
“Just as I Am,” How Written, 1062 
Justice, Not, but Pardon, 12 


Keeping a Promise, 569 

Killing the Guide, 109 

Kind, as Well as Great, Gladstone, 980 
Kind, Hungry for, Words, 106 
Kind Severity, 96 

Kindness, Conquered by, 1015, 1091 
Kindness, Lincoln’s, 675 

Kindness, Overcome by, 186 
Kindness, Pass it on, 197 

Kindness, Power of 791 

Kindness Rewarded, 337, 609 
Kindness to Chinese Boy, 609 
King, I Belong to the, 774 

King, Latimer and the, 22 


TOPICAL INDEX 


King, The, and the Thief, 1021 

King, The, Lost an Eye for His Son, 1078 
Kings, As, Give, 88 

Kings, The Boy Who Stood Before, 770 
King’s, The Business, 769 

King’s, The, Victim, 448 

Kingly, The, Elevator Boy, 476 
Kitchen, A, Maid’s Consecration, 168 
Knees, Working on His, 5438, 10838 
Know and Know You Know, 815 
Knowing by Faith, 233 

Knowledge Saved Him, 789, 1015 
Know, Will to Do and, 87 

Knox, Prayer of John, 265 

Konoly, Jacob, Heroism of, 456 
Kurdistan, The Saviour of, 494 


Labor Honorable, 285 

Lack of a Touch, 404 

Ladder, Splicing the, 287 

Lake, An African, 391 

Last, Accepting, Offer, 305 

Last, Seizing, Chance, 246 
Latch-string Out for Indians, 169 
Latimer and the King, 22 

Law, God’s, Perfect, 475 

Law of Sabbath Not Arbitrary, 885 
Law, The King Honored His, 1078 
Lawyer, Capturing a, 478, 530 
Laziness, the Original Sin, 1223 
Lee’s Greatness, 1024 

Letter, A Left-handed, 641 
“Letter, Is there a, for Me,” 65 
Letter, The Misdirected, 141 
Letters, The Seven, 989 

Leyden Saved by Prayer, 573 
Liberality and Prosperity, 111, 785 
Liberty, Claim Your, 932 

Liberty, You Must Claim Your, 932 
Lie, A Life for a, 51 

Lie Is Forever, 201, 431 

Life, Duty More than, 900 

Life, Insuring, or Soul, 263 

Life Line, The Short, 923 

Life, Purpose in, 1159 

Life, Sailors Fight for, 737 

Life, Spiritual, Needed, 364 

Life, The Art of Long, 634 

Life, The Fountain of, 27 

Life, The Purchased, 464 

Life, The Push of, 1161 

Life, Why, a Hard Journey, 153 
Life’s Broken House, 11938 
Life-saver, He Saved Seventeen Lives, 553 
Light, Following the, 10738 

, Light, Hiding Her, 1168 

\ Light, Hold Up the, 228, 425 

\ Light, Letting His, Shine, 341, 371, 425 
Light, Letting, Shine on Waves, 425 
Light, Let Your, Shine, 425, 926 
“Light, Mind the,” 1180 

Light, Morse’s, 814 

Light Under Bushel, 1185 

Light, Walking in the, 90 
Lighthouse, Eddystone, 228 
Lightning Closed Switch, 325 
Lightning, Why, Struck Church, 1160 


597 


Lincoln, Advice of, as to Quarreling, 560 

Lincoln and the Bible, 555 

Lincoln, His Belief in Prayer, 601, 942, 874 

Lincoln, His Magnanimity, 853 

Lincoln, His Religious Development, 502 

Lincoln, Honest Abe, 4, 502, 515 

Lincoln Insisted a Promise Be Kept, 280 

Lincoln Received a Soldier in Trouble, 267 

Lincoln, Room in His Pew, 675 

Lincoln Served Water at Notification, 414 

Lincoln’s Trusted Honesty, 690 

Lind, Jenny, and the King, 458 

Line-fence Question Settled, 199 

Lions, How Saved from, 385 

Lions, Why Saved from, 385, 1087 

Little Girl, How, Worked for Christ, 150 

Little Girl’s Faith for Bad Father, 181 

Little Girl’s Prayer for Sick Mother, 208 

Little Girl’s Testimony as to Beer, 162 

Little Light, Value of, 425 

Little Sins, 64, 2 

Little Things and Great Results, 369, 378, 
379, 441, 425, 474 

Little Things, God’s Care in, 202 

Little Things, Importance of, 508, 590, 7038 

Little Things, Influence of, 425, 590, 934 

Little Things, Power of, 508 

Living Beneath Privilege, 85 

Livingston, David, 171 

Loaf, The Little, 1059 

Loan to the Lord, 374 

Longevity, How to Attain, 634 

Looking Pleasant, 507 

“Lord, Help Me!” 753 

Losing and Finding, 575 

Lost Children Prayed, 253 

Lost, Finding Her, Boy, 786 

Lost, Finding the, $20 Bill, 151 

Lost in Forest Providentially, 1157 

Lost Man Found, 571 

Lost, Near Home Yet, 260 

Lost, No Effort, 310 

Lost, The, Children Prayed, 253 

Lost, The, Diamond, 867 

st, The Sheep that was, 15 

Love, A Child Waif Hungry for, 510 

Love Brought Him Back to Health, 857 

Love, Christ’s Constraining, 154, 464 

Love Conquered a Criminal, 522 ‘ 

Love, Distrusting a Father’s, 1171 

Love for Author Bettered Book, 1174 

Love for Souls, 336 

Love, God’s for Us, 216 

Love, God’s, Shown by His Great Gift, 698 

“Tove, Herein Is,’ 216, 464, 487 

Love, How, Unites, 754 

“Tove, I, to Pint Him Out,” 802 

Love, Lack of, 1191 

Love, Learning to, the Unlovely, 31 

Love Lightens the Load, 680 

Love, Mystery of God’s, 400 


4+Liove, Not Our, to God, 756 
Love of Author Bettered Book, 1174 


Love of Christ, the Power of the Story, 335 
Love of Girl for Maimed Soldier, 355 


~ Love Others as Yourself, 619 


Love, Parental, 258 


598 


Love, Reproving in, 354 

Love, The Accent of Tone of, 420 
Love Unto Death, Father for Son, 464 
Love Unto Death, Indian for Tribe, 487 
Love Won a Degraded Drunkard, 612 
Love Your Enemies, 84 

Love Your Enemies, 762 

“Lower, Lights,” The, Out, 1005 

Loyal to His Mother, 72 

Luther’s Fervent Prayer, 298 

Luxuries, Ill Effect of, 749 

Luxury of Doing Good, 992 

Luxury of Giving, 518 


Maelstrom, In the, of Sin, 467, 704 

Man, Saving a, at Sea, 288 

Manna in the Desert, 101 

Marcus Aurelius, Letter of, 164 . 

Massacre, Saved from, by Prayer, 318, 350 

Master, His, Always in, 829 

McCabe, Chaplain, His Healing, 601 

Men, Above Price, 963 

Men Greater than Circumstances, 452 

Merchant, God not a, 13 

Mercy, The Angel of, 149 

Message, The Last, of a Convict, 501 

Michael Angelo and the Discarded Marble, 
17 


2 
Miller’s, The, Plan to Support Church, 511 
“Mind the Light!’’, 1180 
Mind, The, Makes the Man, 452 
Miners, The Entombed, 1172 
Miner’s Wife, Faith of the, 1206 
Minister, A, Who Disbelieved Bible, 473 
Minister, A Young Won Lawyer, 478 
Ministry, How Called to the, 1208 
Misdirected, Envelopes, 141 
Misdirected Traveler, 291 
Misjudged, The, Dog, 738 
Misjudged, The, Hen, 144 
Miserly, A, Rich Man, 564 
Miserly Worldlings and Christians, 564 
Missionary, Foreign, Work at Home, 203 
Missionary Heroine, 1045 
Missions in India, 606 
Missions in Korea, 648 
Missions, Mountain Girl’s Interest in, 364 
Missions, Scudder, How Interested in, 353 
Missionary, The Defenders of the, 124 
Mistake, A fortunate, 141, 891 
Mistake, Overruled for Good, 141, 603, 87 
Mistook, She, Benefactor for Landlord, 546 
Mob, A Heathen, Won by Story, 424 
ph Oe Heathen Won by Story of Christ, 
Mob Won by Story of Gospel, 124 
Modest, A, Hero, 725 
Moffat, Robert, and Africaner, 120 
eee Robert, and a Solitary Christian, 
Money, Hidden, 47 
Money, How the, Came, 740 
Money-making, Agassiz on, 521 
Money-making no Temptation, 527 
Money not the Motive, 855 
Money not the Object, 94 
Money, £20 in Answer to Prayer, 31i 


TOPICAL INDEX 


Monkeys, How, are Caught, 6338 

Moody, D. L., Boyhood of, 283, 590 

Moody, D. L., Humility of, 370 

Moody, D. L., on Escape of “The Spree,” 
17 


“‘Moonshiner’s,” A, Conversion, 1035 

Morrison, Robert, Helper, 361 

Morse’s Light, 814 

Mortar, Mixing the, 794 

Mother, A, of Criminals, 1217 

Mother, A, of Men, 97 

Mother, First Sight of, by Boy of Six, 205 

Mother, Honoring His, 73, 583 

Mother, Influence of a Dead, 29 

Mother, Influence of General Lewis Cass’, 
140 


Mother, John Newton’s, 577 

Mother, Loyal to His, 73, 140, 583 
Mother Prayers of Hudson Taylor’s, 8 
Mother, Prayer of a Slave, 189 
Mother, The Faithful, Hen, 810 
Mother, Thought of His, 958 
“Mother Told Me,” 283 

Mountain Girl Became Missionary, 364 
Mountain, The, Driver, 256 

Muller, Geo., Prayer for Breakfast, 135 
Muller’s Mighty Faith, 986 

Murder, Restrained from, 338 
Murderer, Confessed, 477 

Murderer Converted, 469 

Murphy, Francis, and Sons, 1199 
Music, Transfigured, 1041 

Musician, Hand of the Master, 454 
Mute, What a Deaf, Did, 185 
Mysteries, How to Deal with, 670 
Mystery of God’s Love, 409 

Mystery of Work of H. S., 525 


Nailhole, Pull Out the, 431 

Nails, Bent, 64 

Nails, The Print of, 331 

Name, His, 1058 

Name, His, Lives, 613 

Name, Lee Valued His Good, 1024 
Napoleon, His Opinion of Jesus, 433 
Napoleon, Louis, Confidence of, 317 
Napoleon, Louis, His Ambition, 317 
Narrow, A, Passagie, 625 

National, A Deliverance, 35 

Nature Must Be Changed, 541 
Need Inspired Energy, 1178 

Need, the Best Recommendation, 393 
Neglect, Fatal, 23 

Neglect, The Peril of, 1177 
Neglected Treasure, Bible, 346 
Negro, A Bishop’s Appeal to a, 326 
Negro, Color is in Nature of, 541 
Negro, The Conscience of One, 245 
Neighbor, How Won, 397 
New-birth, 529 

New England, How Saved, 174 

New Testament, Story of a, 112 
Newton, John, 577, 581 

Newton, Sir Isaac, Voltaire’s Sneer at, 115 
“Nickel, A, for the Lord,” 730 
Nicodemus, A Chinese, 525 

Nine, She Won, 622 


‘ 


TOPICAL INDEX ‘ . 599 


“No!? He Said, 143 

“No, Thank You!” Helped by, 779 
“Nol”? What Saying, Led to, 548 
Nobility of Character, 589 
Non-resistance of a Quaker, 343 
“Nothing Left to Do,” 524 

Nott, Deborah, 97 

“Now or Never!’ 246 

“Now, Then—!’ 1110 


Obedience Better than Wealth, 278 
Obedience to Orders, 360 
Obedience to Parents, 991 

“Of Course He Will!” 1004 

Oil, Driving with, 969 

Oil, How Found in Egypt, 826 
Old Man and His Bowl, 847 

Old Testament, Power of, 429 
Omnipresence of God, 44 

“Only a Boy,’’ Robert Moffat, 28 
Opportunities, Ghost of Lost, 554 
Opportunity, A Lost, 76, 256, 399 
Opportunity, Another, 759 
Opportunity at Own Doors, 203 
Opportunity for Pardon Missed, 1154 
Opportunity, Improving the, 654 
Orders, Obedience to, 360 
Original Sin, Laziness the, 1223 
Orphanage, Francke’s, 535 
Orphans Provided for, 135. 386 
Osborne, Louise, Gift of, 235 
Overcome by Kindness, 186 
Overcoming Difficulties, 99, 579 
Overcoming Evil with Good, 1050 
Overcoming the World, 1201, 1204 
Ox, Shamed by His, 890 


Page, One, Enough, 862, 182 
Pardon, Missed Chance for, 1154 
Pardon, Not Justice but, 54 
Pardon, Reuben Johnson’s, 12 
Pardon, The Locked Up, 933 
Pardon, The Withheld, 768 
Pardoned, Why He was, 585 
Parental Love, 258 

Parental Regard, 91, 719 
Parental Responsibility, 1215 
Parents, Honoring, 847 

Parents, Honor of, 91 

Parents, Obey Your, 991 

Parson Haven’s Victory, 24 
Partnership with God, 936 

“Pass It On!” 197 

Passion, A, for Christ, 1007 
Passions, Check Your, 978 
Passion for Souls, 336 

Patience, Carey’s, 483 

Patience, Lack of, Lost Diamond, 1179 
Patience Rewarded, 662 

Patience to Wait, 662 

Patience with Little Duties, 490 
Paton’s Finding Word for Trust, 1132 
Patterson’s Escape, 509 

Paying, Not Giving, 1221 

Peace, Like a River, 309 

Peace, The Song of, 40 

Peace, ‘When, Like a River,’’ 309 


Pearls, Troubles Turned into, 845 

Peddler’s, The, Window, 602 

People, What Will, Say, 921 

Peril, The, of Neglect, 1177 

Perilous, Walking a, Plank, 90 

Perils by the Heathen, 247 

Persecuting Husband Converted, 443, 887 

Persecutors Converted, 623, 443 

Perseverance, 720, 783,.462, 987 

Perseverance, Carey’s, 462 

Perseverance for Souls, 622 

Perseverance in Prayer, 68, 310, 340, 364, 
410 


Perserverance, Influence of, 530 

Perservance, Prescott’s, 495 

Perseverance Rewarded, 987 

Perseverance Rewarded, 3, 310, 364 

Personal Work, 727 

Personal Work for Souls, 485 

Personal Work for Souls, 308, 305, 496, 574 

Piccolo, The, Missed, 703 

Pickett’s Brigade, Memory of, 176 

Picture, Infiuence of a, 41, 663 

Picture, The Spoiled, 597 

Picture’s, A, Influence, 663 

Pigs, How, were Led, 34 

Pipe, Why He Gave Up the, 1105 

Pirates, Delivered from, 195 

Place, To, for Which Fitted, 631 

Pleasure Pursued to the Abyss, 644 

Plodding, Patient, 483 

Politeness Pays, 842 

Politeness Pays, “Mr. Murphy,” 1199 

Poor, Making Many Rich, 859 

Poor, The Gospel to the, 899 

Potatoes and Salt Dinner, 596 

Poverty No Bar to Fame, 402, 455 

Power, Getting, 758 

Power of Kindness, 791 

Power of Little Things, 508, 704 

Power of Love, 510 

Power of the Word, 1164 

Power of Trifles, 792 

Power, Secret of, 684 

Power-house, The, 136 

Powerful but Silent, 726 

Practice, Consistent, 628 

Prairie, The, Fire, 1218 

Pray, Soldier’s Courage to, 352 

Pray, When He Bids Us, 686 

Pray Your Own Prayers, 373 

Prayed, Lost Children, 253 

Prayed, While They Yet, 843 

Prayer, A Slave Mother’s, 189 

Prayer, A Wireless Telegraph, 864 

Prayer, Agreement in, 136, 545 

Prayer, Answers to, 164, 167, 350, 386, 
489, 503, 538, 390, 409, 416, 671 

Prayer Answered After Death, 733 

Prayer Answered for Clear Sky, 416 

Prayer Answered for Conversion of Hudson 
Taylor, 8 

Prayer Answered for Fur Cap, 665 

Prayer Answered for Jacob Chamberlain, 
116 


Prayer Answered for Mild Weather, 14 
Prayer Answered for Money, 311 


600 


Prayer Answered for Persecuted Jews, 59 

Prayer Answered for Safety of Ship, 137 

Prayer Answered for Widow and Children, 
36 


Prayer Answered While Yet Asking, 843 

Prayer, B. Franklin and, 75 

Prayer, Bengle’s, 712 

Prayer Brought Health, 1091, 1096 

Prayer Changes Things, 408, 409 

Prayer, Consumptive’s, of Faith, 470 

Prayer, Family, 20 

Prayer, Fervent, 408 

Prayer for Conversion of Children, 566 

Prayer for Men and Money, 489 

Prayer for Revival, 38, 49, 191, 408, 470 
1088 


Prayer for Sick Mother by Little Girl, 208 

Prayer for 25 Cents, 1029 

Prayer, “Go on with That!’ 480 

Prayer, Luther’s Fervent, 298 

Prayer Meeting, A Great, 356 

Prayer Meeting, Attending, 764 

Prayer Meeting Forsaken, 947 

Prayer Meeting Hurt by Hypocrite, 549 

Prayer Meeting, Speaking in, 549 

Prayer, Money in Answer to, 535, 311 

Prayer of David Brainerd, 1197 

Prayer of Highland Soldier, 1158 

Prayer, Perserverance in, 410 

Prayer, Power of, 930 

Prayer, Prevailing, of a Child, 1027 

Prayer, Remarkable Answer to, 685 

Prayer Saved a Boy’s Hand, 223 

Prayer Saved from Lions, 1087 

Prayer Saved from Massacre, 318, 350 

Prayer, Saved in Battle by, 93 

Prayer Saved Leyden, 578 

Prayer Saved Prohibition, 1061 

Prayer Saves Sick, 434 

Prayer, Spirit of, 493 

Prayer, Spirit of Lord’s, 784 . 

Prayer, Stanley Saved by, 226 

Prayer Stopped the Train, 254 

Prayer, Things Wrought by, 601, 671 

Prayer, Three Agreed in, 1169 

Prayer, What a Negro T*-ught of Lord’s, 
480 


Prayer, When God Answered, 882 

Prayers Answered While They Prayed, 843 
Praying and Working, 761 

Praying Boy, Jamie, 324 

Preach, How Tracts, 811 

Preach, Simpson’s Call to, 1016 

Preacher Advised as to “Call,” 598 
Preacher Converted, 588 

Preacher, Discouraged, 544 

Preacher, Pray for Your, 909 

Preacher, The Faithful, 344 

Preacher’s, A, Unknown Success, 1220 
Bee. Drawing, Holding Congregations, 


Preaching for a Crown, 582 

Preaching, Gladstone’s Opinion of, 177 
Preaching to One, 624 

Preaching to Smal! Congregation, 554, 624 
Precious Blood, 534 


TOPICAL INDEX 


Prescription, The Bishop’s, 1025 

Preserved from Bullets, 578 

Preserved from Danger, 372 

Preserved from Dragoons, 509 

Preserved from Lions, 385 

Preserved from Massacre, 318, 350 

Preserved from Wolves, 282 

Prevailing Prayer, 349 

Price of His Soul, 505 

Price, The, Paid for Salvation, 102 

Price, too Small, 1013 

Principles, True to, 548, 914 

Printer’s Self-denial for Sister, 268 

Prison, An Evangelist in, 813 

Privilege, Living Beneath, 85 

Procrastination, Fatal, 1166 . 

Profanity, How Cured of, 59 

Profanity Rebuked, 869 

Profanity, Reproving, 664 

Prohibition Saved by Prayer, 1061 

Promise, Keeping a, 472 

Promise, Keeping a, 569 

Promise, Remembered, 1048 

Promise, Result of, 971 

Promise That Held, 889 

Promptness, Saved by, 1178 

Property Valued Above Life, 870 

Prophecy, Evidence of, 437 

Prosperity and Liberality, 111 

Protected by Flag, 405 

Protector, Christ a, 6 

Protector, Christ a, 1190 

Protector, Christ as a, 66 

Protector, Dog Sent as, 1076 

Proud, Little, Poor and, 945 

Providence, Remarkable, 760 

Providence, Led by, 1638, 503, 509, 533 

Pe nae Protected by, 166, 350, 440, 553, 

Providences, Special, 352, 392, 440, 442, 
449, 503, 509, 542, 1076 

Providentially Lost, 1157 

Proving God, 570 

“Provisions, Send, to Caleb!” 449 

Public Speaking, Encouragement to, 549 

Punishment, Sure, for Crime, 1183 

Purpose in ‘Life, 1159 

Push, The, of Life, 1161 


Quadrant, The Captain and the, 416 
Quaker, A, in the Army, 343 
Quaker’s Latch-string Out, 169 
Quarrel, A, Made Up, 407 
Quarreling, Lincoln’s Advice as to, 560 
Quarter Dollar, The, Sin, 88 

Queen, The Child and the, 556 
Quench Not the Spirit, 204 
Question, A Child’s, 453 

Question, An Unexpected, 594 
Quiet Influence, 1055 


Race for a Crown, 787 

Race, The, Set Before Us, 1170 
Rain, The Ceased, 724 
“Rattlebones! Go It Old,” 426 
Ravens, Fed by, 1089 

Reading Bible in Chimney, 384 


TOPICAL INDEX 


Reading with ie) 847 

Ready, Be, 95 

Reaping, anne and, 1032 

Rebuke, An Unintended, 910 

Rebuke, Loving, 907 

Rebuke to Ingersoll, 881 

Rebuking a Scoffer, 1013 

Receiving Good and Evil, 567 

Recommendation, His, 446 

Reconciliation, 407 

Spee ener 175, 464, 487, 536, 528, 557, 
7 


Recovery, Bishop Haven’s 25 

Recovery from Insanity, 161 

Reed, Wm., the Barber, 308 

Refiner, The, 2 

Refuge, A Safe, 832 

Regeneration, Mysterious, 525, 541 

Regret, A Father’s, 20 

Regret, Dying, 532 

Reins, Throw, to Jesus, 221 

Rejecting a Crown, 52 

Religion, Formal, 365 

Religion, Living Her, 628 

Rely on Yourself, 224 

Remarkable Answer to Prayer, 685 

Remedy, Prayer Found, 657 

Remembering a Kindness, 337 

Reminiscences of People’s Tabernacle, 669 

Remorse, 399 

Render, What Shall I, 9138 

Renewed Day by Day, 1184 

Repentance Does Not Undo, 431 

Repentance, Genuine, 608 

Reprieve, The, 45 

- Reproached, Why He, 327 

Reproof, A Child’s, 5 

Reproving in Love, 354 

Reproving Profanity, 664, 869 

Resignation to Ged’: “al, 707 

Resistance to God’s Will, 707, 1201 

~ Resisting Temptation, 548 

Responsibilty, Helpful, 718 

Responsibilty, Human, 944 

Restitution for 25 Cent Sin, 88 

Restitution, Making, 212, 225 

Restrained, God, and Preserved, 385, 372 

Restrained from ‘Murder, 338 

Restrained from Sin, 348 

Restraint, Self-, 540 

Results, Great, ‘from Few Words, 537 

Results, Great, from Little Things, 441, 537 

Results, Great, from Small Efforts, 295, 353, 
603, 537 

Renee cue of the Dead, 7383 

Resurrection, Until the Second, 1066 

Returned, Why Bunyan, 130 

Returning Thanks, 200 

Revealing Christ, 808 

Revenge, The Governor’s, 539 

Revival Incidents, 466 

Revival, Prayer for a, 38 

Revival. Started by Prayer, 1088 

Revivals, Prayer and, 191 

Revivals, The Secret of all, 9 

Reward for Bag, Not for Life, 870 


601 


Reward of Faith, 70 

Reward of Faith, 895 

Reward of Faithfulness, 474 

Reward of Patience, 662 

Reward of Sabbath Keeping, 308 
Rewarded, Trust in God, 71 

Rice, What Came from a Bag of, 281 
Rich Not to Be Envied, 388 

Rich, Yet Living on $1.50 a Week, 564 
Ridgeway, Jacob, 388 

Riding on the Platform, 1181 

Right, Courage for the, 60 
Righteousness, 365 

Risk, She Ran the, 57 

Risk, The Danger of it, 313 

Robber, Whitefield and the, 77 
Robbers, The Bible and the, 255 
Rock, Feet Upon a, 484 

“Rock of Ages,” How Written, 395 
Rock, Splitting the, 62 

Roosevelt, Was Young, a Fool? 694 
Ropes, Hane Out the, 956 

Roses and Thorns, 937 

Rubbish, Bible on, Heap, 954 

Run, What It Did, 148 

“Run Away, Boy!”, 1215 

Runaway, The, Boy, 160 


Sabbath, Gen. Grant’s Regard for, 315 
Sabbath Law Not Arbitrary, 885 
Sabbath Observance by Gen. Grant, 315 
Sabbath Pleasuring, 1214 

Sabbath, The, Keeping Barber, 308 
Sabbath- breaking Punished, 392 
Sabbath-keeping Rewarded, 308, 446 
Sabbath-keeping, The, Saddler, "197 
Sacrifice, A Living, 1043 

Sacrifice, A Noble, 342, 355, 464, 494 
er A Willing, 333, 842, 355, 528, 


Sacrifice, Can Christians, 171, 194 
Sacrifice, No, for Christ, 423 

Sacrifice, The, of a Mother, 494 
Sacrifice, Yourself a Living, 1163 
Sacrificed Life to Help Another, 900 
Sacrificing an Eye to Sustain Law, 1078 
Sacrificing Heariz:g, 771 

Sacrificing Sight, 773, 1078 

Saddler, The Sabbath- Keeping, 797 
“Safe and Smooth Now!” 243 

renee in the Arms of Jesus,’”’ How Written, 


Safe Refuge, 832 

Saint’s, A Bedridden, Prayer, 49 
Sake, For Charlie’s, 53 

Salvation by Crawling, 625 
Salvation, Instant, 100 
Salvation Is for Acceptance, 1192 
Salvation, Not Cheap, 1028 
Salvation Secured by Christ, 524 
Samaritan, The Good, 329 
Sample, A Poor, 1227 

Sand, Mistaking, for Water, 1173 
sankey and the Gipsy Boy,, 379 
Satan’s Devices, 34, 633 

Satan’s Right-of-Way, 1207 
Save Others and Thyself, 949 


602 TOPICAL INDEX 


Save Somebody’s Boy, 209 

Saved by a Bear, 225 

Saved by a Few Words, 295 

Saved by a Flower, 763. 

Saved by a Remark, 295 

Saved by a Song, 138 

Saved by a Thread, 369 

Saved by Blood, 286 

Saved from Death in a Trunk, 381 
Saved from Hurricane, 33 

Saved, He, 17 Lives, 553 

Saved in Answer to Prayer, 137 
Saved in Battle by Prayer, 93 
Saved, New England, How, 174 
Saved, She, 200 Lives, 812 

Saved, The, Hand, 223 

Saving a Ball, a Doll, a Man, 288 
Saving His Boots, 67 

Saving, The, Hand, 79 

Savings, A Millionaire’s, 277 
Saviour, No Thanks to, 417, 419, 426 
Saviour, The, of Kurdistan, 494 
Saviour’s, Our, Plan, 545 

Sear, Covering the, 767 

Scientists’ Greatest Discovery, 576 
Scoffer, A, Silenced, 903 

Scoffer, Rebuking a, 1018 

Scott, Walter, and Burns, 846 
Scottish Honesty, 17 

Scratching Scales off Dragon’s Back, 604 
Scudders, What Started Their Work, 353 
Sea Captains, Story of Two, 689 
Seamen are Not Atheists, 239 
Season, A Word in, 155 

Secret Disciples, 1185 

Secret of all Revivals, 9 

Secret, The, Disciple, 538 

Secret, The, of Separation, 82 
Sectarianism, 491 

Sects, No, in Heaven, 491 

Security of the Believer, 1188, 1190 
Seed Sown in Good Ground, 626 
Seeing the Heather Bell, 482 
Self-control, The Need of, 292 
Self-denial, A Printer’s, 268 
Self-reliance, 224 


Self-sacrifice ys pier 528, 536, 355, 487 


Sent of God, 

Sentinel, The aeamine 279 
Sentinels, The Two, 997 

Sermon, A Successful, 134, 624 
Sermon, A, to Nobody, 955 
“Sermon by a Horse, 108 
Sermons, Mending Dry, 793 
Servant, A, Girl’s Influence, 661 
Servant Girl’s Influence, 661 
Serve Where You Are, 798 
Service the Test of Success, 1200 
Serving Christ, A Cowboy’s Idea of, 809 
Severity, Kind, 96 

Shamed by His Ox, 890 

Sheaves, A Story of, 1038 
“Sheep! I Did Steal ‘that, ine 
Sheep, The, That Was Lost, 15 
Shelly’s, Kate, Bravery, 230 
Shelterless, Not Left, 1006 


Ship Stopped to Save Man, 288 
Shoemaker, The Ambitious, 908 
Shoemaker’s, The, Plan, 990 

Sick, Prayer of a Little Girl for, 208 
Sick, The, Restored by Prayer, 434, 640 
Sight, First, of His Mother, 205 
Sight, God-given, 850 

Silent but Sovereign, 726 

Silent Influence, Dean Stanley, 13 
Silver, The Refiner of, 250 
Simpson’s, Bishop, Recovery, 25 
Simpson’s, Bishop, Start, 1016 
Sin, A Rare, (Envy), 523 

Sin, Avoiding, 918 

Sin, Debasement of, 660 

Sin, Deceitfulness and Power of, 704 
Sin, Fatality of, 843 

Sin, Hindu Idea of, 498 

Sin, In the Maelstrom of, 467, 704 
Sin Leads to Misery, 399, 448 
Sin, No Secrecy for, 943 

Sin of Ignorance 291 

Sin, Sense of, Before Pardon, 585 
Sin, Tampering with, 313 

Sin, The Quarter Dollar, 88 

Sins, How Covered, 865 

Sincerity Respected, 776 

Singer, The Homeless, 69 

Singing Doxology in a Barrel, 375 
Skin Deep, More Than, 541, 

Sky, The Telegram, 187 

Slave Boy’s, The, Mission, 807 
Slave, The, Mother’s Prayer, 189 
Slave’s, The Little, Faith, 89 
Sleep, Talking in, 499 

Sleep, The Fatal, 23 

Sleep, Why He Could Not, 1008 
Sleep, Why They Could Not, 648 
Sleeping, The, Sentinel, 279 


Small Sins, 2, 467, 7o« Paes 


Smile, Power of a, 125 

Smile, The Power of a, 125 
Smoking, Cigarette, 611 

Soldier Father’s Letter to Daughter, 1109 
Soldier, The, Lost Feet Only, 1163 
Soldier’s, A, Courage to Pray, 352 
Soldiers and Alcohol, 430 

Solitary, A, Christian, 649 
“Something Always Gives Way,’’ 340 
Son, A, of God, 32 

Song, A, of Peace, 40 

Song Born of Sorrow, 309 

Song, Saved by a, 183, 176, 206 
Song, What a, Did, 1012 

Sorrow, Better Than Idle, 781 
Soul, A Single, Worth of, 276 

Soul, A, Won by a Mistake, 603 
Soul, Fishing for a, 7 

Soul, He Lost His, 505 

“Soul? How Do You Find Your,’ 603 
Soul, So Easy to Win a, 820 

Soul Winning, 1000, 1007 
Soul-Winning Power, 1208, 1209 
Souls, Estimates of Value of, 500 
Souls, How She Won Nine, 622 
Souls, Love for, 1007 


TOPICAL INDEX 603 


Souls, Thirsting for, 103 

Souls, Two, Won, 351 

“Sovereign, A, for a Penny!” 742 
Sowing and Reaping, 1032 

Spafford’s, H. G., Song, 309 
Speaking for Christ, 341 

Speaking in Meeting, 860, 549 
Special Providences, 392 

Speech, Clean, 696 

Speech, His Eloquent, No Help, 549 
Speech of the People, 297 

Spider, God’s Care and the, 350 
Spirit, Following the, 1073 

Spirit, Guidance of the, 1042 

Spirit of Prayer, 493 

Spirit, Quench Not the, 204, 610 
Spirit, Resisting the, Fatal, 1166 
Spirit, The Holy, Guided, 305, 312, 610 
Spirit, Walking in the, 312 

Spirit’s, Holy, Guidance, 645 
Spirit’s, The, Guidance, 249, 705, 706 
Splicing the Ladder, 287 

Spoiling Our Fascination, 231 

Spree, The Escape of the, 170 
Spurgeon, How, Provided a Cow, 1117 
Spurgeon, When, Preached in Sleep, 1106 
Spurgeon’s Conversion, 554 
Spurgeon’s Giving, 518 

Stammering, A, Tongue, Used, 370. 
Stanley’s, Dean, Boyhood Courage, 18 
Start Things Right, 996 

State, Wrong with the, 129 

“Steal, I Did, That Sheep!”’ 212 
Stealing a Penny, 683 

Stephen’s, Robert, Conversion, 295 
Stingy With God, 607 

Stopped by the Hand of God, 503 
Storm, Calm in, 439 

Story of a Bible, 290 

Stowaway, The Captain and the, 528 
Strange, A, Warning, 121 

Strange, A, Harvest, 182 
“Strangers, They Are Not,” 1031 
Straw, Brick Without, 387 

Strength, Daily Renewal of, 1184 
Strength, Secret of, 647 

Strong in the Lord, 104 

Struggle, The Gingerbread, 213 
Stupid Boy Encouraged, 720, 846 
Stumbling-Blocks, 327, 1127 
Submission, 193, 220, 364, 366, 707, 567 
Submission to God, 87, 866, 368, 370 
Submissive, The, Wife, 107 
Substitute, Emma Jones’, 481 
Substitute, His, 967, 970 

Substitute, Christ Our, 486, 528, 536, 464 
Substitute Suffered, 487, 536, 557 


Substitute, The, 175, 464, 487, 528, 557, 


536, 1078 
Substitute, The School-Boy, 1162 
Substitute, The, Willie Lear, 5386 
Substitute Whipped for Another, 1086 
Succeeded, Why She, 158 
Success and Service, 1200 
Success for Sacrifice, 771, 773 
Success in Business, 602, 785 


Success in Spite of Obstacles, 455, 456 
Success Not Alway Seen, 1220 

Success or Wealth, 710 

Success, Unselfish, 394 

Successful, A, Sermon, 134 
Successful, Men, Though Not Rich, 504 
Successor, The Lawyer’s, 1069 
Sudden Conversion, 357 

Suffered, Why She, 26 

Suffering for Others, 481, 528, 557 
Sufficiency of Christ’s Atonement, 822 
Suicide, Saved from, 635 

Suicide, Saved from, by Child, 190 
Suicide, Sin Leads to, 399 

Sun, Power of the, 322 

Sunday, He Would Not Work, 293 
Sunday-school Boys, 821 
Superstition of Heathen, 604 

Sure of His Place, 1213 

Surrendering to Friends, 1195 
Suspicion, Danger of, 546 

Suspicion Weakened Convict, 1191 
“Swear Without Me,” 514 

Swearer’s, The, Prayer, 869 

Sweetest, The, Verse, 398 

Swimming to Church, 472 

Switch, Who Closed the, 325 
Switchman, The, and His Child, 98 
Sympathy, How, Helps, 1068 
Sympathy of Humanity, 517 


Tabernacle No. 2, Finding, 669, 931 
Tabernacle, People’s, Reminiscences of, 669 
Taking Him at His Word, 734 
Talents, Unused, Wasted, 513, 723 
Talking in Sleep, 499 

Tallow Dip, Only a, 31 

Talmage, T. DeWitt, 316 

Talmage’s Conversion, 959 

Taught by a Bug, 827 

Taught by His Hand, 1388 

Taught, Chinaman, by His Hand, 138 
Taylor, Hudson, 8, 489, 516, 966, 
Teacher, S. S., How She Failed, 376 
Telegram, The Sky, 187 

“Tell Mother I’ll Be There!” 1079 
Temper, How to Control, 979 
Temper, How to Control, 444, 468 
Temperance, Lincoln and, 414 
Temptation, 497 

Temptation Resisted, 222 
Temptation, Rev. Tennant’s, 1026 
Temptation, Sources of, 1077 
Temptation, Takes Two to Make, 1017 
Temptation, Victory Over, 110 
Tenderheartedness of Lincoln, 1155 
Tenement, Body Only a, 232 
Tennant, Wm., Trance of, 270 
Tennant’s, Rev., Temptation, 1026 
Test, Grant Bore the, 315 

Test, The Five Cent, 56 

Test, Will It Stand the, 766 
Testament, Story of a New, 112 
Testament, Tyndale’s New, 902 
Tested Character, 42 

Testimony as to Jesus by Irenaeus, 836 


604 TOPICAL 


Testimony of a Little Child, 162 

Testimony, Personal, to Answer of Prayer, 
615 : 

Testimony, The, of a Blind Man, 445 

Testing God’s Guidance, 163 

Text, Why He Forgot His, 1120 

“Thank You, Sir!’ 984 

Thankful, The Heart, 960 

Thankful, Why She Was, 251 

Thanking God for Thorn, 938 

Thanks, No, to Benefactor, 417, 419 

Thanks, Returning, 200 

Theft of a Penny, 688 

Thief, The King and the, 1021 

Thirst, Dying of, Mid Rivers, 48 

Thirst, Sand Taken for, 1178 

Thirsting for Souls, 103 

Thirsting to Death Mid Rivers, 48 

Thorn, Thanking God for, 938 

Thoroughfare, No, 618 

Thread, Saved by a, 369 

Tiger, The Young, 540 

Tigers, Christians and, 804 

Tiger’s Jungle, In the, 533 

Time, At His Appointed, 688 

Tithes, Story of, 785 

Tithing, The Luxury of, 518, 785 

Tithing, Spurgeon’s. 518 

Tobacco, Against the Use of, 412, 667, 611 

Tobacco, Text Favoring, 1075 

Tobacco, What’s the Matter with, 412, 568, 
667 


Tolerance, Spirit of, 972 

“Too Late!” 998 

Torch-bearers, The, Race, 1170 
Touch, For Lack of a, 404 

Touch, Only a, Needed, 782 

Track, The, was Cleared, 241, 246 
Tract, Influence of a, 732, 849 
Tract, What a, Did, 349, 353, 364 
Tract-giving, Value of, 964 
Tracts, How, Preach, 811 

Train, God Kept the, 61 

Train, How Saved, 121 

Train Saved by a Little Girl, 775 
Train Saved by Prayer, 1084 
Train, She Saved the, 380 

Train, Who Stopped the, 254 

Train, Why He Missed, 966 

Train, Why Hudson Taylor Missed, 966 
Trance of Wm. Tennant, 270 
Transformation, God’s, 681 
Transformed, A, Demon, 120 
Transformed Convict, 183 
Transformed, The, Filipino, 529 
Trapped, How Thief Was, 1183 
Traveler, Misdirected, Destroyed, 291 
Treasure Hid in Bible, ($5,000), 21 
Treasure, The Hidden, 558, 595 
Treasure, The Neglected, 346 
Trophy, A, of His Grace, 1046 
Trouble, Causes of, 1049 
Troubles, Face Your, 492 
Troubles Turned into Pearls, 845 
True Love, 855 

True to His Mother, 140 

True to Principle, 548 


INDEX | 


Trunk, Saved from Death in, 381 

Trust, A Mother’s, 396 

Trust, A Word to Translate, 1132 

Trust in God Rewarded, 71, 237 

Trusting, Experience, God, 893 

Trusting God’s Love, 698 

Trusting Jesus, 221 

Trusting the Guide-board, 702 

Truth Brings Liberty, 604 ) 
“Try Christianity!’ 1053 t 
“Try, I’m Little, but Pll,” 775 
Tyndall, Carton H., Stories by, 716, 768 
Tyndall, Charles H., Stories by, 342, 677, 

745 

Tyndall, Rev. Charles H., Healing of, 1096 
Tyndall, Conversion of Henry M., 1176 
Tyndall, Healing of Myron P., 640 

Tyndall, H. M., Eyesight of, Helped, 615 
Tyndall, Henry M.% 465, 467, 724, 1734, ‘ 
615, 827, 920, 922, 1176, 1208 ! 
Tyndall, Rev. S. G., Stories by, 241, 246 

Tyndall’s, Henry M., First Sermon, 1208 

Twenty Dollar Bill, Finding the Lost, 151 

Two-Faced, Mister, 1182, 1185 


Umbrella, Faith Took, 617 

Umbrella, The Queen and, 818 

Umbrella, The Unused, 572 

Unbelief, 234 

Unbelief, How it was Overcome, 570, 635 
Uncommon, An, Sin, 523 

Morena eae Influence, 74, 332, 299, 459, 


aie. £9 


Unconscious Influence for Evil, 465 
Undefended, The, Bridge, 360 
Underground, An, City, 415 

“Undo, Can You?” 582, 4381 

Unexpected, An, Question, 594 

Unfinished, The, House, 803 

Unground, The, Grist, 587 

Unhappy in Heaven, 631 

Universe, The Vastness of the, 1052, 1080 
Unknown Helper, 284 

Unknown Riches, 871 

Unlighted, The, Church, 344 

Unlikely One, The, Chosen, 1186, 1222 
Unlovely, How to, Learn to Love, 81 
Unprofitable, An, Engine, 1040 
predate Presence of Christ, 417, 419 


OS eer 


Unseen, The, Auctioneer, 1057 
Unselfish, An, Inventor, 421 

Unselfish Success, 394, 421 
Unselfishness, Noble, 619 

Unshaken, Her Faith, 46, 676 
Unspotted from the World, 229 
Unused Ability Wasted, 513 
Unworthiness, Christian, 831 
Usefulness, Great, in Humble Place, 168 a 
Useless, Brilliant but, 1001 . 4 


Value, Estimates of, 500 ; 
Value, Not Knowing, 512 
Value of a Word, 58 
Vastness, The, of the Universe, 1052 

‘Verse, Has Your, Changed?” 471 

Vicarious Suffering, 481, 487 

Victim, The King’s, 448 


TOPICAL INDEX 605 


Victory, Parson Haven’s, 24 

Vision, Dying Girl’s, of Heaven, 1031 
Visions of Heaven and Hell, 270 
Voice, A, Within, 128, 875 

Voice of God Heeded, 188, 1226 
Voice, The, of God, 128, 302 
Voltaire Reproved, 678 

Voltaire’s Sneer at Newton, 115 
Vow Remembered and Kept, 1048 


Wagner’s, Henry, Conversion, 122 
Walking in the Light, 90 

Walking in the Spirit, 706 

Walking in the Spirit, 312 

Walter Scott’s Faith, 846 
Wanamaker’s, John, Conversion, 520 
‘Wanted,’ Brown was, 584 
Wanted, Kind of Men, 159 

Warned in a Dream, 238 

Warning, A Strange, 121 

Warning, The Unheeded, 358 
Warning Voice Heeded, 372 
Warnings, The Two, 778 
Washington’s Breakfast, 1047 
Washington’s Name Lives, 613 
Watch, The, and Its Case, 1194 
Watchfulness, Need of, 540 
Watching, Are You, 218 

Water, A Basket of, 271 

Water Needed, Sand Taken, 1173 
Waters, Bread Upon the, 113 
Watermelon, The, Seed, 805 
Watterson, Henry, on Civil War, 184 
Way, A, Where There’s a Will, 1010, 
Way, How Shown the, 923 

Way, The, Indicated, 457 

Way, The, Up, 455 

Weak, The, Chosen of God, 435 
Weak Things, 658 

Wealth, Obedience Better Than, 278 
Wealth of Old Man Jones, 273 
Wealth or Success, 710 

Wealth, Unknown, in Bible, 871 
Weapon, The Bible as a, 898 

Weary Not in Well-doing, 701 
Webb, Carrie, The Healing of, 434 
Webster’s Faithfulness Rewarded, 474 
Weight, What a, Is, 1165 

Welcome to Penitents, 362 
Wesley, John, 323, 354, 413 

Wet, Life-savers Afraid of the, 565 
Whale, Jonah and the 965 

What a Deaf Mute Did, 185 

What He Had Left, 215 

What the Rain Did, 148 

What We Give We Get, 461 
“Which Way Are You Going?” 488 
While They Yet Prayed, 843 
Whipping, Taking Another’s, 261, 1086 
Whiskey, Gold Mine for, 460 
Whitefield and the Robber, 77 
Whosoever, 1210 

Why She Prevailed, 156 

Why She Succeeded, 158 


Wickedest Man in New York, 1113 
Widow’s, The, Five Cent Gift, 715 
Widow’s, The Meal, 390 

Wife, The Submissive, 107 

Wild Animals Know Men, 292 
Will, God’s, is Best, 707 

Will, The Lost and Found, 939 
Will to Do and Know, 87 

Will, You Can if You, 838, 1020 
Wilson, Henry A. 548, 908, 914 
Wine, Gen. Harrison and, 1019 
Winning Souls, 351, 608, 612, 727 
Winning Souls, 1000, 1010, 1020 
Winning Souls is Easy, 820 
Wireless Telegraph, Prayer a, 864 
Wise, A, Choice, 293 
Witness-bearing, 445 

Wolves, Saved from, 117 

Wolves, Saved from, 282 

Woman Couldn’t Speak in Public, 860 
Woman’s, A, Love, 10 

Wood in a Storm, 1067 

Wood, The Needed, Came, 627 
Wool, Washing the, 968 

Wooley’s Conversion, 179 

Won by Love, 612 

Won by the Book, 1018 
Wonderful, A, Deliverance, 36 
Wonderful Answer to Prayer, 116, 573 
Wonderful Deliverance of Leyden, 5738 
Wonders of Bible Reading, 451 
“Won’t You Shoot Me?” 1171 
Word, A, in Season, 155, 295 
Word, Keep Your, 280 

Word, Value of a, 58, 295 

Words, Power of a Few. 537 

Work, A Boy’s, for Christ, 378 
Work, Did Not Want Easy, 861 
Work, His Part in the, 993 

Work, Humble, for Christ, 126, 361 
Work, Knee, Needed, 543 

Work of one Convert, 441 

Work on Sunday, 293 

Work, Personal, for Christ, 496 
Worked His Way Up, 861 

Worked, How a Little Girl, 150 
Working and Praying, 761 
Working at the Keyhole, 1192 
Working Easier Than Standing, 866 
Works, Not by Our Good, 858 
World, He Overcame the, 1204 
World, The, Overcame, 1201 
World, This Warm-hearted, 517 
World, Unspotted from the, 229 
Worldly Loss, 614 

Worship, Family, 1072 

Wrong, Advice, Danger of, 291 
Wrong with the State, 129 
Wyoming, The, Massacre, 318 
Years, After Many, 3 

“Young Fellow, You’re Afire!”’ 412 
Young, Keeping, 507 

Zeal in Religion, 150, 378 

Zealous, Why Not Be, 935 





38, 959, 


b 


285, 


885, 
73, 140, 324, 


664. 
42, 815, 392, 
446, 458, 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


XXV. 
XXXil. 
XXXili. 


XXXV. 5. 
LEVITICUS. 


118 
DEUTERONOMY. 
i 9. 40 


lV. 


XXXiii. 
XXXiv. 
JO SHUA. 

i 





588, 719, 
971, 991. 
636. 

92, 

1182, 11185. 
328, 

92, 

291, 

382. 

41, 142, 203, 
354, 869, 
907. 

342, 


270, 316, 486. 
744 


348. 
243, 1218, 
963, 982, 
1024. 


644 
88, 129, 399, 
4 


8, 477, 


4, 
524, 737. 
663. 
666, 11238. 
1217, 
664. 
73, 140, 847, 
882, 911. 


1061. 
105, 1100. 
33, 

634, 

21, 451, 649, 
G56. 


xxiii, 10. 28, 1061. 
xxive 16.5) 38990797) 
MKIVE Vy Loe. 1176. 
JUDGES. 
v. 428. 7385. 
vi. 86-40. 163. 
Vii. 4, 647. 
Nil, sus Gee E100. 
I SAMUEL. 
i, 18-187, 1141: 
BT; 
28. 852. 
23.9 227; 
ii, °80,", 42, °280¢ 
iii, > A638. 
4, 1084, 
10. 128, 165 

IXjs) Loan Oose 

ScD: 

16, 

ii 702: 
Sie’ worse 10. 

KV. 9220." 860. 

XVi. 7, 649. 

Xvin = 2 L186. 
xvii. 15, 

8. 402. 

Xxi 8. 769, 923 
> ath HOM 4 Pago £2) iP 
xxvii. 28. 1016 

II SAMUEL. 
ix. Loe 58: 
xii 7. 881 
XV. -soeoroGe 
I KINGS 
iii. fi 592. 
xvii. 4,6. 1638, 166. 
596, 1002, 
Keil... Saue b 42; 
II KINGS. 
Vv. in BOD. 
Vissi Stee eo LO 
ix: S2Je 01185: 
xix. $2-34,. 174 
xx 1. 650 


xxii. 8,13. 940. 
I CHRONICLES. 
XH. 327) & 620: 
xxix, 14. 184, 402, 435, 
1186. 


xxxvi. 16. 904. 


608 
II CHRONICLES. 

Vili, 386. 8386. 

xix. 9. 700. 
XXXII. 21, 6 22.774, 
xxxiv. 12. 700. 

NEHEMIAH. 
i 4, 49, 
1b ony BB 
Th Oreee Dae: 
iii. “28. - 208. 
iv. Gere he 
vi. 3. 968. 
viii, 10. 796. 
JOB. 

4. Bele SNe Ove 
Pee: : 
bY aD. Ode 

wa Bao’ Riess PR a 

silt. £15, .. ‘309; ‘957. 

= mie 031. 

xxii. 27. 1048. 

je 6k ED 4y Pama be Pe 

XxiLs  16,). 1224. 

XXV 309. 
xxxv. 10. 206. 


xxxvill. 41... 714. 
PSALMS. 
i. 291, 428, 
514. 
2. 450, 656. 
viii oo 162; 
384. 1065, 1080. 
ix. 172 2904: 
xiv. 1.. 1065. 
XV. 4. 17, 236, 876, 
971, 
KVL Lee TO: 
xix. 1. 661. 
ts. RID: 838, 
953. 
10. 346, 427, 
656, 658, 
871. 
WIS. 1 Pee 
11. 290. 
XxX. 5. A405. 
Xxiii. 1. 648. 
4, 244, 253, 
; 278, 1148. 
5. 1006. 
1047, 819; 
xxv.. 14, °2665, 610, 
942, 
XXVii. 8. 1008. 
138. ; 
MX VI 4145°)51970, 
sts) OO 
XXxii. 6. 306, 467, 
704, 
8. 43, 130, 207, 
669, 695, 
705, 9381 
8, 9. Re 
XXXiv. due BTS: 
7. $818, 587. 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


8. 

10. 

12-14 

15. 
XXXVIii. 3. 
3, 4. 

4. 

fs 

SAK VELS Se Pe 
28. 

25. 

26. 

xL. 2. 
8. 

xLii. Ti 
xLvi. 1 
: Ra RE: 
Lis th 
Liii. 1. 
Lxiii. 3. 
Lxvi. 2: 
Lxviii. 5. 
Lxxili. 19. 
xvi. 10. 
Lxxviii. 4-6. 
Lxexiee ce 
Xci. 
1, 

2: 

1-16. 

da 

4. 

7-10. 

9. 

9, 

10. 

10. 

1 

12: 

11, 

18. 

138, 

14, 

14. 

15. 

16. 

xcv. 7, 8. 
XCVii. 2 
ciii. 18. 
Ciii, 12. 
evii. 10-14. 
28, 

28, 

29. 

cx. 3. 
cxii. 5. 
6. 

exvi. 12. 
CXvViii, 8. 


635, 1025. 
36, 669 

634 
645, 
70, 145, 147, 
449, 
242, 266. 
375. 


440, 


. 648, 
1098, 1109. 
1171. 

320. 


170. 

438, 1106. 
977. 

4, 6138, 894, 
1058. 

591, 913. 
242, 679, 


8,9. 287, 669, 893. 
9. 960. 


Cxix. 5. 649. 
11. 668, 821 
21. woabe 
59. 644, 
eh 
at t.00 ee 
OF, 8ST, 656, 
658. 
97, 
105. 384. 
97, 
1O8. 3 S47. 
105. 656. 
130. 214, 713, 
790, 888. 
136. 836. 
exxi. 1, 2. 966, 1002. 
2.51381: 
5. 44. 
CXXV. 1. 169, 893. 
2. 440. 
CXXVii. ¥ «1615 228, 
621, 966. 
Pats TAR. 
CXXX. 4. 314. 
CXXXVii. 4, 262. 
CXXXix. tec 44 
exLy. 6. 760. 
9. 1144. 
exLvii. 9. 186; 
cexLix. 9. 121; 
PROVERBS. 
L 2.1002 4286 
24-26. 399, 976. 
27; 
1.27528; L755. 
28, 289, 3806. 
iii, 5. 1034 
6. 195, 457, 
599, 693, 
722, 931, 
994, 
9. 2365, 730, 
1139. 
9,403" -T11, 9786, 
36, 
14; 
12. 92. 
14-18. 742. 
vi. 1 
2. 620. 
Vil 1-5.) 5-742. 
10. 898. 
135/710 9%, 
36. 4381. 
x ‘613: 
12. 865. 
xi. 24. 374, 975 
25. 949, 
80... 622, 691, 
697, 727, 
1036, 1087. 
xii. 4, 48. 
Xin: 107: ]Bb156. 
xiii. 15. 399, 448, 


TEXTUAL INDEX 609 


488. Xi, By 32, 113, Sbixs? 16. 10015 
xiv. 12. 109, 488, 197, 202, Tit Age EBB. 
840. 1067, L. 4. 691, 1199 
XV t, 2d, Ray 3; 6381. Lilt, oh 25 
1142. 1, 4: 842, TTT. 
£8. 155, 841 6. 609. 5. 2, 261, 
xvi. 9% ; 403, 6. 28, 134, 349, Lili. 5. 1162, 1199. 
887. 562, 624, 436, 557, 
9. 920. 922, 626, 740, 1086. 
931. 810, 53:6, 1475. 
S2;  b142. 6 86. 6. 588, 970 
xvii. 19. 97. 842. Goi A481. 
xviii. 10. 405, 668. SONG OF Soronay 1% © 192. 
xix. yA 374, 562, i 15. 2 50, 64 Ly. 1. 48. 
1085. 683. 4-85) - T42- 
XX. 1 B 2: » 620, 667, 
11. 2,5, 13,453, |ISAIAH 687. 
‘ 653, ie 3. 108, 890. Lv. 2. 1173. 
694, in ig ie 25 648. 2, 7. 359, 581: 
1134. iv. 6; 12%. 6. 76, 238, 246, 
XxXi. 1. 104, 562, vi. Te TS2. 467, 704, 
627, 655, ix 6: 1130. 737, 1081 
679. x1 6. 5, 150, 190, 6, 7. 1099. 
bo 40 yO Ar 828, 344, 561, Ne. 142% 217° 588: 
1024 697, 711, 11, 188, 912, 
4 : 910. 954, 1018, 
6. 630, 661, xiii. Se 1DL. 1100 
692, 978. 561, 624, Lyii. 20, 
26. 620. 19-22. 437. Bit ve Ate 
29. 769, 770, xiv. 6. 453. Lviii. 1 637. 
908. Xxi. oS: 197. Lxii. 6, 7 AOS, 
Xxili. a Be XXVIi. 3. 489. Lxiv. 6. 665, 897. 
20, xxviii. 10. 508, 792. 8 917. 
ain. 620) XXX. VLDe S04: Lxv. 4. 627. 
26. 818 oh; 40n LL6y:221, 20. 684. 
81: 918 135, 188, 24. 25, €8,.>59, 
31, 297, 372, 116, 188, 
A ba A14, 777, 875, 202, 254, 
911. 878. 1042. 627; 570, 
xxiv. 9,10. 79. 21.1084. 645, 671, 
11. 553. S13 449, 843, 864, 
b de i xxxii. 20. 108, 134, 882, 919, 
12... 735, 737, 590. 983, 987, 
768. XXXV. 4, 104. 1023, 1087, 
12:.. 558: XXXViii. 73°. 660: 1088, 1127. 
EXVor Lio Sos, 459, Khe 1 SLs STF. JEREMIAH. 
537. 15, 2 
xxvi. 5. 678, 1795, 17. ji, 18. ae 1201. 
863, 903. 26. 1080. i. 84. ee 
EXVIG Laos 22, reat iv. an nest 
14. 688. 29. 378 vill ; 0 ; 880 
28. 97. 31. 99, , 888, 874, SOR RO cee , 
SSVilie. 1 2b 962 2 5 nts : 
i 1: °88. 683, xLi. 4, 283. eNO Rots 
865, 1127. xLi. 18,14. 1195. xin. 9. 1114 
23. 907, 914. 14, 878, 379. XVils 29. 438 ‘ 
85. 75D. cy hers re 9 xi. 7 4113 
xxix. i 57. 358. a A isd ee ets : 
xxxi. 11. 1045. xLii, 7. 319. oe Ae 737, 1118. 
18. 97, oe 215 1078. ov’ 1118, 1114. 
448, xLiii. Pe 17 9. aaa xLix. 1B. 275 
ECCLESIASTES, ae 10. ae ’ xLix. 23, 46, 170. 
ie: hee xbiv. 22: 1094. LAMENTATIONS. 
ix, (10... 256, 257, ZLVs Bee" 224. 


367. xLviii. 22. 477. iii. 38. 250, 392, 


610 


EZEKIEL. 
bo 0.01) Mn 


XxXxvi. 26. 
DANIEL. 
i. 


Ty Baers 


vi. 4, 


viii. 11. 


ZEPHANIAH. 


iii. 17. 


ZECHARIAH. 


ii. 4, 
lil. 2: 
iv. 6. 


10. 


HABAKKUK, 


fi, 4, 


ii. 17,48. 


iv. 12. 
viii. 11. 
MALACHI. 
HE 8, 


909. 

920, 1051, 
1120, 1157, 
1160, 1208, 


1211. 
322, 917. 
120, 468, 


965. 
701, 955. 
868. 


1036, 1229. 


% 9, 


952, 1192. 
215, 309. 
455. 


726. 
1209. 


ay oes 
32. 1064, 1070. 
. 648. 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


16. 
MATTHEW. 


i, 20. 
st eae BF 


vi. 8. 


vi. 23. 


486. 


371, 538. 


425, 628. 
16, 652, 662, 


397, 407. 
343. 


199. 

1067. 

84, 403, 717. 
141. 

193. 

334. 

2 


762. 
37, 


749, 1125. 
1180. 


19, ‘151, 688. 
62, 381, 602. 


167. 
144, 
339. 
98. 


Vili. 


Xi. 


xi. 


xiv. 


XV. 


XVi. 


22, 
23, 260. 
22. 761. 
27. 35. 
12, 393. 
29. 478, 966, 
Bt 7, 
37, 
38. 574, 
38. 379. 
16. 770. 
19, 
20. 58. 
20. 603. 
24. 219. 
28. 22, 104 
27, 
32. 371. 
81) 185, YS50: 
1117. 
32. 142 148, 
330. 
32, 
33. 60. 
39. 394. 
42, 337. 
5. 899. 
24. 98. 
28. 363, 580, 
28. 1176. 
584, 1062. 
28, 
29. 573, 734. 
29. 741. 
30. 866. 
13. 775, 
30. 1182. 
29, 1188. 
37. 40, 842 
8. 626. 
19. 782. 
31. 281, 502. 
31, 
32. 7, 577. 
31,33. 732. 
33. 353, 888. 
43. 766. 
44, 
Ab, 
46. 178. 
558, 576. 
28. 775. 
31. 
AS 98". 81° 140 
19, 
20. 897. 
25. 753. 
28. 8, 811 
15. 203. 
24, 247, 268, 
616, 916, 
718. 
25. 394. 
25, 
26. 51. 


xviii. 


xix. 


XXi. 


XXii. 


XXiii. 
Xxiv. 


XXV. 


505, 
867. 


" 364, 


7 o 
6, 282, 325. 
881. 


15. 

1181. 

1169. 

25, 59, 61, 
409, 442, 
545, 1088. 


136. 
762. 


158. 

72, 73, 81, 

91, 140, 342. 
456. 


401. 


656. 


364, 


22. 
998. 
218, 279. 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


ix. 


xi. 


xi. 


618, 


961, 


622, 727. 
393. 


417, 
677. 
99, 119, 317, 


455, 456. 
421. 

285. 

89. 

11. 

99. 

1203. 

19, 25, 61, 
111, 118, 
128, 146, 
208, 210, 
223, 226, 
237, 240, 
890, 416, 
478, 542, 


Xii. 


XH Ava 


xiv. 8. 


xi. e. 


611 

615, 617, 
665, 724, 
748, 850, 
930, 1004, 
1099. 
342. 
928. 
623, 645. 
856. 
218, 

, 181 


30, 31, 794. 
1060, 1074: 
131 


1145. 
364, 923. 


147, 


461 


1034, 
62, 156, 242, 
408, 556, 
911, 959, 
1137. 


191, 226. 
151, 548. 


340, 


45, 185, 350, 
1033, 1076, 
1117. 

142, 142. 
330. 


612 


xili. 


xiv. 


XV. 


Xvi. 


XVii. 


XViii. 


xix. 


xix. 41, 42. 


XXi. 
Xxil, 
Xxiii. 


JOHN. 
1. 


26 


1-4. 
3. 
19. 
46. 
34. 


633, 636. 
67, 632, 870. 
714. 


571. 
747, 927. 


364, 


632, 633. 
710. 


709. 

54. 

475. 

474, 

1154. 
750. 

39, 86, 715. 
A479. 
1145. 
709, 1135. 
501. 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


ii. 
ili. 


iii, °°°S. 


Vi. 


xii. 


xiii. 


xii. 


496, 964, 
303. 

775, 1110. 
357. 

1172. 
264. 
1210. 
98, 185, 
424, 


584. 

1060, 1074. 
935, 1040, 
1057. 


305, 


xiv. 
xiv. 


Xvi. 


xii. 


85. 159. 
2. 1213. 
3. 258, 398. 
6. 267, 682, 
981, 
9, 48, 438, 512. 
12. 606. 
12, 
18. 441. 
13, 
14. 58, 657. 
21. 687, 1131. 
26. 524, 657, 
656. 
30. 618. 
30. 1207 
7, 210, 386, 
440, 489, 
615, 686, 
1054 
43. 248; °° 275, 
686. 
14. 2991. 
15. 108. 
19. 1102. 
13. 249, 657, 
722, 757. 
18, 
14. 
24. 58, 54, 386, 
489. 
24, 654. 
33. 439. 
3, 1178. 
17, 1187. 
21. 491, 972 
37. 1159. 
24. 564. 
30. 524. 
8. 74, 779 
13. 596. 
21. 297. 
8. 684, 758. 
8. 1209. 
8. 726. 
38. 1208. 
38, 
39. 758. 
38,39. 1209. 
7. 612. 
18. 659. 
19. 458. 
4, 623. 
60. 1135. 
26, 
29. 166. 
5. 220. 
3. 1144 
A, 
5. 166. 
11. 1144. 
43. 98. 
5. 35, 214 
7. $20. 


Xiv. 


Sg Toki’ 


14 


xxvii, 22-24. 98 


XXViii. 8. 
ROMANS. 


ii, 15. 
iii. 10 


iii. 16, 17. 1201. 
23. “1 


iv. 5. 
Vv. 1 


ae Pastas ©. bs 


503. 
1126, 11438. 


485. 
335, 1046. 
763, 1065. 
875. 


021. 
858. 

82, 231, 597, 
655. 

418, 

498, 1068, 
107 


409. 
721. 


viii, 


ix. 


x. 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


837, 


137. 
161, 167. 


1120, 
1160, 1161. 


> e 


629, 


480. 
1059, 560. 
539, 717. 


613 
18, 
Si (eels. 
20. 689. 
20, 
21. 84. 
ak L890 P" +408, 
1090.°= 
SV. 2° SEGA, 
ae id Aa 
12. 944. 
X1V.f 20. 11227, 
UV. ia 721, 
I CORINTHIANS. 
1 Be. «BLO, 
27, 
29. 485. 
Zt, 288, 544, 
653, 67 
i.*- 27. «911, 1186, 
1222, 1229. 
27, 
28. 1116. 
28. 
29. 801. 
ii, 275 150, 152, 
910. 
iii. 1. 1040. 
4, 491. 
6. 3, 76 
9. 443, 534 
ive <P. 506. 
v. 6.. 2,84; 
vi. .123 1105, 
1%," 1ie2: 
Lge 10: 
19, 
20. 426, 464, 
674, 774. 
20. 629. 
vii. 14, 
16. 107. 
Vili; 187)" 267. 
yb ape ( 
17. 278. 
22. 178, 209 
26. 1105. 
27. 977, 979 
» Aes 7. 40. 
18) 1042. 
%. 233. TIS 
31. 716, 718 
Xi. 1; 9, 
24. 479, 275. 
SUAS 27s 249, 610, 
1073 
1, 
8. 628. 
9. 640. 
xii. 9. 1206. 
xiii, 4. 675. 
4, 
5. 984. 
5. 275, 589, 
853. 
xiii, 5.) 1192, 


614 


754. 

411. 

26, 805. 
1038. 

10738. 

974. 

531, 768, 
1104. 

16, 269, 511, 
607, 15, 
836. 990. 


II CORINTHIANS. 


li. 
iii. 
iii. 


iv. 


iv. 


Vv. 


11, 
2. 
2. 


Ate 25 


vi. 


GALATIANS. 


ii. 


20. 


34. 
652, 788. 
1227. 


531, 752. 
76. 


586, 

65, 196, 241. 
412, 1105. 
1093 


1221. 
836. 
92, 535, 607, 
916. 
430. 


270. 

366, 506, 
872, 1056, 
261., 418, 
A64, 528, 
WA5, 802, 
967. 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


iv. 18. 268, 985, 
993. 
19. 191. 
v. 9. 64, 358, 849. 
16. 312. 
17. 9 
vi. 2. 238, 617. 
RR BBA, 
7. 634, 840, 
905, 1082. 
9. 8, 28, 29, 
810, 495, 
5B4, 624, 
720, 892, 
926, 987, 
1104, 
15. 188, 876, 
EPHESIANS. 
i. 4, 
5. 920, 
7. 186, 
ii. os 867, 
1, 
2. 296. 
2. 787. 
2, 
6. 6389. 
4, 
5. 827. 
7. 662. 
8. 182, 396. 
9. 102, 655, 
672, 952. 
iii, 19. 355. 
20. 27, 740 
iv. 15. 354, 969. 
18. 787. 
25. 61, 245, 515. 
27, Zi, 
28. 680. 
29. 696. 
80. 109, 302. 
31. 728. 
Vir B18 498, > 814) 
729, 788, 
869. 
14. 499, 526, 
973. 
20. 251, 987, 
938, 
22. 107. 
vi. 1. 991. 
2. 78, 91 140, 
583, 719. 
6; 
7. 918, 
7. 642. 
10. 104. 
17. 257. 
Sonn ie! £16, 
A70, 493. 
PHILLIPIANS. 
i. 6. 827, 854. 


21. 1007. 
28. 244. 
ii. 4, 589, 619, 
1088. 
4, 
5. 5 
5. 652, 1082. 
7, 
8. 528. 
10. 40. 
12. 867. 
1S. Gas 759, 
1120. 
lif, <8, 6) ..17257 778, 
55. 
iii, 8. 1159. 
8, 
13. 504. 
13. 198. 
18: , 1167, 1202. 
18, 
14. 771, 773, 
1069. 
iv. i 2238. 
iv. 6,7. 1206. 
Ve 34; 
13. 119, 452, 
606, 846, 
905, 1045, 
1116. 
19. 70, 665 
19, 1226. 
22. 798. 
COLOSSIANS. 
i, 18, 
14. 186. 
ii, 9, 27. 
iii, 8. 696. 
‘i 9. 245, 280, 
925. 
15. 2651. 
20. 991. 
23. 490, 915. 
28. 642. 
iv. 2. 410. 
I THESALONIANS. 
ii. 18. 1118. 
vy.’ 216, 
17, 
v.17." 1159. 
Fi.“ 420; 493, 
10838. 
18. 960. 
18.4. 572. 
19. 57, 109, 204 
802, 305. 
19. 1166. 
22. 818, 660. 
24. 468. 
II THESALONIANS. 
i. 1S 720, 
Ve Le 17 


I TIMOTHY. 


li. 
ie 


iis 
iv. 8. 


vi. 6. 


vi.” 13. 


Il TIMOTHY. 


sf. 5. 


12. 
i. 23. 


iii, = 4. 
lil. 8. 


iv. rp 


vi. 20. 
TITUS. 

ites 2, 
HEBREWS. 


ii 3 
8. 
4 


284, 470, 
1087, 1091. 
259. 

75, 1083. 
1158. 


213, 
1079, 


577, 
1109. 


565, 


772. 


1081. 
1166, 1177. 
2438, 10365. 
38 


194. 
109, 739. 
255, 290, 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


Xi. 


Xii. 


xil. 


811, 


356, 
764, 
947, 985. 
1214, 1219, 


708. 

559, 712. 
238. 

153, 808. 
293. 

1069. 

1170, 1202. 
1165, 1167, 
1070. 
1055. 


1059. 


388. 
1140, 1017. 
814. 


291. 
75, 111, 602, 


I PETER. 
1. 


II PETER. 
oe 6. 


615 


434, 1096. 
25, 418, 466, 
640. 


298. 
1091. 


601. 
812; 1082. 
956. 


550,  —- 988, 
1022, 1132. 


835, 1039. 
600, 772. 


616 


iii. 


iv. 


iv. 


522. 
10, 216, 756, 


TEXTUAL INDEX 


16 
II JOHN. 


? 


10. 


III JOHN. 
5. 


818. 
424, 
10. 


= 
10, 216, 510, 
800, 


JUDE. 
23. 122, 924. 
24. 1075. 
REVELATION. 
1. Webbed OS. 
ii, 10. 180, 474, 
579, 725 
iii. 5. « 622; 
15. 406. 
15, 
16. 1097. 
17... 528: 
20. 76, 736. 
xiy, (19.°229,/-418, 709, 
xiv. 48. 13789, 1220. 
xx. 13. 1066. 
15. 678. 
Sx Se < BOT, 430, 
‘ 568, 667. 
27. 61. 
Zz; 2B tee, 
LI. 442; 568, 
631, 667. 
xxii, i;. 2147, 1198. 
17. 8 


; 933, 
1010, 1107. 














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